Baby Wise

*Sleeping peacefully in his crib.... for all of 5 seconds!*


Baby Wise was a book that I had started reading when I first found out I was pregnant. I had heard about it a couple years ago and that person just praised it! However, when I told some people that I was reading it when I first found out I was pregnant they had some pretty negative comments about it and acted like the book had some crazy ideas so I decided to stop reading it and just forget about it.

Well, the other day I was talking to a friend who has a little boy that is 3 weeks younger than Kayden and she said that her son slept 9 hours straight the other night and has been going at least 7 hours most nights. I was VERY jealous :) and asked her what she was doing and she said Baby Wise. I trusted this friend and knew she wasn't a nut job and wouldn't do some crazy stuff just to get her baby to sleep through the night so I decided to start reading it again. I really only read the parts about scheduling and sleeping, as I had already read the first couple of chapters and they really didn't appeal to me. However, I found the other chapters beneficial.

In doing all this, I had planned on trying to start to get Kayden to take naps in his crib. He still sleeps in our bedroom in his cradle and I wanted to start transitioning him into his own room. I thought it would be better to do naps, and because he is still eating every 4 -4.5 hours at night. We also got our video monitors in, but the speaker was broken so I didn't want to put him in there at night until we got the replacement ones in. However, the naps didn't work out. It took me 30 minutes to get him to actually fall asleep, and then he slept for maybe 10 minutes before waking up screaming. I would go calm him back down, and he went back to sleep for maybe 5 minutes and woke up again screaming. I was done with that nap time and decided I would try again with the next nap.... it was even worse. I continued to try the rest of that day but by the end of the day both of us were more exhausted and cranky. Kayden was overtired since he really hadn't slept all day, and I was frustrated from all the crying. So much so where I had to call Nick and tell him to come home from practice because I was at my breaking point.... which has not happened at all yet. Never the less to say, we were done with nap times in the cribs for a couple more weeks... he is sleeping peacefully in his swing as we speak.

In talking to yet another friend who did Baby Wise, she said that she started with bedtimes in the crib and then worked on nap times in the crib. She said that bedtimes in the crib were easier for her daughter for some reason, but she refused to sleep in the crib at nap times. She eventually got her in the crib for naps at 12 weeks, so I'm thinking we are going to go that route.

We just started Baby Wise on Monday and I'm starting to see a difference thank goodness! We start our day at 8 a.m. (or within 30 minutes of that time) and I make sure he eats every 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours and try to make sure he gets full feedings each time. I try to feed him closer to every 2 1/2 hours so that he gets a lot of feedings during the day. He "plays" for about 20 minutes after his feedings and then goes down for a 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap and then we do the whole routine all over again. I try not to feed him earlier than every 2 1/2 hours so we can get on a schedule unless he is showing signs of being hungry before that. If he wakes up 20 minutes or so before a feeding I can usually hold him off with his pacifier or give him a change of scenery and he is fine. This is where I heard a lot of negative comments about Baby Wise. People said I'm going to feed my child when he is hungry, not make him wait... but Baby Wise clearly stated, if the baby is showing signs of hunger before his next feeding, then feed him. So maybe people just didn't read it correctly. I, too, feed my child when he shows signs of hunger, but I'm not just going to feed him every time he cries just to make him stop crying. Sometimes, babies just cry. And with breastfeeding, I am doing everything possible to keep him from "snacking" and so far, we have done good with him not snacking. Thank goodness!

With this schedule, he should be able to start going longer throughout the night. The book says that from 7-12 weeks they should start sleeping through the night, but we started late so I have a feeling it will be close to the 12. However the past couple nights he has gone one 5 1/2 hour stretch and another 4 1/2 hour stretch. He has always been good about going straight back to sleep after eating during the night so that's a blessing. You are supposed to give them a late night feeding around 10-11 p.m. and that's usually the first feeding to go as they get older, but he is sleeping so well after his 9-9:30 feeding that I don't wake him up and just wait until he wakes up around 1-2 to feed. I have a feeling he would sleep longer if I woke him up for his 11 p.m. feeding, but it scares me that he will be fussy and I'll have a hard time getting him back to sleep. Maybe we will try it tonight and see what happens!

Over all I'm pleased with the results and think that it's a great approach to getting a baby on a schedule. You wake him up at the same time every day so that he can start getting his "internal clock" figured out and realize ok this is when I'm awake and then they also realize night time. I failed today at waking him up at 8 (or within 30 minutes of it) though so I'm feeling a little guilty about that! I was just so tired and when my alarm went off at 8:30 (he ate at 6:30 and had a hard time going back to sleep after that feeding but eventually did... and so did i) I just turned the alarm off and went back to sleep until he woke back up at 9:30.

