Is my baby going to bed too early?

[sake]

(sorry for the long post)

DS is almost 11 weeks old, born a month early. I just finished putting him to bed. I started the process at 5:30, bathed him, bottle, in bed shortly after 6 p.m. ( I should add that we are in Chicago right now, where time difference is -1 hour, so maybe for him it’s 7 p.m.?)
Anyway, for the past week or so, his nightly routine is: down for bed between 6 -7, up about 1:30 a.m. to eat, usually goes back to sleep ok, then up again about 4:30 or 5, and has a very hard time going to sleep after that, if at all. He usually goes down for bed pretty easy, and has a good stretch in the beginning, but then it gets shorter after his first wake up, and increasingly harder to get him to go back to sleep. My husband thinks we should be putting him to bed later (I’d like to also, maybe around 7 or 7:30) but tonight, for example, he was so fussy and tired starting at 5 o clock that I couldn’t keep him up any longer. I was reading Weissbluth, and am trying to watch for sleep cues, and try to follow his suggestion that “sleep begets sleep”.
Ideally I’d like DS to sleep through the night, but realize he may be a bit young, but I would at least for the short term try to eliminate the 4:30 a.m. wake up – it seems unnecessary for him and leaves me utterly exhausted. I can deal with the 1:30 wake up for now.
So, 2 questions:

If he goes to bed later, will he wake up later (like 6 a.m. or after)?

How, at this point, can I try to eliminate the 2nd wake up at night?

Thanks!!

[jennylou]

He might wake up later if he goes down later. Then again, for some kids, it doesn't matter. They have an internal type of clock. :)

I think right now, at his age, you just have to deal with it. It will get easier eventually (can't promise you when!). He actually might drop the 1:30 wake up before he drops the 4:30 wakeup.

You might try a nap at 5 if he's showing signs of sleep. Let him sleep until 6:30-7. Then wake him up. Start your bedtime routine after he's been up a half hour or so. Or, try the nap at 4, up by 5:30-6, down for the night by 8? I think you just have to watch his cues. He'll let you know if it's working or not. ;)

[Sevilla]

Since your son was a month early, remember that his sleeptime development will track with his due date, not his actual birthday (Weissbluth talks about this somewhere in his book, i think with the colic/fussiness section). So remember that instead of being 11 weeks old, you should approach this as if he is 7 weeks old.

I second Jenny that he may be going for a 'third nap' when he is tired at 5pm instead of being down for the night. At that age my DS wasn't going to sleep for the night until 10-11pm, but he was napping throughout the day and waking up from his last nap in the evening. And he always slept until 7-8am which was great (he ate every 2-3 hours throughout the night, but wasn't 'awake' if you catch my drift - they were dream feeds).

I think your DS is waking up at 4:30-5am b/c he has had enough sleep for the night - think about it, if he's going down at 6ish and waking up for the day at 5ish, he's getting about 11 hours of sleep at night - throw in a couple naps, and he's getting all the sleep he needs.

I would try giving him a 3rd nap (which most babies do and then start dropping around 6-7 months) when he gets tired in the late afternoon and he'll most likely wake up between 7-8pm. That's fine - let him be up for an hour or two until he is tired again for the night and then put him down. See if that helps him sleep to a more reasonable time in the morning.

[Jenyfer9]

Ditto what Sevilla said. We didn't start putting our kids to bed at their current 7ish bedtime until they were probably 6 months old. I think putting him down for a nap in the late afternoon would fix the problem.

[sake]

Thanks for your replies.
I hear what you're saying re: naps, but the problem is he doesn't have any regular naps yet. He does sleep during the day here and there - in his swing, in the carseat/stroller if we're out. He won't sleep in his crib during the day and I'm not sure how to get him to do so until we're ready to CIO. Maybe tomorrow if he seems really cranky/tired around 5 again, I'll feed him and try to get him to nap in his swing before really putting him to bed.

[Sevilla]

Thanks for your replies.
I hear what you're saying re: naps, but the problem is he doesn't have any regular naps yet. He does sleep during the day here and there - in his swing, in the carseat/stroller if we're out. He won't sleep in his crib during the day and I'm not sure how to get him to do so until we're ready to CIO. Maybe tomorrow if he seems really cranky/tired around 5 again, I'll feed him and try to get him to nap in his swing before really putting him to bed.
Oh I didn't mean to imply he would have regular naps at his age! My DS didn't start to nap at regular, predictable times of day until he was 6 months old. Before that he just went by the 'every 2 hour' rule (meaning he would go down for a nap within 2 hours of being awake) so some days he would have a bunch of naps depending on how long he slept.

Honestly, it is the rare baby who naps well in the crib from the start. Most parents i know have newborns/young babies who nap in the swing, bouncy seat, in a baby carrier/sling, carseat, or being held. What matters at this age is that your baby sleep, not where or how it happens :). Sleeping in a crib full-time is an overrated 'skill', IMO.

[Kanga]

Well, this probably isn't what you wanted to hear, but dd is 14 months old and is up between 5 and 5:30 every morning. This morning I was especially lucky and got a 4:15a wake up call:rolleyes: I've come to the conclusion that some kids are just early risers and there just isn't anyting you can do about it. We've tried every version of nap and bedtime schedules possible and she just can't sleep past 5:30, 6 if I'm really lucky but that's only happened a handful of times. Oh, and she still doesn't sttn on a regular basis either.

I do think it's pretty common though for babies to have one long stretch of sleep and then shorter ones. Dd's first predictable schedule was up at 3:30, 5:30, and then 7/7:30 for the day, and IIRC her bedtime was around 9 at that time.

At 7 weeks, the 2 hour rule was really more of a 1 hour rule for dd, so if it hasn't been anywhere near 2 hours yet but he seems tired he may benefit from a shorter awake time.