Bedtime for 7 Week Old

Looks like you've gotten a lot of great advice already, but a book that was helpful to me was "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child." In it, a bedtime between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. is totally reasonable. I still remember my daughter going to bed at 6 p.m. as late as 11 months old. Hope that helps!

7 weeks old is a little young for a strict bedtime, but its not too young to start building great sleeping habits. Honestly, if she seems like she's ready to go to sleep before 7, put her down earlier. When my daughter was under a year her bedtime was between 6 and 6:30. If we kept her up later she was so cranky becuase she was so tired. I'd put her to sleep earlier. And invest in the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Best sleep book out there and useful all though childhood and adolenence.

Wow! It's pretty rare to have a newborn sleep such long stretches. She's still a newborn, so don't worry about whether her sleeping schedule seem weird. Just put her down when you think she'll sleep. She'll do better and be happier than if you wait until she's overtired. She's not supposed to be on a toddler's sleeping schedule. If you put her down earlier, you might even get to eat dinner in peace! When my little one is overtired and can't get to sleep, I give her a warm bath, or swaddle her and bounce her in a dark room. It also seems to help when there is some ambient noise - the radio works best so far. One thing I noticed with my latest babe (12 wks) is that if she goes to bed earlier, she's up for a short stretch in the late evening (like 9-11pm or so). I don't know when you like to go to bed, but it's something to be aware of. Try to get her down earlier and see how it goes. If it doesn't go well, you can always change it back - very few things are set in stone w/kids!

Most of all, remember that she's still a newborn. It's great that she's sleeping well, but she is not supposed to be on a hard & fast schedule at this point. I would strongly disagree with the poster that recommended Babywise. Whatever "training" method you choose to use (if any), it should not be started until baby is at least 4 months old. Before that, she simply needs to have her wants/needs met immediately.

Best of luck,
S. L

This leaves me wondering less about the night time routine and more about the day time routine. She should be sleeping every few hours - it's not really a "bed time" at that age because she is too young - she is just in a continual pattern of sleeping all day/night, every few hours for a few hours.

Your daughter is way too young for a bedtime. At this age she needs something. Try feeding her again, change her, and then maybe try swaddling her before you put her down. You really shouldn't let her cry from 5 to 7. that is way too long. At this age they only recommend allowing baby to cry no longer than 45 min. For 7 weeks you hae a great sleeper!

My daughter went to bed at 6 at that age. Sometimes 5;30. It meant we stopped going out to dinner, but it sure made her happy. I was, and am, all about the "Happy Sleep Habits happy child" book too.

Oh Honey, there is no such thing as a bedtime for a child that young. At this point, let her sleep if she is tired. Feed her when she is hungry, change her when she's dirty and love her constantly. It will be a while longer until she needs a set bedtime.
Good luck and enjoy your new baby!

It sounds more like colic if it is every night from 5-7 not a sleep problem. But if she wants to sleep during that time, I would let her. When my daughter was 7 weeks she was going to sleep from 7:30p-7a each night. She was never a good day sleeper though (still isnt now at 8 months) so that was what worked for us. Good luck, hang in there and know you are doing a great job!

Both my kids took an evening nap at that age, and for a few months after. I would put them down around 5, and then they would sleep for an hour or so and wake up for a while, eat again, and then go to bed around 7 or 7:30. That worked great for us.

Babies this age still sleep more than they are awake. If you deprive them of sleep, or try to keep them up, they get into a pattern of over-tiredness and not being able to fall into a deep sleep. My son was 5 months old and waking every 45 minutes at night time. It was draining me to the point of sleep-walking and disorientation! I had been trying to cut back his daytime sleep to try to get him to sleep through the night and it backfired miserably! As soon as I started letting him nap as he needed during the day, he started sleeping better at night.

Let her sleep whenever she wants to. The more a baby sleeps, the more a baby will sleep! When she starts getting old enough to have two established naps a day (not for a few more months, yet) then you can start establishing a bed time that fits with everybody's schedule.

I have a 7 month old and have just been following his cues for bedtime since he was born. At 7 weeks he fell asleep in his carrier when we were out a lot (we have a 3 yr old too). However, now he is wanting to go to bed for the night around 5 or 6. I too thought this was too early (and inconvenient at times) but he sleeps 12+ hours - so we are going with it. Allowing him to go to bed earlier has actually allowed us to get a great night sleep! good luck!

What time is her nap before 7:00 bedtime? I would suggest letting her take a nap before, at 5:00 or a little sooner. Wake her up to feed her before bedtime. Maybe by 6 or 6:30 then put her down again at 7:00. You might think that if she got a nap before bedtime she won't go down, that is not necessarily true and its worth a try. Babies that are overtired often have a harder time eating well and sleeping.
Evening is often a fussy time for babies. They are tired and often overstimulated. I would really try a nap before bed first.
If she is still fussy continuously think about her comfort level. Right around six weeks is when I discovered that my daughter had an allergy to dairy; We were beginning to think she had colic. I went off of all diary, as I was nursing, and after a week or two we noticed a HUGE difference. Happy baby!
I also started getting her on more of a routine schedule for sleeping and eating, that helped a ton too.
Try the nap. a 7 week old baby still needs a late afternoon/ early evening nap. Good luck.

Every kid is different but my son when he was 7 weeks old probably slept for 17 hours a day. He took 3 naps a day and still went to bed at 6:00pm and slept until 6:00am. He did wake up for feedings, but if your daughter seems tired, I would put her to bed. Sleep begets sleep.
Good luck, their sleep schedules are ever-changing.

