Shifting the schedule

bliss · #1 July 21st, 2011, 03:12 PM

How do I shift my son's schedule by a few hours? Right now his last meal is at 5:30pm and he sleeps through the night, but starts waking up around 3-4 and by 5:30am he's starving so I give him the bottle. He takes 5 bottles throughout the day, every 3 hours (6.5 oz each) . It just sucks that his wake up and go to bed times are so early, I wish they would shift by 2-3 hrs...

Things I tried:
- giving him more to eat each meal and stretching the time between the feedings. he won't take a drop more, he even leaves up to 2-2.5 oz in the bottle sometimes and refuses to finish. and he can barely wait his 3 hrs... starts being hungry much sooner sometimes.
- i tried to wake him up 3 hrs after his last meal and give him another bottle for the day (I fed him a little less each meal throughout that day). but he woke up very cranky, had maybe a half of that bottle, and still woke up his usual time in the morning.

Any tips ladies?

KCMomma · #2 July 21st, 2011, 05:53 PM

Hm, ok so you said his last bottle is at 5:30pm. When does he go to bed? Is this formula or breast milk?

bliss · #3 July 21st, 2011, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KCMomma

Hm, ok so you said his last bottle is at 5:30pm. When does he go to bed? Is this formula or breast milk?

Forumula. He goes to bed an hour or two afterwards when he feels sleepy.

KCMomma · #4 July 22nd, 2011, 05:52 AM

OK well, here's my opinion...he's only 4 months right? I think he's just too young to go any longer. If he's going from about 7:30 or 8 until around 3-4am I think that's truly amazing!!!! He will get better as he gets older, but right now I think he's doing awesome! I know you probably hate getting up like that, but it's yet, another joy of motherhood!!!

bliss · #5 July 22nd, 2011, 06:18 AM

No, I agree, he's sleeping a lot! I'm just trying to see if there are any tricks to move that sleeping window a few hours over

MommyBeth · #6 July 22nd, 2011, 07:01 PM

You could try playing with him for a while and then giving him another bottle before he goes to bed. I think I did something similar with my daughter because we were going through about the same thing.

mlyster · #7 July 22nd, 2011, 08:17 PM

The only thing that worked for us was time. It sucks but that was the only thing that worked. We had the opposite problem - he was staying up way to late and sleeping too late (think 11pm to 10am). Time eventually shifted him into a better schedule (now he is 9pm to 7am).

As he started doing more on your schedule he will be able to stretch between bottles longer than 3 hours. But for now he is too little for that.

ashnichole2326 · #8 July 23rd, 2011, 05:04 AM

Gracie is 6 months now, and by about 4-5 months she was set in her ways...she is gradually going to bed a little later, but I think she is having trouble adjusting because she has also been waking up more during the night...which may be from teething though.

She would go to bed at about 8 every night and get up at like 5:30. She still does this most of the time, honestly. Her last bottle is at about 7 though...and still she wakes up at 5-5:30. To be quite honest, even if her last bottle is at 9 she wakes around the same time still.

Just think about the way adults work...if we're used to getting up around 6 AM, sometimes it's very difficult to make ourselves sleep any longer...lol. I think my body has a built in alarm clock or something!!

fromustobaby · #9 July 23rd, 2011, 08:43 PM

He eats at 5:30pm and goes to bed 2 hours later?? So, he goes down at 7-7:30pm??
If he is going to bed around 7pm, that is the PERFECT time for him to go down...at 4 months, he should NOT be STTN...waking at 3-4am is great...just give him the bottle and put him back down...dont hold out if he is hungry, he's hungry cause his little system cant process more food at one time (they need more feedings just cause they are so young)...

Kaiden was a mess with sleeping until we got him on a schedule at 10 months...but even then, he would go down at 7pm and wake at around 4am - and I would feed him and then he would go back to sleep till around 6-7am...until he was 12 months old...only now (he is 16 months) can he sleep in 12 hour stretches without getting up to eat...

My doc said that the earliest that a normal baby (of course there are always some exceptions to the rule, but I'm talking normal baby) should be expected to be STTN is 6 months...she didn't start telling me that Kaiden should really be starting to STTN until he was 9 months...

bliss · #10 July 24th, 2011, 06:47 PM

Thanks ladies, I'll give him more time.

JustLiz · #11 July 25th, 2011, 10:58 AM

Agree. Des has STTN one night only in his life. He is just 5 months now. He usually goes down at 8pm and wakes up twice in the night. Sometimes the second wake-up is late, like around 5:30, but I'm usually successful with feeding him, re-swaddling (because he's busted out by then) and putting him back down. Sometimes then he'll sleep until almost 8:00 am (but usually more like 7am).