I have a lot of questions and I sort of think I may be overthinking things too much. But maybe not too. It's just that for weeks we have been saying to ourselves, "well we're just experimenting to see what works... we'll figure it out." Well they are 3 months old now, it seems we should have things figured out by now. Help!
1. Our triplets have been doing pretty good at nights these days. The last couple weeks a typical schedule looks like this for them: (this is early evening). Feed at 7, bed anywhere between 7:30pm and 8:30pm. This is their 5 hr stretch so they'll wake up around 12 or 1:30am. Then usually a 3 hr stretch so till 4am. Then they wake at 6 but don't really seem hungry at all. They eat only just a little little bit and then go back to sleep for another 2 hour-ish stretch till about 8 when they are ready to get up. So. What are they wanting at 6am if they're not hungry, but not ready to get up for the day either? What should we do at that time? Just snuggle them a little? Pat them? Ignore and see if they fall back to sleep on their own?
2. I am about halfway through the Baby Whisperer and I am loving it. So we have been trying the eat/wake/sleep thing for 3 days now and it's working well. They usually eat every 2 1/2 to 3 hrs... usually closer to 2 1/2 though, which is fine. I had originally decided that it's fine if they want to nap in their swings, and that was going ok, but then I thought I'd just try the crib naps again and they happen to be doing really well with it. They sleep longer that way. However, sometimes they do wake up earlier than their "time" to feed. And please don't get mad that this sounds like I am not being flexible... they wake up and just want to be awake. My question here is: if they wake up early from a nap, do I go ahead and get them up and feed them right away because that's the routine - eat/wake/sleep? Or do I get them up and just let them be awake, making for a routine of eat/wake/sleep/wake/eat? Or do I encourage them to stay in their cribs and either entertain themselves or fall back to sleep? Are they too little to entertain themselves in the crib?
3. Like I said, they've been napping well in their cribs. But in the early evening, like 5:40 or 6-ish, if they are seeming tired but it's not really BED time, I sort of have in my head that it might be ok for them to take just a smaller snooze in their swings in the living room, then eat one last meal and be awake for a short time, then bed. Is this too inconsistant though? Should ALL naps be in the crib?
4. I sort of do cluster feeding starting around 5. I'll nurse them about every 2 hrs to hopefully build up calories to get them to sleep longer at night. Does this really work? Last night we tried a dream feed before we went to bed at 11, hoping that then they might have their 5 hr stretch from 11-4 instead of 7-12. It didn't work.
lol. oh well!
Should I be just more of a "go w/ the flow" mom, or should I try to keep w/ this routine, which I am really liking, and it seems to make for less fussy babies during the day. Thanks for any any help!
