Archive Sleeping FAQ: 8-12 weeks

Using previous advice you gave about getting my son to sleep without being held, he now settles well at all his naps and sleeps. However I have a problem with him remaining asleep for two hours at the lunchtime nap. He is happy to sleep for 30-45 minutes, but will never return to sleep after this. Sometimes he will be content to lie there for another 30-45 minutes sucking his thumb; at other times he will cry. I have tried the controlled crying method and just leaving him when he does suck his thumb but to no avail. He settles well at 7pm and does usually wake in the night, but will settle himself by sucking his thumb until 7am when he wakes for his feed. He is normally quite grumpy in the afternoon but has been more so lately. My son has 5 feeds of 7ozs at 7am,10.45am,2pm,6.15pm and 10.20pm. We have never been able to wake him for his 10pm feed, as he is deeply asleep but still takes his bottle. I am about to increase his feeds to 8ozs to see if it improves his grumpiness. He weighs 18lbs. He naps at 9-9.30am, 12.00-12.45pm, 2.30-3pm. I cannot understand why he will settle himself back to sleep at night but not in the day. His room is pitch black with blinds.
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My 10 week old son has been on the routine for about a month now, but it seems like the moment I get one problem solved, another pops up. Originally I was having problems with the lunchtime nap as well as early morning waking. So I started keeping him awake for 1 hour at the 10pm feed. Since doing this he stirs slightly at 4am, but goes back to sleep and again at 5:50 but goes back to sleep until I wake him at 7. The problem that we still have is his lunchtime nap at 12. At every sleep he cries when I put him down for about 1- 10 minutes but eventually settles himself and goes to sleep. The problem is that he wakes at 1pm, I'm sure it's due to his sleep cycles. Occasionally he will cry for 10 minutes then settle back to sleep, but if he has slept well through the night, he refuses to go back to sleep.I am trying to practice controlled crying, going in after 10 minutes, then 15, etc. However the main problem is that he begins to cry uncontrollably, working up a sweat and waking himself up completely. If he does fall asleep again, it's usually for about 1 to 10 minutes, when he wakes up again and starts the whole cycle over. Also because his crying is so wearing he begins to gasp which usually wakes him up if he does manage to settle himself. When I go in to settle him, he rarely stops crying, but I usually stay no longer than 2 minutes. Should I be trying harder to calm him down or just leaving him? If I leave him, he seems to get more uncontrollable and is unable to get back to sleep. This continues throughout the final hour of his sleep when I get him up at 2:15. I feel as if he will never learn, as I always eventually get him up when he's supposed to. Also if he does fall asleep it's not until almost 2pm. Should I still get him up at 2:15-2:30 or should I leave him to sleep a little longer? Also after his 9am nap, which is about 30-45 minutes, he is very grumpy through to the lunch time nap and is often very sleepy at 11am. I make sure he gets his full feed at 11 by giving him an expressed bottle of 6ozs at this time so I know it's not hunger waking him during his lunch nap.He also has an afternoon nap of 30 minutes from 4.15-4.45pm.At present he is breast fed at 7am, 2.30pm, and 5pm. I give expressed feeds by bottle at 11am, 6.30pm and 11pm. At those feeds he takes between 6-7ozs. He weighs 14lbs.
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Hi - my 10-week-old daughter, Alice, has been following Gina's routines since birth and is a very contented baby. Thank you. However, she is waking up 35-45 minutes after I put her down for her lunchtime nap. I know this is a common problem and I have tried all the tips that Gina suggests to no avail. So that Alice does not get overtired later on in the afternoon, I put her down for an hour and 20 minutes after her 2pm feed. My question, therefore, is does it matter if Alice has her lunchtime nap after lunch?
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My daughter has been following the routine since she was 3 weeks old and since 9 weeks, started sleeping through from 11pm to 6.45am (when I woke her). The next time she woke in the night, I settled her with a cuddle and some water and she went back to sleep 10-20mins. This had only happened a few times but generally she slept through on most days. All of a sudden, for the past 4 days she has started waking again at around 4am but not really looking for food, we have settled her with a dummy but consequently, she is very tired in the mornings when we wake her and I am also concerned about using the dummy. She sleeps in her own cot in her own room and has done so since 4 weeks. We also have blackout curtains in her room.
