Help us!!!!
Sleep…a thing of the past. I LOVE my sleep! One of the most frustrating things about being pregnant was using the bathroom ten million times a night! Now that the baby is here, my bathroom trips have lessoned, but I am up even more! I am SUPER thankful for Maisie and we still love each other. Don’t worry! I just miss uninterrupted sleep.
Justin and I would like some advice though. Here is Maisie’s sleep schedule at night:
-She eats between 9 and 10pm
-Sleeps till 11pm or 12am
-Awake till around 1 or 2am! WIDE AWAKE! And she is a bit fussy during these times. Will NOT sleep.
-Finally falls asleep around 1 or 2am and doesn’t wake up till around 6am for a feeding and goes right back to bed till 9am.
So the question. Justin and I are night owls and we don’t mind that she is up late (because she sleeps in late). But we would LOVE to have her awake fussy hour NOT in between her deep sleeping schedule. How do we get her to sleep earlier? Is this even possible with a not yet four week old? Should we just patiently wait for this to happen? Should we try to keep her up after her 9pm or 10pm feeding in hopes that she sleeps after the 11pm or 12am feeding? Is this all too confusing? I am confused myself so if this confuses you, I’m sorry, but that is my life story right now.
So basically, the short version of my question… How do we get Maisie to go to sleep for the night at 12am? We would LOVE for her to have her fussy time earlier and sleep at her normal fussy time at 12am. Hope that makes sense!
Please give me advice all you people who read my blog and never post! I know you are out there with good advice! So give it!!! Oh and I may or may not take your advice, but I at least want to hear what your ideas and thoughts are! I am desperate! Thanks!
And for taking the time to read my blog here are some pics of Maisie in her precious state of sleep!
Here is the basket Maisie sleeps in at night. Don’t worry, she doesn’t sleep with that huge blanket. She has a cute little sleeping bag thing that will not suffocate her.
And this is what you get during that 1-2am time!!! YIKES and please help!
Cute little thing, huh? We think so! I know that it is normal for newborns to be up a lot and we are even lucky she sleeps as much as she does. I’m just curious if there is a way to rearrange her sleep schedule a bit, or if that just happens naturally. Thanks for any input!
Jen, I know I have never had a baby, but I have MANY (I jut spoke with Kimberly and Dennis about this and they do it too, totally swear by it) of my friends put all their faith in the book Baby Wise. We seriously talking about LOTS of people adoring this book that teaches you how to put your baby on a set schedule. I don’t know, just my uneducated thoughts.
Jen, Like Jamie I have never had a baby, but I also have a lot of friends that love the Baby Wise book. I take care of a 6 month old and two year old and their parents swear by that book. The two year old actually tells me when she is ready for bed (something to look forward to)…weird for a two year old. 🙂 On a side note, I love reading your blogs and Maisie is so cute.
not to toot the same horn as everyone else, but my sister was able to get twins sleeping through the night ridiculously young on baby wise.
maybe one day you’ll actually get some advice from someone with kids!
very cute baby.
Jen it sounds like it is unanamous baby wise must be the way to go. Anything that can get a two year old to ask to go to bed is awesome. For Kent and I we just let our girls work their schedules out. It only took about six to eight weeks. To this day they are still both night owls like us and always sleep in. We usually have to wake them for Christmas morning. Kent and I tried “Growing Kids Gods Way” same authors as the Babywise book. Frankly I think it is very military and doesn’t allow your child to develop into who God has created them to be. I think you and Justin seem to have great instincts and I would stick with those, sometimes in parenting we had to adjust our schedules to work with our kids. Now that ours are 16 and 12 we all seem to be fairly adjusted. I say GO WITH YOUR OWN INSTINCT and what you think is best for Maisie. Which by the way is the most beautiful American Parisian baby I have ever seen. Love you guys.
I’m a mama of a two year old and a 3 month old. Sleep is THE number one topic of conversation among parents because noone is getting sleep. There are many books out there that talk about the topic and that take different approaches to the whole sleep issue. We have used two books, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Marc Weissbluth and The Happiest Baby on The Block by Harvey Karp. I think these offer great information about the development of the baby and what you can expect from the baby month to month. Right now I would say that Maisie is trying to figure out her night from her day. There’s not a whole lot you can do for her wakeful times in the middle of the night other then start teaching her that this is what night time is and we don’t talk or play. She’ll get the hang of it soon enough. It’s hard to say when she’ll get the hang of it, every baby has their own time line and you learn to respect it, even if it means you get little sleep. I would put my youngest in a bouncy chair in the bed with me when he had his wakeful periods in the middle of the night and I would bounce him when he fussed and I would try to get as much sleep as possible. Within a couple of weeks he started to adjust to day and night. Good luck.
I was given “growing kids God’s way” with the caustionary note “don’t be leagelistic” and that’s what I did with both my kids. Worked great, but I like order and stucture so a slightly military outlook suites me 😉
I would agree with the others that Baby Wise is a good book to invest in, and take what you want from it, if it works, great, if not . . . oh well. I’ve heard good things about the happyest baby on the block.
And these months will be over so fast, it’ll make your head spin. As soon as you’ve got your footing again you’ll be out of the newborn stage.
Jen, I have enjoyed looking at your pictures. Maisey is a doll and God’s miracle and gift to you. Julee and Jodee both loved the book Baby Whisperer. Julee, as a postpartum nurse said she read, but wouldn’t recommend Baby Wise. She did love Baby Whisperer and said that it had alot of good ideas about establishing a routine and
schedule. S
See Jen…even a book is named after me…The Baby Whisperer. I miss you, Maisie and Justin.
Funny mom! I actually did think that!!!