How can I get my baby on a routine?

Any advice on getting a six-month-old on schedule. We had a kinda routine before, but he’s changed up the hours he likes to sleep. Went from 9p-6a with naps throughout the day to 4a-1p with naps after. I need any advice I can get. Ftm of a seriously unexpected baby ( didn’t know I was having him until I was in labor.) All advice is appreciated

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Make sure you keep his or her surroundings very bright during the day and very dark during the night, try to schedule naps and make sure baby gets used to noise. Make sure his or her feeding schedule coordinate with the sleeping schedule as well.You’re going to have to keep a log of feedings to ensure proper nutrition.

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Wow that is a tough sleep schedule! It may take awhile (and you’re going to lose sleep) to turn this around but the only thing you can do is keep that baby from napping. Somehow…
Need to get him to where he’s tired at night and back to a nighttime sleep schedule.

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Wait your baby sleeps 4am to 1pm?? You need to keep that baby up so they are tired at night baby should not be sleeping though the morning till after lunch

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Guess I’m the odd one out but I let my baby’s set their own schedule and I tweak it as they get older.

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Keep your schedule, if he’s sleeping, when it’s time to eat, wake him up and feed him, and do on

start waking baby up in the mornings so he’ll swant to go to bed earlier… he should slowly transition back to the original schedule

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Stop naps and wake him up early so he will sleep at night. All 3 of my kids stopped napping at 6 months if they napped they wouldn’t sleep at night.

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Pick a day, I call this the day of hell cuz thats what it will feel like, and wake that baby up at 7:30/8am, no matter if he went to sleep at midnight or 6am. If he did sleep a good chunk, then keep him awake until 1 or 2, and give him a small nap, no more than a hour. If he didnt, let him sleep for 1.5 hours. Wake him up again, and go bed at 8/830pm. Do this for two or three days, then let him nap for up to 2 hours. Then after that he should be on a good schedule, just remember that a schedule requires you sacrificing the ability to do things willy nilly but it becomes necessary when you have a problem sleeper.

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Less naps and be consistent at night time bedtime. My girl started getting less naps by 6 months. She now wakes up about 730-8 naps at 12pm and then another at 4pm. She then has bedtime between 730-8pm and wakes up 1 or 2 times for a bottle. Wake baby up earlier do not let them sleep in til 1pm either.

Start with waking him up between 7 and 8 every morning. Keep him up for atleast a few hours. Its gonna be tough and there are probably gonna be some battle but its gonna help him get adjusted and his schedule back on track. Babies THRIVE on routines. Write one out and stick to it. No straying from it. Play times, nap times, bed times, and wake times should be the same every single day until he is back on track. To encourage sleep at night put chamomile and lavender tea bags in his bath while ur running it. I SWEAR by this. Puts my kid to sleep every time.

Is it bad that I’m more concerned about the story of you not knowing you were pregnant :joy::joy:

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Google “sleep training”. All babies schedules get messed up when they start to grow and change…

My littles lay down for bed at 7. They dont go right to bed but are usually out by 8-8:30. I wake them between 7-7:30am and only one nap a day from 12-12:30 to 2 or 2:30. I find this routine works pretty well so far. I make sure I turn their fan on and it seems to help.

If you dont mind me asking, what did you think was happening to your body if you didnt know you were pregnant ( I mean no sarcasm) I just wondered what you thought was going on ?
As for the baby sleeping wake them up a d try to keep up till it’s time to sleep .

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Babies need sleep and alot. I wouldnt recommended not letting them nap at all. But stop the naps like 3,-4 hours before bed time.

Wake him earlier and he will go to bed earlier … time his naps and dont let him sleep too much during the day, you also have to set it up for him, lots of lights and sounds during day, dim lighting and quiet at night. He will adjust.

So… hear me out.
And this is gonna suck. LIMIT NAPS.
If baby is staying up later at night, have naps less. Or earlier naps. Or less amount of time sleeping during naps.
Keeping baby occupied with toys, getting in face and playing will help keep baby awake and mind off of being as tired.
My kid was never on a schedule. I tried and tried but she eventually put herself on a schedule around 6 months.
Never a nap any later then 5 (unless in the car) and 9 times out of 10 asleep by 9 p.m. (at the latest). Now, sometimes that doesn’t always work, but everyone has their off days.
Try putting baby in car and drive with bottle or toys in backseat. Baby will eventually fall asleep (hopefully soon) and you can turn around and put him in bed. It’ll work out eventually that he will want to sleep earlier because you started it with the car rides. (I hope that makes sense…)