Secondly, we have a problem with the 10.15pm feed. We wake her at 10pm and allow her to kick around for at least 15/20mins before we start feeding her. She will only manage to take a 3-4oz at a struggle and by 10.45/11pm is ready to go back to sleep no matter what we do. We were not too concerned as she was able to go through the night with a feed but wonder if this may be the reason for her waking early again (although she doesn't want a feed!)
We have tried keeping her awake longer but it has made no difference and she doesn't take anymore feed really and only ends up getting very frustrated and agitated with us and herself. The other thing is that she is never hungry in the morning, I wake her at 6.45am and start feeding by 7am at which point, she will take 3-4oz but then can't really be bothered. It seems like she is not actually hungry.
Am I following the routine correctly? Can I do more for her to take a bigger feed at 10.15pm? What is her reason for not being hungry at 7.00am - I thought she would be starving!
She is generally a very contented baby and I always make sure she has some fresh air everyday at the 4.15pm nap and ensure that she has plenty of kick about time during the day. I would really appreciate your help as I am completely baffled by what I’m doing wrong!

My daughter feeds at 7am 6ozs, with a struggle, 10.45am 6ozs, 2.30pm 6ozs, 5pm 4-5ozs, 6.30pm 2-3ozs. I have tried to make her wait until after the bath but she just cried. She will never take more than this although I have tried numerous times.  My daughter weighs 13lbs.

She naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.15pm and 4.15-4.30pm. She is settled at 7pm.
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My 9 week son wakes up consistently at around 2am-4am and continues to wake up every hour until 7am. I cannot get him to sleep longer than an hour stretch after 2am. I have tried to settle him with a dummy, cooled boiled water, pat/sshhing, white noise cd, before feeding him 2.5 ounces which he usually is sick after but he will still cry for more. I don't want to increase his night feeds and struggle to get him to take more in the day but feel like I have tried everything else. I have tried to leave him cry but this doesn't make him stop and again if he does sleep he will wake an hour later crying. I am unsure whether he wants to be with us as he settles well at 7pm and 11pm really well and goes down well in his cot for daytime naps too. At present he feeds at 7am 4ozs, 10am 5ozs, 1.30pm 5ozs, 4.30pm 4ozs, 6.30pm 4ozs, 11pm 6ozs and 3.30am 2.5ozs. He weighs 11lbs 4ozs. My son naps at 9-10am, 11.30-1.30pm and 3.30-4.30pm. He is settled by 6.30pm.
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My 11 and a half week old baby has gone through the night without feeds a couple of times, I had suspected she did not need them for a while as I was only giving a couple of ounces and she was cutting back on her 7am feed. However, she has now started waking in the night again and the only way I seem to be able to resettle her is to give the dummy. I have tried water which does work but then she wakes again 10 minutes later. With the dummy I have to give it a number of times before she finally gets off. What can I do? Should I just let her cry? Or should I go back to feeding her. She never has had the dummy at night before, however I have always given her one to settle herself for daytime naps - I don’t know any other way. She does usually spit it out fairly quickly though and is fine. I am really worried I am creating (or have already created) a dummy dependency that will mean I am up and down all night every night but I don’t know how to break the habit without leaving her to cry. For the day naps, I have just started using the dummy to settle her but then removing it when I put her in the cot..... But this doesn’t work at night. Just for information, I cannot get her to have the full lunchtime nap whatever I try, so I give her half hour after her 2pm feed, and another half hour at 4.30. My daughter feeds at 7am 6ozs, 10.30am 7ozs, 2pm 6ozs, 5pm 6ozs, 6.30pm 2ozs and 11pm 6ozs. She weighs 12lbs 2ozs. She naps at 9-9.45am, 11.50-12.50pm, 2.40-3.05pm and 4.30-5pm. She settles at 7pm.
