How do I change my baby's sleep schedule?!

He's a great sleeper BH, little over a month old. He sleeps about 10 hours a night, wakes up to eat but eats briefly and is fast asleep again - no trouble falling asleep again even. BH!

Here's the problem--- our night sometimes starts at 3AM!!! Then he'll sleep till about noon, which lets me do all sorts of things in the morning, but we have such a hard time at night. Any suggestions for getting him to go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier? We've tried putting him to sleep and it doesn't work! As for naps, he's not really on a schedule yet, so it's hard to gauge... TIA!

Gold Member Joined: Mar 18 2009 Posts: 1525

firstly, I am a believe in the book "healthy sleep habits, happy child" by Marc Weissbluth.

As your baby gets older you will start to realize that your baby will get fussy around 7pm (give or take an hour). Thats because the body will naturally want to go to bed at 7pm. For a while you may find yourself fighting it because 7pm is too early for the night to begin but that is what their body wants.

So at any point when you are ready, before the 7pm-ish feeding give your baby a bath, put on PJs, feed your baby and put him in the cirb. After about 3 nights he'll get with the program and his night will be the traditional 7-7.

Also once you feed the 6-7 am feeding (some may say even 5am) do not allow him to sleep for longer than 4 hours. I know people say never to wake a sleeping baby but it's important for them to learn that during the day we nap and at night we sleep. From my 3 kids, maybe one time per kid I regretted waking them up at 4 hours of a nap.

oh and I'm happy you are getting that from you 1 month old, my second was like that and it was a pleasure

Beginner Joined: Jun 25 2010 Posts: 8

whoa there.....at one month a sleep schedule is just not going to happen and you should just follow your babe's needs.
even in "healthy sleep habits....." the author notes that before 3 months a late night bedtime is par for the course. then around three months you can push the bedtime up drastically to 7 or 8 pm. incidentally, my babe just did this on her own. around that age she just stopped being able to stay up past 8 or 9ish.
all you can do at that age is make sure they are not mixing up night and day by exposing them to as much sunlight and stimulation as you can during the day and toning things down at night.
but it does sound like you have a great sleeper, good for you!
(not to be a downer but also know that while things get better, they also sometimes get "worse" and sleep does not always progress upwards. there are going to be good times and then they will regress, then it will get better again and then.....and on and on!)