sleep questions

[@llli*mammaknits]

hi there...
my ds and i have recently turned some corners! my cracked nips are healed and nursing is no longer painful! woo-hoo! he is no longer crying (screaming) from 5-9pm. he is quite content! mild, normal fussiness at times (diapers/tired/over stimulated). so...my only "issue" (if you can even call it that) is sleep.

i can't complain, really. we mostly co-sleep. he is in the co-sleeper from 8:30-11 sound asleep (his schedule...i don't mandate anything). if/when he wakes up, i change him and feed him. i put him back in his co-sleeper until...i don't know when. maybe 1-2ish? i don't look. i bring him into bed and go back to sleep. this is when we start cosleeping. he stays with me until 6:30am. nurses again and we get up. so...night time is ok. i'd love to eventually put him in his crib and sleep from 11-6:30 alone...but we'll get there...right?

so...my sleep questions...finally! they have to do with daytime. does a 10 week old have a routine in the daytime? should they? he is a little all over the place and i'm not the best organizer. i haven't figured out how to determine a nap. he is just awake/asleep/eating whenever. does this start to organize at some point? (i remember the 3-nap/2-nap/1-nap thing happening with my other 2 kids but have no idea when this begins!) i'd love some input! it would help me relax!!
thanks!!!

[@llli*jhermes721]

i have read that you should create the sleep schedule, you should pick the time to wake the baby up even if he is sleeping and pick a time to go to sleep at night or a nap time. my sister has been doing this with her baby and she is 4 months old now, she has developed a routine. i am 9 months pregnant, ill be having this baby any time now and i plan on using that method myself. of course no routine is perfect but it can help as long as your consistent.

[@llli*phi]

If you are not a routine kind of person, I don't think you need to try to become one for naps. I'm not very routined. My baby was all over the map with his naps too until after his first birthday. He was actually a pretty bad napper most of his infancy; his naps were always very short and unpredictable. But he was a happy, active baby so it seemed he was getting the sleep he needed. After a year he went down to one long nap in the early afternoon. That happened without any manipulation from me.

I honestly think that babies create their own sleep patterns to fit their own personal sleep needs.

[@llli*phi]

i have read that you should create the sleep schedule, you should pick the time to wake the baby up even if he is sleeping and pick a time to go to sleep at night or a nap time. my sister has been doing this with her baby and she is 4 months old now, she has developed a routine. i am 9 months pregnant, ill be having this baby any time now and i plan on using that method myself. of course no routine is perfect but it can help as long as your consistent.

Scheduling sleep early on is dangerous for milk supply and baby's growth. A flexible routine can be very helpful for some mamas, but it is advisable to stay away from schedules.

[@llli*mammaknits]

Thank you all for your input! I do not want to *put* my baby on a schedule at all... Just wondering if it will naturally flow there eventually. I forget! I agree-enforcing a routine can be very dangerous! Just hoping he's getting enough sleep and not becoming "disorganized"

[@llli*still.here]

I honestly think that babies create their own sleep patterns to fit their own personal sleep needs.

Most babies will fall into a pattern. And then the pattern will change as their needs change. Growth spurts, teething, illness, reaching milestones, all kinds of things factor into infant sleep patterns and they are constantly adjusting. It's best to be flexible and adjust with them.

[@llli*mommal]

I think you want to promote a routine, but not to force a schedule. A bedtime routine is the easiest one to institute- turn down the lights, turn off the tv and stereo, give baby a calming bath. And then don't let baby sleep in too much in the morning, which is generally as easy as opening the blinds and making whatever morning noises you normally make. Far as naps go, I think that with baby # 2, 3, or whatever, you have to let baby start to organize his own routine around whatever is going on in your house. You can't silence older siblings just because baby's nap time has arrived!

[@llli*aprilsmagic]

i have read that you should create the sleep schedule, you should pick the time to wake the baby up even if he is sleeping and pick a time to go to sleep at night or a nap time. my sister has been doing this with her baby and she is 4 months old now, she has developed a routine. i am 9 months pregnant, ill be having this baby any time now and i plan on using that method myself. of course no routine is perfect but it can help as long as your consistent.

Scheduling is TERRIBLE for your milk supply. Nurse on demand. A baby will fall into a sleep schedule if you watch baby's cues. It is also constantly evolving.

And BTW, all children wake during the night, and sleep training does not stop such.

[@llli*phi]

Thank you all for your input! I do not want to *put* my baby on a schedule at all... Just wondering if it will naturally flow there eventually. I forget! I agree-enforcing a routine can be very dangerous! Just hoping he's getting enough sleep and not becoming "disorganized"

It sounds like you know what you are doing. Trust yourself and your baby, and don't worry about your baby becoming "disorganized". From your posts, it sounds like he is doing really well and knows when he needs to sleep and when he wants to do other things and that is great!

[@llli*maddieb]

i have read that you should create the sleep schedule, you should pick the time to wake the baby up even if he is sleeping and pick a time to go to sleep at night or a nap time. my sister has been doing this with her baby and she is 4 months old now, she has developed a routine. i am 9 months pregnant, ill be having this baby any time now and i plan on using that method myself. of course no routine is perfect but it can help as long as your consistent.

Hi, congratulations, wow you are in the home stretch! Welcome to the forums!

You are right, there are many people who recommend putting baby on a sleep/nap schedule and/or feeding schedule, etc. There are books, classes, even folks who will come to your house (for a fee) and work up a special schedule just for your baby. “Scheduling” techniques run the gamut from a very strict feed/play/sleep schedule with specific set in stone times for everything, to a more ‘soft’ scheduling-for example, moms are told to only nurse every 3-4 hours, or that a baby (blank) months old should sleep (blank) number of hours every night.

These types of an approach seem to work well for some parents. Others find that by following baby's cues for at least the first several months, and then perhaps encouraging sleep gently (with bedtime and nap routines, for example) the family naturally finds a rhythm that works for everyone, without tears or difficult to meet expectations. Sleep training works on the principal of delaying a parent's natural response to a babies cues (to be fed and/or comforted) if they come at a time they are not scheduled for. When a young babies cues are ignored, they will perhaps sleep longer at that time, but the evidence suggests scheduling does not improve sleep outcomes after babyhood.

But the biggest concern with scheduling, strict or soft, from a breastfeeding standpoint is that scheduling has long been associated with poor weight gain for breastfed babies and low milk supply in breastfeeding moms. Babies in general need to nurse a minimum of 8-12 times a day esp. in the first several months, and if this is interfered with, issues may arise. This can be especially pronounced when moms have other challenges, such as attempting to keep milk supply up when back at work. Are some breastfeeding moms able to schedule feeding and sleep train without these issues? Yes. Some moms have an overabundant supply to begin with and /or a large milk storage capacity in their breast (storage capacity does not necessarily correlate with breast size.) A mom with over supply and/or a large storage capacity will likely be less affected by scheduling than a mom with average supply and average storage capacity.

Ultimately what will work best for you, your baby and your family will be up to you! When it comes to motherhood, it can often feel like everyone has a different opinion about everything, personally when faced with differing ideas about what to do, I have found it helpful to take info from several sources and carefully weigh the evidence, but then look to my own instincts as the final deciding factor.

A lactation consultant recently suggested this website to me. If you are interested in looking into this issue more, it covers quite well the most recent research when it comes to normal infant sleep: http://www.isisonline.org.uk/