Hi. Looks like the first guest post on Rise, doesn’t it? Joy.
We’ve been experimenting with a new bedtime routine. Because of Bernard’s consistency in grizzling non-stop from about 6pm until we put him to bed, we’ve decided to start putting him to bed earlier, with our fingers crossed that it won’t stop him from sleeping through the night[1]. It seems to be working extremely well. In fact, this morning we got a longer lie in than ever before.
Bernard also really likes taking baths, but starts whining once you take him out. On an inkling, I suggested that maybe this is due to his dislike of prolonged contact with a wet towel. So now, we get him dried as quickly as possible, and then turn him out onto his changing mat to air-dry. This also is resulting in an improvement. Everyone’s a winner.
As an aside, this is going to be the last ever guest post that I write on this site. Having Karen sat over my shoulder checking my facts and insulting my writing style is just too much to bear. I’m going to go and sulk, for a long, long time. And so, it appears, is she.
- usual disclaimer applies: the definition of “through the night”, for those of you who aren’t in the know, doesn’t mean sleeping for eight hours non-stop. Babies never, unless they are ill, sleep for more than five hours at a time. [↩]
Can I moan about your facts too? Tom has slept for, on average, 11 or 12 hours per night, without interruption, since the age of six weeks. We’re lucky, I know. But he isn’t ill. Unless he hides it very well. On the downside, getting him to nap during the day is often a problem.
We have the same bath experience as you – Tom loves the bath but hates getting out. I think that he just feels cold when he gets out of the warm water, so we try to dry him and get him into cosy pyjamas as quickly as we can, but we still get tears. Besides, being in the bath is fun (soaking parents is particularly good value), so who would want to get out?
I would amend Pete’s bald statement to say that babies UNDER THREE MONTHS OLD RARELY sleep for more than a five hour stretch at night. And also add that formula-fed babies, or those given formula as a supplement just before bedtime, will sleep for longer because they generally won’t digest it as quickly as breastmilk, so they won’t get hungry again quite so soon.
NB. The above comments re: formula/breastmilk are NOT intended as any form of moral statement or judgement, before anyone starts yelling “guilt trip!”
Perhaps an amendment to
‘most (but not all) exclusively breast-fed babies will sleep for 5 hours at a stretch before waking, some will go less, some will go more. not only does this vary from child-to-child but also day-to-day. illness will be a factor but so will a change in estabilished routine (such as an interruption to daytime naps)’
in fact its easier to say ‘the average stretch a baby will sleep is 5 hours – it unlikely however your baby will have read up on the averages in the womb and so if he adheres it is by sheer statistical luck’.