your jul/aug babes and sleep...

[River7]

Hey everyone,

I hope I can post this here...I'm never sure about the rules of posting in our DDC and the Life with Babe section, but I'm curious about our DDC babies sleep patterns bc they are close in age to my DS...hopefully this is okay.

I'm curious as to how your little babies are sleeping. What are their patterns like? Do you find they are sleeping more at night? Less during the day?

My ds is definitely getting more wakeful during the day (he is 6 weeks as of yesterday). His eating is still about every 3 hours (day and night), sometimes he goes four. His sleep at night is usually 3 hour stretches, occasionally four hours in the first stretch.

What do you all think about sleep as they get older. Obviously they are tiny now and need to be on whatever sleep sched works for them, but are people here going to do sleep schedules/training when they get older? I am just starting to think about this (someone gave me a book, and my sister swears by having her son start to sleep train around 4.5 months), but I don't know enough about any of this yet... He's doing great right now, which is all that matters, but I am curious about sleep and the coming months and how to approach the whole schedule thing.

Thanks!!

R

[AKA_PI]

my babe is awake more now during the day than he was about two weeks ago. He's up for an hour+ and sleep for about two hours. at night I can get him to sleep for 3 hours if he's in bed with me. In his bed, he might sleep an hour and a half.

[greenmom4]

Well, Colin is only 2 1/2 weeks old... but he is awake a bit more during the day than at night. Typically he eats about every 2-3 hours until about 7ish. Then he cluster feeds pretty much continuously until about 9. At night he's been sleeping a 4-5 hour stretch and then back to 3ish hours. He's been doing this for about a week and a half now.

I've never done any kind of sleep training, I guess I've been lucky that my kids have all gotten into a good sleep pattern on their own. Also, because I woth during the day I want to nurse them as much as possible, even if that meant waking up at night with them...

HTH

[meredyth0315]

Elias is 13 days today and he's a night owl. He was sleeping in 3 hour stretches, but I've noticed him waking up a little more now. He'll stay awake for about an hour, then conk back out. I was waking him every 2 hours to nurse at first b/c of the jaundice, but now he's back to the 3 hour "schedule." We do nurse on demand, so who knows how things will be in a week or so Our pediatrician is wanting to put him on a schedule, but I don't feel the need to. Both of our other boys seemed to fall into their own schedule and I got sleep, so the important stuff was covered

[~Megan~]

dd is 1 month tomorrow and while she is more wakeful during the day than when she was first born she's still pretty sleepy. She has about 2 wakeful periods during the day when she is awake 2 hours or so, the she sort of cat naps the rest of the day and will sleep 6 hours through at night waking once to feed in the early morning and sometimes one more waking before that for a diaper change (the rest of the night she is usually sleep nursing).

I don't encourage any particular routine other than sleeping at night.

[letniaLynne]

My babe is 6wks tomorrow and beginning(started about 5days ago) to sleep 3hr stretches during the night then up for about 1hr and asleep for another 3hrs. She is on and off up during the morning till about 12noon and then cat naps all afternoon. She nurses a bit more late afternoon and then cat naps again until around 10pm where she starts the 3hr stretch. She does not comfort nurse since I have an intense letdown and a bit of an oversupply so she only nurses for food.

I am just being able to put her down to sleep for more than 5mins even at night. IT IS AMAZING! that is why I have not been online until now since if I start typing she wakes up and cries:. Happily she is sleeping on the sofa right next to me right now!!!

[MeaganN]

I'm glad to see this because I've been wondering about it too. Right now, dd is 4 weeks old. She sleeps for 2-3 hours at night and wakes up to eat for about 5-10 minutes. During the day, she sleeps 2-3 hours, and then will be up for 2-3 hours. She eats on demand and usually has many very small meals, (like 2-4 minutes), within the couple of hours she is awake. I'm wondering about sleep schedules too. A friend is putting her 4 month on a schedule and is having a lot of trouble. I don't know the first thing about it.

[treehugginhippie]

Originally Posted by River7

but are people here going to do sleep schedules/training when they get older? I am just starting to think about this (someone gave me a book, and my sister swears by having her son start to sleep train around 4.5 months), R

The book you mentioned sounds like On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo. If so, you may want to check out this website before considering anything written inside it: http://www.ezzo.info/index.htm

My baby nurses about every 2-3 hrs during the day. So far at night, it's every 3-4 hrs.

[River7]

I think the book i got is the Weissbluth one---happy baby, healthy baby or something like that. I haven't read any of it yet...

Anyone heard of this book? I've heard a lot of people talk about it/him.

[annettemarie]

Just jumping in to point out that you can't endorse books that encourage CIO or other harsh sleep training techniques here on MDC. That includes the Weissbluth books. Thanks, mamas!

[heatherRN]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Just jumping in to point out that you can't endorse books that encourage CIO or other harsh sleep training techniques here on MDC. That includes the Weissbluth books. Thanks, mamas!

I am glad you posted, I was thinking that these books (and sleep training) were not MDC topics.

My ds is only 9 days old and he sleep 3-4 stints at night and 2-3 hour stints during the day with like 30 min to an hour of alert time in between. I was was actually worried about letting him sleep 4 hours in a row at night and was waking him to nurse, but our pediatrician said not to bother since he was gaining weight well. We nurse on demand night and day, no schedules.

[annettemarie]

And lest I sound completely hard-nosed, I do understand that sleep and babies and new mamas is a rough topic. There are certainly gentle ways to guide a baby into a routine, and we can discuss those. You may want to try either Life with a Babe or Nighttime Parenting.

[Shiloh]

the easiest way to get a baby into a routine is to have one yourself!
Bath baby at same time...go for walks same time...etc.

I think they eventually settle into a routine...
Mine nurses every hour and a half (ATLEAST)
He's my first baby like this...my dd nursed for an hour every few hours..
This one is a boob magnet..

I had my first class last week...
and let me tell you the little man ate 6oz in one feeding session of EBM..
six ounces takes a while to get off a breast naturally...so I think sometimes that feeding is really splitting up one feed..I try to make sure he doesn't doze off mid feed but....

a four month old is so different than a four week old and word to the wise..
they train us we don't train them
but my son slept through the night twelve hours at 3 days old exclusively breastfed...(he was ten and a half pounds at birth)
how did I do it?

lol I didn't.
he did.

and my almost four year old still gets up half the nights....and wanders into my room......
even when I drug him
(he has severe allergies and even antihistamines don't keep him in bed)

rule number one in parenting ....
people who give advice without you asking for help......