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796579 tn?1266432024

sleeping schedules

i'm not sure if this is the right forum to be in, but my son is 3 weeks old, and is a pretty descent sleeper most of the time.  generally he will sleep 2-4 hours wake feed, and do it again, etc.  this is my first child so i have a lot to learn still!! my question is regarding how to set a schedule with a baby, and at what age is it realistic to be on a scedule?  we will go a couple days where i feel he is sticking to a 3 hour sleep schedule, then it goes out the window for a day back on for a day then off again.  is he too young to be trying to get a set sched in place?  any suggestions would be appreciatied, what should i do, how do i implement it, and at what age? thanks for anything you can give me!  also, i am not sure about the best way to put him to bed either.  i tend to wait till he falls assleep in my arms to put him into bed, and then sometimes still he will wake and cry and cry.  if i put him to bed awake he will cry usually as well.  am i spoiling him by rocking or holding? is this possible at such a young age?  i knolw that some say to let them cry themwselves to sleep, but is he too young, doesn't he need to be close and conforted to bond while he is still young??  so many questions!!
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973741 tn?1342342773
Hi,  believe it or not, I so miss those days of a newborn . . .they are so precious!  

Ya, at three weeks you are on demand still.  If you think about it,  you actually ARE on a schedule-----  it is just eating every 3 to 4 hours.  As they increase what they take, they go for longer periods in between.  Nursing babies eat more often.  I read the book "BAbywise" when my first son was an infant and tried to follow that program.  We'd eat, burp, play a little and then they would go to sleep again.  This is in the begining and I think it is around 3 months when they "wake up" and have much longer stretches awake.  My oldest son would have one longer stretch of sleep so I would try to keep him up in the evening and then put him down.  Actually----  while this isn't romantic, in the early weeks like where you are now----  my husband was in charge in the evening and would feed baby his once a day bottle (I nursed) and try to keep him up and I went on to bed.  Then when baby woke later, I had had a decent number of hours straight of sleep.  That worked for us so that I didn't get too tired.  

As far as sleeping habits, I tried to put my kids down once or twice a day awake in their bed.  The trick is to watch for them to be sleepy but not there yet and put them in their bed still awake but groggy.  The rest of the time they fell asleep in my arms.  Both my boys never needed me to go to sleep (they are now 4 and 5) as they got older, so even this occasional putting them in bed awake seemed to work.  They never cried like nuts or I would pick them up.  At one, though, crying it out is okay and the Furber method is recommended by my pediatrician and others.

I too have a friend that put her kids down at an early time like 7:00 and the kids slept through until 7:00 the next day and napped at 12:00.  Lucky dog!  We called her the sleep nazi although we all secretly envied her.  She was super strict about her schedule and got pretty tense if anything interferred.  She has 4 kids now , 3 that are 3 and under (yikes) and works fulltime so this was important to her.  I asked my pediatrician about why my kids didn't sleep through the night at 6 months and she informed me that for most babies, sleeping through the night consists of 5 or 6 hours!  

Oh, and I agree about the lights.  Heaven forbid the baby who gets days and nights mixed up.  It happens . . .not good.  Good luck and enjoy that bundle of joy!!
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Avatar universal
I always held mine till they went to sleep. Mine had colic though so it was the only way to get them to sleep. I don't think I ever let them just lay in the  crib. But mine are now 3 and 5 and will not go to sleep alone.

My sis has always put my neice down awake in the crib and let her sleep that way and now at 1 will lay in the crib and nap and go to sleep by herself. She puts her down at 730 or 8 and up at 7 then nap at 12 and has done this for awhile.

I would say now at 3 wks where they do wake up every 3 hrs wait alittle while until atleast he is sleeping for longer periods. Right now he will sleep alot atleast for a couple of months. Night time though keep the lights dim, daytime keep normal lights.
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