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My baby son is our second baby and we have implemented the routines since birth as we did with our first son. He is very content and we are really enjoying him. However he has not yet slept through from the 10.30pm feed to morning. He slept until 6am twice but apart from that it is anything from 3.55am to 5.15am usually. He was capable of this from a very young age. I have ruled out hunger as he was cutting back a lot on his 7am feed. I gradually reduced the feed in the night and now (for the last 4 nights) settle him with water. I have to put a bit of sugar in it to get him to take it. The pattern is very erratic - it could be 4am tonight and 5.10am tomorrow. He has no bad sleep associations and settles very well for all naps and at 7pm and 11.30pm. We have even got through the lunchtime light sleep issue within a couple of days of letting him fuss and I always have to wake him at 2.20pm. Light or noise are not the issue as we live in the country so there are no street lights, car alarms, etc. and no one in the house is noisy at these times. He is still fully swaddled as I wanted to try to figure out this problem before I added another variable. Some nights when he wakes he may have a hand out but often he doesn't. I don't think he is too hot as it is quite cold at night. Likewise I don't think he’s cold. I'm baffled - any ideas? How long will I continue to settle him with water? Will it become a habit itself? Is he starting to need it to settle back in the night? I dread having to get tough on this as he is such a good baby it seems unfair - also there's the issue of waking my contented toddler! I was considering sleeping in the nursery with him for a couple of nights to see if that reveals anything but not sure what I'll figure out in the dark? My son takes 6-7ozs at 7am, 11am, 2.30pm and 10.30pm. He takes 7-8ozs at 6.15pm. He is offered water in the afternoon. He naps from 9-9.50am, 12.05-2.20pm and 4.35-4.55pm. He weighed 13lbs at 9 weeks old.
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My 9 week old struggles to take a morning nap. He sometimes goes down for a lunchtime nap but can waken after an hour in which case I cannot get him back to sleep, which results in a really cranky baby from about 3.30 onwards until bed time. My husband and I are at our wits end with the constant crying all day if we can't get him to take his naps. He is an excellent baby at night. He goes down no problem at 7pm, gets woken up for the 10.30pm feed and goes back to sleep until 6.30am/6.45am in the morning. We don't understand why he sleeps so well at night, which we want, but can't settle for his naps during the day. Could it be we are over stimulating him too much in between feeds or do we possibly need to use the controlled crying method?
He takes 6ozs at 7am, 10.30am, 6.15pm and 10.30pm. He takes 5ozs at 2.30pm. He weighs 12lbs 5.5 ozs.
He naps from 8.50-9.20am and 12-1.15pm.
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My 11-week-old daughter has been in a good sleeping pattern but for the last three days this has gone a bit wrong in the evening. She has started to wake at 3am wanting a small feed and then again at 5-6am. Although if she fed at 3am, she will put herself back to sleep at 5-6am and wake up around 7am. She used to sleep from 11/11.30 through to 6am before but recently has changed to this new pattern. What can we do to correct this habit? And when should we look to bring the 10.30pm feed forward? How can we increase daytime feeds as she always refuses more, and if we try and give her more she vomits? At present she feeds at 7.30am 90 ml breast, 10.30am 90-110mls formula, 2.30pm 90 ml breast, 5.30pm 90-130mls formula, 6.45pm 50 ml breast/formula, 10.30pm 90-130mls formula and 3.30am breast 2 minutes, giving her a total of 540mls. She weighs 4.22kg.
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My mother gave me all of the Contented Baby books before my son Pasha was born and I had read the book, made my charts and was ready to have him on a schedule from day one. He was born a healthy 7lbs 10oz and today, at eleven weeks he weighs 12.5 lbs. Unfortunately Pasha was born with jaundice and I had to feed him every two hours for the first two weeks of his life which made putting him on a schedule very difficult. He is bottle fed. I have been following your schedule for the past month and everything has been going smoothly – he naps well during the day and goes to sleep very happily at 7:00pm. We wake him up at 10:30pm for his final feed but unfortunately he is still waking up at 4:00am. How can I start to have him sleep through the night? I feel like he has an automatic alarm clock because whether we feed him at 10:00pm /10:30pm or 11:00pm, he will always wake up at exactly 4:00am. He will sleep until 7:00am after his 4:00am feed (3oz). What should I do? Another concern is that, according to your book, he should be eating around 35oz but his general daily consumption (including the 4:00am) is 28oz. I feed him 5oz at 7:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, 6:00pm and 10:30pm and 3oz at 4:00am. But my doctor says he should not have more than 30oz per day and no more than 5oz per feed, so do you recommend a extra feeding time slot and if so what time?