It all really boils down to less naps and shorter ones. The first few days are gonna be rough.
Best if luck, mama

I let my daughter sleep till 8am then I wake her (if she’s not already awake). I’ll let her have a nap in the day but I won’t let her nap past 5pm.
She will then sleep 9pm - 5.30am have a quick feed/change them sleep till 8 o’clock. X

Is he sleeping from 4am to 1pm the next day sorry? Xx

Wake him in morning at the time you want him to wake at and just keep him awake, put him down then for one morning nap and one afternoon one at times that suit you. Wake him when you need to. It will take awhile but hell soon get used to the wake up times etc. Just keep putting him down in bed and keeping it quiet from 8pm onwards xx

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Wake him between 6-7am back down at 9-930am. 2 hour max sleeps. Time awake you’d be pushing for 3 hours. Set bedtime at 7-8pm. Every baby is different but its a general guide. 6 month old generally can only manage 2 hours awake throughout the day.
Make sure you have a solid routine for naps and bedtime. So he knows what to expect. If feeding soilds feed about 45min to 1 hour before a nap.

mine I always tried to keep them up until it was a good time to have a nap. like 12-2pm for a nap, then having a full night from 8-6am. It’s all about the timing of their naps, sometimes one nap can throw off everything

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It is normal for babies to start sleeping less during the day. He should be taking 2 naps a day now. An AM nap and PM nap. Figure out what times work best for him and then be consistent with those times. Sometime after he turns a year he will be ready to go to one nap a day. I would make sure you do his feedings at regular intervals and put him down after a feeding so hunger does not wake him up.

The nap schedule is key. At six months they are usually ready for either one longer nap or two short naps. I would get my son up at either 5:30 or 6 am, we would get dressed for the day, have our bottle, do tummy time and play until around 10 or so, then I would put him down for a nap. Dark room . Even rock him to sleep if you need to, to get the routine started. He will most likely sleep at that age around 2 to 3 hours. Don’t let him go past that 3 hour mark. I would wake my son at 2.5 hour mark. Then we would do more activities in the late afternoon. If he wakes up at 1 pm from a nap, your baby may go back down for a quick cat nap around 3 or 4, which is fine, but no sleeping for longer than an hour at that point. Then get ready for dinner, bath and bedtime. I started putting my son down between 7:30 and 8:30 so we would get a full night of rest. All babies are different, but consistency is key and you will find what works best for you. That’s what helped me the most… hope this helps you :blush:

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Congrats on your baby wow what a way to find out but i agree with the above ladies Kiara and Angela i am a Grandmother now an loveing young lady you will be ok your baby needs you every min every hour an every day and you will figure out a perfect routine for you an baby so keep your chin up

Get him out in the sun during the day, play music, dance and interact with him during the day. Start a daily routine for bedtime, like dinner a bath and then maybe cuddle him for a while before you lay down. Don’t let him sleep all day, wake him from his naps if necessary. May be hard for a few days but will pay off in the long run.

I have a seven month old who won’t sleep for the life of him at night and we have literally tried everything :sob: his doctor finally suggested 1mg melatonin at night and then during the day have him in his diaper so he’s not so comfy and warm and tempted to fall asleep so much. I have 2 other kids and they were both so easy to put down at night and they slept all night too!

My lil one got thrown off schedule like that once so during the day i kept him awake as much as i could, playing and stuff, after a couple days he was sleeping through the night again and has his naps during the day.

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Sometimes infants go through sleep regression. What worked well for my girls was consistancy with our routine. Also, letting them play on the floor…rolling around, pushing off of me with their legs, etc. before getting ready for bed helped to wear them out on those nights where they were just too stubborn to fall asleep.

Try putting rice cereal in the bottles before bedtime full tummies make sleepy babies.

Wake him up when u want him up and keep him up till nap time

Wake him up a half hour earlier every day, he should in theory fall asleep earlier because of his little internal clock. Back it up until you are waking him up at about 8 or 9 am, instead of letting him sleep the whole morning. At 6 months he should still be taking 2 naps a day, but the morning nap shouldn’t be as long, and the afternoon nap make sure he wakes up before 4 pm. Give him a bath at about 8 (or earlier if you want him asleep by then) and wind him down, dim the lights, turn off all tvs, let the silence make him sleepy. (If he has eczema dont do a nightly bath)

Check out The Beyond Sleep Training Project.