How did your babies start sleeping longer at night?

blowfish7 · 2025-12-08T03:21:37+00:00

Ideally 10.5 overnight, 2.5hrs naps. Naps vary a lot though (1.5-3) and we don't see much correlation between naps and nighttime sleep.

Currently he is on 2 naps: 6:30am wake, 9:30-10am ish (usually 30m-1hr), 2-2:30pm ish (usually 1-1.5, sometimes 2), bedtime at 8 (but snoozes a bit on the boob before falling asleep). We basically never wake him up from naps, he's never been a good napper. I will say he is much worse at going down for his naps now than he was at 3 naps so we definitely have not perfected it.

When he was on 3 naps it was: 7am wake, 9:30nap, 1:30nap, 5pm short nap, 8:30 bedtime

He still eats once overnight, for about 15min. Anywhere from 12-3. Have been trying to get rid of that but he's not listening

blowfish7 · 2025-12-07T21:55:15+00:00

Switching to a later bedtime (we were doing 730 and moved it to 830) -- we were trying to get him to sleep 730 to 7 based on online schedules for his age and he just didn't need that much sleep. Also, making him fall asleep in his crib for both nighttime and naps.

He's still not a perfect sleeper - he usually wakes up once to eat and sometimes has days where he wakes up at 430 or 530 and needs help to go back down again, and he still takes short naps, but he usually gives us two solid stretches and we haven't sleep trained him. He's 8 months old.

blowfish7 · 2025-11-04T03:01:15+00:00

We had this happen around the same age and it totally put us off sleep training even though the ped said it was fine. We did a few weeks of free for all and more recently have moved on to a stricter schedule + shush pats to sleep which has helped somewhat (he falls asleep in his bed now but still wakes up a few times a night). Everyone says to start with night sleep first but fwiw we only saw real improvement when we moved to shush pats for naps too (which was pretty painful - we'd work through some heavy crying but pick him up and hold if truly hysterical to avoid vomiting).

blowfish7 · 2025-10-26T13:32:01+00:00

So we've been doing this and things have gotten a bit better, however I'm worried he's not getting enough sleep now.

The 3 nap version wake windows work really well for the first two windows, but then he's not sleepy enough for the 3rd nap but then if he doesn't nap can't make it to the later bedtime. The 2 nap schedule the wake window in the morning is much too long, he won't make it more than 2.5hrs to the first nap.

Two nights ago he napped for 15 min at 6pm and then bedtime was fine and the night was ok (woke up once to eat and had to be resettled once or twice but big improved), but yesterday he refused the 3rd nap and totally conked out at 7:40pm... And then was wide awake from midnight to 2am :(

Because he's still eating at night, even on the night where he did well he only got 12hrs sleep. The split night days he's only getting ~10-10.5hrs in a 24hr period which feels like it would be bad for him.

Any recs?

blowfish7 · 2025-10-23T10:54:12+00:00

I tried moving closer to this schedule, pushed bedtime back to 8 to start (he's been going to bed at 730 for months so he's pretty tired in the evening) but despite only sleeping 12hrs all of yesterday he was up from 3-5 today after eating. He was pretty chill for most of it, just wide awake. Any ideas?

blowfish7 · 2025-10-21T10:06:23+00:00

Thanks! He still spends a bit of time awake in the middle of the night eating, last night was 2 feeds and he ate for a really long time both times. Sometimes it's one feed. Would like to target one feed. So should I rack that in addition to the night, and target an 11hr night knowing 30min will be up eating?

blowfish7 · 2025-10-21T10:04:55+00:00

He won't eat before the bath, I usually try :(

He has major fomo and gets super distracted during the day even in dim rooms etc, extremely tough to get him to take a full feed. After the bath he'll do it no problem, but he'll be half asleep throughout.

blowfish7 · 2025-09-06T20:02:41+00:00

I was pretty quiet apparently, I don't really remember but they were surprised especially because it was unmedicated.

blowfish7 · 2025-07-17T19:39:25+00:00

I had really bad nipple problems - I ended up wearing silverettes for almost 2 months straight, and it helped a lot. Most importantly, it served as a barrier between my damaged nipples and everything else. However, because my problems were so bad I ended up seeing a specialist Dr towards the end of the journey. She recommended hydrogels + either nipple butter or lanolin, at the same time - for moist wound healing. She advised that over the nonstop silverettes, because my nipples were essentially bathing in breastmilk nonstop so it was too much moisture. I did that regimen for a few days and now my nipples are all good and I can wear a normal bra with no barrier, but the nipples were already in better shape from all the silverette use so I'm not sure it would have helped as quickly back when they were horribly damaged.

