Author Topic: Unsettled baby after 7pm  (Read 1252 times)

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Offline Hanoola

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Unsettled baby after 7pm
« on: October 21, 2009, 21:02:51 pm »
Hi, I'm after some advice from anyone who may have had a similar problem to me and managed to resolve it.

I have a 6 week old who is a mixture of spirited/grumpy and bottle fed.

We have a rough 3 hour EASY routine, which looks like this:

7am feed (4oz)
8.15-10am nap
10am feed (4oz)
11-11.40am nap
1pm feed (3.5oz)
1.45-4pm nap
4pm feed (4.5oz)
4.30-5.20pm nap
6pm feed (2oz)
6.30pm bath, quiet time in room
7.30pm top up feed in nursery with lights dim (3.5oz)
7.45pm put to bed in nursery
11.30pm dream feed in nursery with lights dim (5oz) then transferred to our room in a moses basket
3.30am feed (5oz)

Activity time can be anything from a nappy change to a kick about on the mat (depends on how long I can keep him awake.

Ever since we got him home we have tried to establish a routine. He definitely can't go more than 3 hours in the day for a feed. However over the last 3 days he's been wanting to eat more, which I think is due to a growth spurt (he was waking 2-3 times in the night for a feed rather than once at 3.30am).

Our main problem with him is that he just won't settle when we put him to be in his nursery at around 7pm. We follow the same routine every day, bath/bottle/bed, but whatever his naps are during the day, he won't sleep for longer than about 10-15 minutes at a time after being put to bed. Therefore we're constantly up and down the stairs to try and resettle him (we try not to go straight away but he ends up getting really wound up so we go and see to him) therefore I'm not getting any quality time with my husband. We don't turn on the lights, but shh/pat and find him his dummy.

The funny thing is that once he's been moved into our room after the DF, he seems to settle better and often doesn't want his dummy.

When he wakes up in the night for his feed, he feeds in the dark, no nappy change and no talking. So it's all quiet. He usually takes about 10-15 minutes to feed and then he is burped and put back in his moses basket. Sometimes he will go back to sleep straight away, other times he it will take him about 20-30 minutes to settle, but we generally leave him to try and settle himself.

Offline magdalenapl

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Re: Unsettled baby after 7pm
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2009, 19:05:29 pm »
Hello
please find my suggestions concerning your issues. I am not experienced person, but my first thought after looking at your routine was, that your A time before he goes to bed is far too long. It seems to be more then 2 hours, which is really, really a lot for a newborn. My Lo is 6,5 months at the moment and she can make only 2,5 hours A time between naps. i think your LO can be just overstimulated (even by bath) and overtired. When the day goes by LOs are more and more tired. I believe that A time at this age should be no more then 1,15.
Also I would try to extend his 40 minutes naps, which appeared already. It is too short time for LO to take a rest (and it is a nightmare for milions of moms I believe). He should take at least 1,5 hours naps.
I hope it helps.
I cross my fingers.
Magdalena
Mom to Susanna and Jan

Offline magdalenapl

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Re: Unsettled baby after 7pm
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2009, 20:16:11 pm »
And one more thing - it is very important now to consider if he is born on time or earlier while organizing his day. If he was born earlier you have to adjust his age by the weeks he should be still in your "tummy".
hugs
Magdalena
Mom to Susanna and Jan