How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

Emerson is 8 weeks old tomorrow and she is starting to sleep for stretches as long as 6 hrs. at night but we don't have her on a real schedule. Her "bedtime" is about an hour after where her last feeding falls which is usually around 11. What should I be doing to get her on a sleep schedule and at what age? What time do you put your babies down for the night, what is your bedtime routine, and how old were they when you started? TIA!!

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

Although DD is not on a nap schedule, she is on a nighttime schedule:

* Bath at 8:00

*Bottle right after

*Bed by 8:30

I give her a dream feed at 11:00 pm (she never wakes up for this and takes up to 4 oz.)

Usually sleeps till anywhere from 5 - 7 am...with the occasional up for a feeding at 3 am and some whining for her paci in between.

I put her down at night awake...

ETA - she is 3 months now, but I started to try a nighttime routine around 10 weeks

Message edited 11/13/2008 9:17:46 AM.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

I was really lucky, because DS sort of fell into his own schedule. At about 3.5 - 4 months, he would go to sleep at around 8 or 9 pm and sleep until about 6am. Cutting out the night (3am or so) feeding was what changed the sleep schedule for good for us.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

DS is 7 weeks today and for the past few nights we have been putting him in his crib around 7:30. now he doesn't go right to sleep but he will lay there and watch his soother. last night he fell asleep for about 45 min and then was in and out until 10 when he took his last bottle and then was down until 3. I don't expect him to stick to a schedule this young, but I would like to get him used to being in his crib at 7:30. And he slept until almost 8 this morining so I don't know if it's related but I'm not complaining!!

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

DH and I just let DD make her schedule and it worked out.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

We weren't able to do anything remotely close to a schedule for nighttime sleep until DD was 8+ months.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

at 7 weeks DD started to just sleep thru the night on her own. I didn't do anything differently.
She always went to bed around 9-9:30p.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

we put him to bed around 9-9:30, we usually soothe him from 15 min up to an hour, he is up every 4-5 hours for a bottle, he is a little over 3 months. don't know if its much of a schedule but am looking foreward to when he starts sleeping through the night :)

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

DD sort of fell into her own schedule too. She was sleeping through the night (7pm - 7am) starting around 3 months.

Now she goes 8pm-6am (I don't know why she goes to sleep later and wakes up earlier - but I'll take what I can get!).

I try to keep her daily schedule the same, she eats roughly every 5 hours.

Re: How do you start putting your DC on a sleeping schedule and at what age?

Message edited 11/14/2008 12:26:39 PM.