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As I have to express all feeds, I am finding it difficult to stick to the evening routine. I start feeding at 6.15pm but it only takes 10-15mins to finish the feed rather than the 40 minutes it would take if I were breast-feeding. Should I be putting her down at 6.30pm after she has fed or keeping her awake until 7.00pm? It doesn't feel right to be stimulating her until 7.00pm when it should be her wind-down time – but will the earlier bedtime eventually have a knock-on effect? Also, if I put her down at 6.30pm, she's not going to bed two hours since last waking, as Gina suggests. Is that a problem? At present she sleeps 9.00-9.45am, 12.00-2.15pm and 4.30-5.00pm. Also, is there an equation for breast milk like the one for formula on page 62 of CLB?
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Oscar has always been difficult to settle to sleep at 7pm. For the last three weeks we have tried controlled crying, but he is still crying wildly every night for at least an hour. He only falls asleep when totally exhausted. I follow a strict routine between 5pm and 7pm and put him down in his Moses basket not fully asleep. He is given a full feed at 11pm, but takes this in his sleep. He then wakes about 3.30-4.30am taking between a half to a full feed and settles again until around 6am. Oscar followed the routines from about 2 weeks. He was put to sleep in his nursery which has full black out blinds and curtains. He has all his nappy changes there. During most days I took him out either in the car or buggy, at times which coincided with his nap times. Lately he has been waking at the lunchtime nap after 30-45 minutes and not re-settling. I decided to give him his naps at home in his room, as I felt he had developed wrong sleep associations with always being out at these times. I have tried controlled crying at these times for 3 days but Oscar is getting hardly any sleep as he cries hysterically when out sleeping in his moses basket. Despite such little daytime sleep he is still hysterical at 7pm, and now is beginning to wake really early [6am]. This makes it difficult to stay on the routine during the day. He is feeding at about the right times but not getting nearly enough daytime sleep. Oscar weighs 12lbs 8ozs and is taking between 29-36ozs of formula milk every 24hrs. His feeds are roughly 06.30 6ozs, 10.00 5 1/2 ozs, 14.00 51/2ozs, 17.00 2ozs, 18.00 4ozs, 23.00 6 ozs, 03.45am between 2 and 6 ozs. He takes about 1oz of water at 3.30pm. His sleeping and feeding are beginning to vary a lot each day. He has been fed Nutramigen since 6 weeks after he appeared to develop colic at 4 weeks and cried all day. I gave up breast feeding entirely at 5 weeks as it was suggested this was the cause of the colic. Before this, he had top ups of formula as I found he was taking two hours to feed. Oscar sleeps 08.30-09.30,12.00-12.30, 16.30-17.00 in the day.
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My daughter, Erris, is eight weeks old and well established on the routines, and feeds and naps at the correct times throughout the day. The only problem is when I put her down at 7pm. She naps in her pram in the morning, in her cot at lunchtime and in the afternoon she sleeps in the car while I collect her brother from nursery. After a small feed at 5pm (3oz) she enjoys a kick on her mat, followed by a bath at 6pm. I give her the second part of the feed downstairs while my son watches a DVD and drinks his milk. Erris is content to sit in her chair after winding until I take her upstairs at 6.55pm. At this point, however, she begins to fidget and I give her a dummy to calm her and prevent her from getting upset. Often she has hiccups and loses her dummy. I have to go in two or three times to retrieve the dummy, re-settle her and sometimes I even resort to rocking her before she settles at 7.45pm. I have bought a lullaby light, sat with her in the dark and tried top-up feeds, but nothing helps. What else can I try?
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Gina's routine works well for my 9-week-old son. At night he is taking 4oz after his bath and falling asleep by 7pm, waking at 10.30pm for another 4oz. He then he goes until 4/5/6am (it varies at the moment). We start the days at 7am but my problem is that he falls asleep without exception about an hour after the first feed starts, similarly this happens after the 10am feed, so his naps are always early and this throws everything else out of sync, and we never make it to 2pm for the next feed as he is awake by 1pm. He does however manage to get back on track for 5pm. He sleeps at 8.15-9am, 11.15-1pm, 3-4pm and is settled by 7pm. He presently breast feeds at 7am, 10am, 1 and 2pm split feed, 5pm, 6pm 4 ozs formula, 10.30pm 4ozs formula, 4/5/6am small breast feed. He weighs 13lbs 6ozs. He also will not sleep in his nursery at lunchtime; he sleeps much better during the day where there is noise and activity (i.e. in the middle of a BBQ for 14 people!) How can I change this?
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