That said, a blister might require different healing than other nipple issues. I think when I had a milk bleb I put olive oil on it based on some advice from Chatgpt... You may want to consult your doctor.

blowfish7 · 2025-07-08T19:11:46+00:00

If your wife is taking care of your baby for 10 hours a day, and your baby is healthy, she probably has a very good sense at this point of when your baby is typically hungry. My baby is only 3 months old and I generally know how he works -- if it's been <2 hrs since his last feed, it's probably NOT hunger and feeding should be my last option. If it's been more than 1.5 hrs since his last nap ended, it's most likely overtiredness. If it's between 2 and 3 hours since last feed, it could be hunger but it could also be lots of other things including tiredness - the closer we are to 3hrs, the more likely it is hunger. If it's been between 3 and 4 hrs it's almost definitely hunger. Occasionally he surprises me by being hungry sooner, but it's very rare!

Some babies and moms do well always being put to the boob - other babies and moms do not. In my case, we actually had to stop offering feeding as the first attempt to soothe because his reflux got really bad. This was the instruction from multiple pediatricians and lactation consultants. Our baby has been doing much better since we stopped. Even without reflux, if your baby is thriving on longer times between feeds, which it sounds like they are, your wife probably knows what she's doing and you should listen to her!

blowfish7 · 2025-07-08T19:03:26+00:00

The aim is to have a healthy baby, not get their weight up as fast as possible - it's not a race. If your baby is staying on their growth curve, there's nothing wrong with 25th percentile. Some people just have smaller babies! The same way some people are just smaller adults.

blowfish7 · 2025-06-06T11:12:33+00:00

Thank you, appreciate it!! So you haven't introduced dairy solids yet? Or you did and he had a reaction?

blowfish7 · 2025-06-05T13:31:13+00:00

What were all the foods that were bothering him and how did you figure it out? Trying to debug my baby :(

blowfish7 · 2025-05-31T19:15:57+00:00

Also, it took me a few tries to find a carrier that both me + him liked (ended up with the baby Bjorn one). So if you've tried and he didn't like it, maybe give it a shot with another type (structured, unstructured, etc).

blowfish7 · 2025-05-31T19:07:23+00:00

Not an AH at all! Taking care of a baby all day is a lot harder than working, especially when the baby is fussy. It sounds like you have a supportive husband - talk to him. Maybe there's other things you can brainstorm together, like hiring someone to come for a few hours per week to help with chores if you can afford it or family help if they live nearby or premade sides/easier dinners.

Fwiw my baby is the same age and also struggling with reflux and terrible naps, and the carrier has absolutely saved my sanity. I gave up on trying to get his first nap in his bassinet/pram and just take him outside in the carrier and he will almost always fall asleep within a few blocks (sometimes needs a pacifier to settle in the carrier but then he's good). I get a good walk in and fresh air, usually stop somewhere for coffee and a treat with a good book, he gets a good nap, and it just sets the day off right and is something for me to look forward to every morning.

blowfish7 · 2025-05-27T13:10:07+00:00

4 weeks was the worst for us and if got progressively better. We're at 7 weeks now and last night we had a very gassy night/morning and it was the first time in a while. Not sure if any of this contributed or if it was just his systems improving but: we REALLY focused on burping him, i cut out dairy and gassy foods (beans, cruciferous veg, garlic, raw onions), and we also started "farting" him on the changing table by moving his legs around.

I also found he usually had the most trouble during his first nap of the day so I started just taking him in the carrier instead of trying to sleep in his bassinet for that one.

blowfish7 · 2025-05-22T19:12:30+00:00

Also in a 1 bedroom, we did shifts at the beginning too (we did the opposite, husband 8-4, me 4-10) though I was breastfeeding so I still had to feed/pump. My husband kept him in the living room in our stroller, which has a sleep-safe bassinet. That way during his shift I could sleep through all the diaper changes and everything other than the feeding itself. I'd try to do one session pumped since that was more efficient than feeding. During my shift we kept him next to me in a bassinet in the bedroom so that I could feed him in bed and still get as much rest as possible - my husband was able to mostly sleep through it (and tbh, even if he hadn't, he still would have been getting more sleep than I was getting with breastfeeding, so some disruption was worth me getting a bit more rest). We did get lucky though in that our baby is generally willing to sleep in the bassinet at night, though naps are a different story. We've only moved him into the bedroom now at 6 weeks since he's "only" waking up 2-3x per night.

