Am I going at this ok for now? 1 month old

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Hello ladies,

DS2 is 1 month today     I know lovelylily has a thread going, but I didn't want to hijack, so I thought I'd start my own.  I have been concentrating on trying to get A after E times (even if it's brief) and watching his awake time.  During the morning, it seems that he has a shorter A and tends to fall asleep pretty soon after eating and a diaper change.  This usually happens during the early afternoon as well.  Sometimes he falls asleep because we are in the car during a preschool run, but a lot of the time, I'll put him in his car seat or bouncy seat (vibration off) and he'll just go off.  Or other times he'll nap in the sling.  As the day goes on, it seems like it is harder for him to go off and therefore A time is longer.  I know at this age A should only be about 1 hour or so?  Then at night (ie evening hours, not MOTN) it can be hard to get him down, even with AP (rocking etc).  I give him a paci as well.  It's not so much that he is fussy, it's just that he won't go down.  Last night, for example, he ate at 7, had a bath, and our short bedtime routine, and then I tried to rock him to sleep and he didn't end up going down until 9:30! My guess is that he is logging so much sleep earlier in the day that he's just not tired, but wanted to ask, will it all even itself out or should I be doing something different?

He is waking every 2.5-3 hrs at night to eat, and I feed him.  However, if it's earlier than that and I suspect gas, I try to help him with that and then he ends up going back off after being burped and held.  I haven't really been cluster feeding and a dream feed as I felt that I should just feed him when he wants at this age, but what should I be starting that now? I'm really not expecting him to sleep longer stretches at night yet because he is so little, but I wasn't sure if I should be getting him into that routine now.

So my biggest questions are about using AP to get him to sleep at this stage, cluster feeding/dream feed, and what I should do about A times in the evening, if anything.  I started EASY with my DS1 at 4 months so I don't have any BTDT with respect to EASY and a newborn.  DS1 is an independent sleeper, so I guess all of the AP I did with him in the beginning didn't matter so I suppose I'm answering my own questions LOL.

Thanks! I promised myself I wouldn't stress about sleep this time around and I'm not really stressed yet, but can feel some anxiety creeping in here and there, so any support/encouragement would be greatly appreciated! xxxx

[jessmum46]

This is a really good place to start: Getting started - how I survived the first 3 months and Starting EASY with a newborn-What to Expect

Really at this point if you are managing a little bit of A after E and before S, you are doing just fine . Although Tracy always said to start as you mean to go on, in practice AP is almost completely inevitable with such a small baby and its really too early for any bad habits to form that can't be dealt with later on.  I would focus on enjoying your newborn snuggles, and over the next few weeks you can gently use shh pat to start trying for some naps in the crib when you are ready.

With the dream feed/cluster feed, I never did either - just fed when LO was hungry.  So it's completely up to you

Fussiness in the evening is so so common at this age, and it's unlikely that he's having too much sleep to settle.  In my experience its just a case of riding out for a few weeks and most Mums see a marked improvement by 12 weeks, if not earlier.

Hope that helps, and congratulations on your new baby!

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Thanks so much, Katherine!!

Although Tracy always said to start as you mean to go on, in practice AP is almost completely inevitable with such a small baby and its really too early for any bad habits to form that can't be dealt with later on. 

My post was long winded, but you summed up the answer to my question beautifully here! This was what I had been wondering about.

Thank you again!

[LovelyLilyandJack]

As you mentioned i also have a thread going but just wanted to say we're exactly where you are but our awake time is from 4pm til whenever i can get jack in bed.  He just won't sleep,  no matter how early i start APing a nap!  Sometimes he'll drift in and out of sleep during the 4 o'clock feed but he won't stay asleep for more than 5 or 10 minutes til he passes out at 8ish usually.  Tonight he's on his4th jhour of a time   I've tried every though....

Anyway, main thing i wanted to say is that my daughter did exactly the same thing (I was trying to implement easy with her at this age) and it just suddenly resolved itself at 7 - 8 weeks.  So i think it is a case of waiting it out and just putting up with the screaming in the meantime

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Oh,  and we're following jack's lead on cluster feeding in that I'll feed at 4 and he's always ready for another big feed by 6 which goes on for at least an hour.  We've just started a dream feed but we don't wake him for anything before 10 or 11, though he sometimes wakes himself before then.