Hellobee Boards

When are you starting the bathtime routine? Do you start it early (like 7) and she just fights you for hours before going down? Or are you not starting it until later? When my LO was that age she was still going to bed pretty late (usually around 9:30) but she still had lots of naps. At 12 weeks she definitely could not have handled being away from 4:30pm striaght through until 10pm.

she sleeps in until 9 and takes a 2-3 hour nap?? I'm jealous!!!

My LO just turned 12 weeks yesterday. I have been doing his bedtime routine starting at 8pm-ish for several weeks now. Recently I've been noticing he's getting overtired before then so starting tonight I am going to push it back to an earlier time, probably 7:30 at first, then maybe 7 if it works for him. When do you start yours?
4 pm - 10 pm is a really long time for them to be up. If your LO is getting overtired (which mine so easily does!!) it might make it impossible to get her down.
Could you remove "play" from the bedtime routine? Is she being stimulated too much possibly?

@sslm: It sounds like she might just be overtired. I would try to extend that nap at 4:30 even if it means letting her sleep on top of you or anywhere she'll sleep longer. I think she's probably fussing becaus she's so tired she doesn't know what to do with herself. Also, I would try to nurse as much as possible in the evenings. My LO always cluster fed in the evenings so that may also be part of the fussiness.

could you start your day earlier? just shift the whole thing?....mine goes down between 8 and 9pm...*BUT* she is up at 6:30 am...(then naps every 2 hours or whatever)

My LO went to bed at 9-10 around that age. Shortly thereafter she started getting tired earlier and earlier.

Same as @Weagle. We tried and tried to get her to bed earlier, but she did it gradually on her own. We would notice that she was getting really fussy and overtired a little earlier each day and now she goes to bed at 7!

At 12 weeks dd was going to bed around 10/11. By five months she had pulled bedtime back to exactly 7:10. I'd just give her sometime to get there.

I agree with others, my LO shifted his bedtime on his own! He was going down at around 10 for the first 3 months, then has gradually moved his bedtime back. I just let him "tell" me when he's sleepy.

@sslm: he has sleep cues I've picked up on. I'm not sure that every baby is the same? But his eyes get red and heavy, he starts rubbing them, and he makes an "ah" sound over and over. Ha. Then he stops responding so much to our attempts to make him smile--just stares at us. Then he starts getting fussy.

I haven't been giving him a bath every night, but actually just decided to start because it's summer and he sweats, thus he is stinkier. I managed to get him to bed tonight, after a bath, without a huge meltdown but he was heading that way because he's not used to the addition of a bath to his routine!

What others have said...wake up earlier for an earlier bedtime. We didn't get to a 7-8 bedtime til past 6 months, but we got down to 830 by 4.5 months...

@sslm: I would try waking her earlier first, rather than moving her bedtime first. Then she'll naturally be more tired earlier in the evening. That's if you want to change it versus waiting her out!