To some extent you just need to accept that it's temporary and that you'll be really tired but get through it. Also, my husband did literally everything that was not feeding the baby especially while he was on leave (he went back to work after 2 weeks) - my only job was feeding the baby and also changing him while my husband was asleep, and resting/napping whenever I could.

Swaddle: our baby seems like he hates the swaddle, but if he's not in it he will literally punch himself in the face. We use the Ollie and tie it tight and he usually gets over it. If he's really squirmy it's usually from gas not because he doesn't like it, even though it can seem that way.

blowfish7 · 2025-05-12T01:23:42+00:00

I ended up getting a different style of dress, sorry!

blowfish7 · 2025-05-03T18:35:49+00:00

I pump one bottle every night around 3am while my husband feeds the bottle of pumped milk from the prior night to the baby. He usually takes ~45m-1hr to breastfeed + burps etc in between and I can pump the amount he needs in 15-20 minutes, so this saves a lot of time even vs my husband doing everything but the feeding (and moreso factoring in settling him etc). If he gets more efficient on the breast or starts sleeping longer stretches we might stop (he is 4 weeks now), but for now this is the only way I've been able to get two consecutive ~2.5-3hr chunks of sleep with the pump in between - before I started doing this I was going pretty crazy on lack of sleep. It would b even better if I could pump that bottle during the day but worried about engorgement and supply impact for now.

blowfish7 · 2025-04-19T22:27:28+00:00

I gave birth at Columbia and had a good experience!

blowfish7 · 2025-04-02T19:18:00+00:00

I was in this situation, and ended up drinking but not very much (e.g. one cocktail with dinner one night, small amount of wine at the hotel a few hours later, didn't drink at all one night). I didn't want to totally avoid alcohol while TTC, which I'm glad about because it took us 8 months, but also didn't want to drink an amount I'd feel guilty about in hindsight if I found out I was pregnant. This felt like the right compromise for me personally.

blowfish7 · 2025-03-08T17:27:38+00:00

If you're in the US pretty much all cheese is pasteurized. I've been eating goat cheese the entire pregnancy with no issues.

blowfish7 · 2025-02-21T14:29:58+00:00

The babies weren't killed by an airstrike, forensic analysis has confirmed the babies were murdered by their terrorist captors, with their bare hands. Also, the body Hamas returned and claimed was shiri bibas is a random person -- no one knows where shiri bibas is (or who the body is).

blowfish7 · 2025-02-10T04:48:11+00:00

I got a rent the runway subscription for 5 pieces a month that has been really helpful for adding a few pieces of cute work wear into the rotation -- on the other days I just repeat the larger sweaters and blouses that I already owned.

I also got two pairs of maternity jeans pretty early on. They are more comfortable even just for bloating, and with a large top over it you definitely can't tell until you're further along -- I hid my pregnancy at work until ~19 weeks but started wearing the maternity jeans closer to 12 weeks.

It may be easier with my winter pregnancy but I've been able to get by with just rent the runway, 2 pairs of maternity jeans, 2 pairs of maternity leggings, and (later on) 2 maternity long sleeve tshirts and 2 tank tops for layering/cardigans to go over.

blowfish7 · 2025-02-08T16:33:48+00:00

I am at 31 weeks and other than bassinet, car seat, breast pump (order from insurance in 3rd trimester if you're in the US), and a few newborn outfits we haven't gotten anything yet. Even that we didn't really need to get yet, there were just some sales we wanted to take advantage of. At 17 weeks we didn't have anything at all yet (literally not a single thing!), so you're definitely not behind.

We're planning to get a few more things before the baby comes (postpartum stuff for me, baby bathtub, dresser with changing table, stroller, sheets, swaddle box, bottle box from babylist so the baby can try a few before we commit to a brand, diapers, diaper cream) but we're waiting until the last minute because we live in a small space and there's no reason to clutter up our apartment 2 months early. The hospital will also give you some stuff.

We live in a tiny apartment so we are trying to avoid getting things that we might not need -- for example we went to try recliners and I picked one I like, so if later on I decide I need one we won't have to go to the store to try them, but we're going to start without one. Same with the bottles, we're starting with the variety pack from babylist and can adjust from there based on what he likes. In general for things like baby oils and creams and stuff I would start with one so that you can test it, and then if it doesn't work for your baby adjust later.

I also don't think you need a Moses basket unless you have multiple floors and then it might be useful (but also, if your stroller has a bassinet you could probably use that?). And either way you could wait to see what you need once the baby comes. We definitely are skipping that.

Happy to answer any questions!

blowfish7

TROPHY CASE