Hi K.,

I have a 4.5 month old and have been putting him to bed around 6:30 or so after a 5pm feeding. He too gets tired early. Then I wake him about 9:30 for a feeding and put him back down without a diaper change. Then I go to bed.

I think once your daughter is able to fully sleep through the night, the extra evening feeding will help her sleep a little later. Plus you may just have to get up at 5am, since she is already going 7 hours without a feeding, and not twice at night.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
L.

I did the babywise method. I think that I had my son going to bed about 9 at that age. That being said, he was on a 3 hour schedule right up till 9 - eat, wake, sleep (usually, at that age, awake, including eating, about 1-1.5 hours, sleep 1.5-2 hours). We did this till about 9pm mainly because it helped him sleep through the night, rather than going down at 7, we went to bed at 9, and having him wake up at 10 and want to eat again (really helped me, and him).
They always talk about the evening witching hour with little ones, but we didnt' seem to have that because of our schedule. 7 weeks may be a little early for her to be awake for a full 2 hours at a time.
I guess you have two options, either increase her naps during the day, or you can mover her bedtime earlier...you can try 15 minutes at a time. I was told that you know they are getting enough if they wake up happy - not crying. Good luck.

I used to think the same thing, but with my first daughter I started putting her to bed around 530-6pm (becuase she seemed so tired) and low and behold she starting sleeping through the night by 3 months! People thought we were crazy, but we were on a roll for some time with a 6pm-6am sleeper! It was great. Now she is 17 months and sleeps 8pm-730am, so I still can't complain!

I have a 7 week old as well and I am kinda starting to move to this same plan...
Just this week I have started to put her down earlier and earlier. She still gets up around 2-3am and again around 5-6, but I figure she might be like my first and start to sleep through the night in the next month or so if I start this early to bed system again. Who knows?? :)
Good luck for us both!

We had the same thing go on with your daughter. I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" and upon the author's recommendation, began putting my daughter to bed earlier and earlier. You watch to see a time where she goes to bed fairly easily- less fussing, crying, etc. and sleeps longer. For my daughter, she needed to go to bed at 5:15! People thought we were crazy, but that was the best time for her. She was a little older than your daughter, but she would sleep until 7am with one night waking to nurse. My daughter continued to go to bed around 5:30 until she was 2 1/2. Now she is almost 3 and still goes to bed around 6:30. We LOVE her early bedtime because she is happy and well rested, plus we get all of those evening hours to ourselves. Good luck!

K., check out "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" It really solved most of our sleep problems with both of our kids pretty much immediately. Paradoxically, the earlier you put an infant down to sleep, the longer and better they sleep. We were having problems like you. We started backing off from a 7:30-8:00pm bedtime (which seemed reasonable to us at the time) and slowly adjusted our son's bedtime to - 6:00pm! Wow! Did it feel weird but just as the book said, he immediately started sleeping through the night. I would say if you are keeping your daughter up until 7:00, she is overtired. Good luck!

I have a 9 week old now and both my daughters slept every few hours for several months. Most babies don't find a schedule until 3 or 4 months--sounds like she's hungry or tired! I feed my daughter around that time each night & she often sleeps for a little bit and then I feed her after dinner for quite a while before she goes to bed again around 9. It's often different, but she'll find her schedule soon. If you've fed her & changed her & she's still crying, try carrying her in a wrap or Bjorn or something--she could fall asleep for a bit and you could still get things done. But it does sound like she's tired! The nurses at Lactation at Boulder Hospital call 5-7 the witching hours because they have been overstimulated throughout the day & feel too sleepy and overwhelmed. Carrying her would help!

Definitely try it, it's not that weird. Sleep begets sleep...the more rested they are the longer & better they sleep. They sleep A LOT at that age.

The crying sounds like colic. Check out Happiest Baby on the Block. The tricks I Iearned in that book help me when my 2-week old baby cries (usually around dinner time). At her age, if she was tired she'd go to sleep.

Kids are amazingly good at telling you their preference. My DS for his first 18 months went to sleep at 5:30pm. He usually got up at 6:30/7. I hated it...trying to do a bedtime routine with him while making dinner and feeding my toddler was an absolute pain. But you know what? It's what he needed and wanted. He was happy which made it worthwhile.

Go with your gut, if she seems tired, she probably is; respect it.

Consider yourself VERY lucky that you are getting 11 hours with only one wake-up at night. A lot of babies cry at night, sometimes it is just colic other times they are indeed tired. I wouldn't mess with your good thing going. Remember if she goes to bed earlier she will get up earlier and she is already getting up at 6 am. Do you do 2 to 3 naps during the day? Maybe you sneak in an additional nap around 4. It might help her cope a little bit.

Good luck!

I tend to agree with Alethea, but you might also check out the video "The Happiest Baby on the Block". It helped our son tremendously. Make sure she's getting enough to eat, too. We also did the Babywise thing and our babies were starting to sleep through the night at that age, going to bed around 7. Congratulations!

The timing and actions sound like colic which occurs during this age. My 2nd child would do the same thing and nothing consoled him either. I took him to the chiropractor I worked for and he got 2 adjustments. From that time on, I did not have any more colic problems with him. I definitely recommend trying this out. It is not 100% certain that an adjustment will cease the colic, but the percentage of success is high. Good luck!

Make it a GREAT end to the week!

S.

This is a prime time for colic, both age and time of day. She is probably tired and things get a bit more hectic in the evening as people get home from work or school and dinner and all. She can also be over-tired. Try putting her down for a nap around 3:30 or 4 and let her sleep till 5 or 6. She may go down a bit later at night, but she may also be happier for those hours.