And of course, I would be the one to try and put this child on a schedule the week before "falling back". So i'm starting to think that maybe the fact that I let him go until 9:30 today is actually what i should be doing all week so that come sunday morning he doesn't wake up at 7:00-7:30 thinking that it's 8. This scheduling thing is a lot harder than I thought!

Schedules

As I got closer to my due date, I started worrying about losing sleep once Kayden got here. If you know me, you know that I LOVE my sleep, I mean LOVE. Once Kayden was here I noticed that he LOVED his sleep too. Praise the good Lord!! He consistently sleeps at least 3 hours at night and he had not continuously cry or just want to be awake in the middle of the night. He feeds, and then is usually back to sleep within 20 minutes of feeding. We didn't really start a bedtime routine when we first brought him home because I had read that babies under 6 weeks can not comprehend a 24 hour period. For that reason, I decided to wait until he was 6 weeks to really start a routine, so we started a bedtime routine on Sunday night. We start off with a bath (which usually only lasts about 5 minutes because he's not a fan of the bath yet!) then we go back into his room and I put on his lavender lotion and put his pajamas on. I then rock him in the rocking chair while I feed him. When he is finished eating I read him a short little story out of a children's bible that a friend gave us and then I sing Jesus Loves Me (twice... why twice I don't know :) ). Then, since he still sleeps in our room, I put him in his cradle and turn on the sound machine to the heartbeat sound and give him his paci and his little bear blanket. We have been doing this for 3 nights and we only have to go back in the room a couple times to put his paci back in his mouth. Usually after the second or third time of putting his paci back in he falls to sleep. He seems to be really getting the hang of this routine thing and I am so happy!

I had noticed with my other experiences with children that those with a routine were much happier and were easier babies than those who do not have a routine so I wanted to try and make specific things geared toward night time, and just night time. That is why I have been so specific with the type of lotion we use at night time (we use the normal baby lotion in the morning and the lavender at night) and then I only sing Jesus Loves Me to him right now before he goes to sleep). I want him to really differentiate night and day so that he will realize that night time is when you sleep the longest.

Within the next couple weeks we are going to really start working on nap times. I want to start trying to have a pretty consistent nap time routine and start putting him in his crib to take naps. I don't want to have a strict schedule, but I just want to be consistent with him. In my education classes, consistency is always a big issue and we are taught how to keep our students on schedules and stay consistent with them. I know that if we have a consistent schedule for Kayden he will hopefully be a happy baby and will know what to expect. I know that the schedule will always be changing as he grows and develops so it will be a "flexible schedule".

Right now he seems to be on a 3.5-4.5 eating schedule at night and then during the day it's usually 2.5-3.5 hours. He usually stays awake for about 30-45 minutes after eating and then once he starts yawning or showing signs of being sleepy we put him in his swing or bouncy seat to take a nap.. which is usually around an hour to two hours. Right now we are having trouble with him being able to fall asleep on his own like he does at night. Usually during the day he fights going to sleep really bad and will scream for a while until he finally falls asleep. I am thinking that a lot of that might have to do with where he is sleeping and not really being on a consistent nap schedule so hopefully once we get our bedtime routine down really good we can start working on a nap time routine and he will not fight it as much.

During his wake time we try to do tummy time/ play mat time in the late morning and early evening. He does not like to be on his tummy very long at all so we try to do a lot of tummy time when he is laying on our chests too. He is really good at holding his head up so I'm not too concerned about him just doing it on the floor. He is much happier doing it on our chest so as long as we get a couple minutes of him doing it on the floor a day I'm happy. He is starting to really like his play mat though and will lay on his back and watch the toys. He swats at the toys also but I think a lot of that is just sporadic and not really him trying to actually grab at the toys.

So that's pretty much our day in a nut shell for right now :) He does seem to have a fussy time in the evenings but it doesn't last long. A lot of times I notice that he is fussy because I don't realize he is hungry since it will only be about an hour after he feeds but I eventually feed him and he eats his normal length of time so I guess his fussy time is really my fault... I just don't think that he would be hungry an hour after he had just eaten! But overall he is an easy baby and does like to sleep :) I know his nap times will become fewer and far between so I'm trying to enjoy his sleepiness for as long as it will last :) I just hope this means that he will be a good napper even as he gets older!