EASY and the day/night switch

[*Nicola*]

Hiya 

Looking for a wee bit of input as I am a bit unsure on this one. 

Callie is now 1 week old and has her days and nights a bit mixed up.  Initially she was feeding every 3 hours, falling asleep on the breast, impossible to wake up until next feed, and then up from about 10pm-3am! 

Yesterday we started working on Tracy's technique for fixing the day/night switch which includes extending awake time and reducing nap length to 1 hour max for the first 3 days, then adding 15 mins every 3 days up to 1.5-2 hours.

So Callie's schedule is something like this:

Eat - 7am - 715am
Activity - 715am-730am (nappy change, top and tail, change clothes)
Eat 730am - 745am (to encourage her to eat a bit more and to extend A time)
Wind down 745am-8am (swaddle, pat/shh on shoulder, bed)
Sleep 8am-9am

That still leaves us an hour to fill before her next feed which is just too long for her  .   Tracy suggests extending the feeding time but she just falls asleep despite the face washing, stripping off, massaging hands etc.  So, if she is not filling this time with feeding then I am unsure as to what to do.  At 1 week old there is only so long you can keep her up!! On the other hand, I really want to fix the day/night thing so I am open to suggestions!

Yesterday I managed to keep her awake for most of the time but it was a struggle for us both.  However she did sleep much better and woke only every 3 hours for feeds, so it does work!

Just wondering what you have all done/think. 

TIA   

[yaya]

ru doing the whole make a massive hoo ha in the day and feed in darknest and total quiet nighttime? I would also not change nappy unless dirty or soaked. is she awake and happy at that time?

[*Nicola*]

Yup, lots of noise/activity in the day time.  Ciara is super noisy and we don't ask her to be quieter at all around Callie even at nap times etc.  Night time is total darkness, quite feeds, no changing nappy unless she is dirty.

Last night went fantastic so I am hoping that less napping during the day will help her to sleep at night again tonight but it is SO difficult to fill 2 hours out of 3 with Activity time for a 1 week old.  Especially one who will sleep upright!

[yaya]

yikes i remember the trying tofill up A time LOL still doing it now hang in there nic ur doing great!!

[*Nicola*]

Stacy, you posted at the same time as I did 

   Mwah you are one brainy chick    Of, course that makes total sense   Why didn't I think of that!?

Callie wakes like clockwork for the 3 hourly feeds so it really didn't occur to me to change that part but it does make perfect sense. I will start doing that tomorrow.

Just read out both of your replies to DP and we agreed that this is just such a brilliant site, don't know what I'd do without you girls 

Thank you both 

[yaya]

ahhhlovely of grant to get involved make him an honorary BW 

[*Nicola*]

ahhhlovely of grant to get involved make him an honorary BW 

noooooooooo, will never get on!

[Nicole-Momtomegan]

can I jump in quickly instead of starting a new post?
so Erika was up last night b/c she slept ALL day:(...
so today she just had about 45min of awake time after her feed which is good but slept for 3.5hrs before that.....now she's back asleep. should I wake her after an hour and try to feed her again?
so it went like this:
8-11:30am sleep
11:30feed  for 20min
awake with daddy just looking around.. got fussy at 1pm and was rooting
1pm fed, fell asleep after
stilll sleeping. it's 1:45pm...
what now??

thanks for the help!!
Nicole

[*Nicola*]

Nicole,

DO NOT make the same mistake as us!!

Callie was passed about to visitors all week and basically slept from feed to feed without waking.  In BWSAPs, Tracy suggests that newborns sleep 1.5-2 hours of each cycle so I would imagine it would be best for you to stick to this.

So you could definitely let her have longer than 45 mins but not more than 2 hours.   

Lovely to see you around 

[Nicole-Momtomegan]

Okay..... so, no more than a 2hr nap during the day, got it!
she slept today from 2:30-5:30pm   then ate and was pretty much up eating and awake til 7:30pm...should I wake her at 9:30pm to feed again so I get a longer stretch tonight?
Should I also wake her at 12:30am to feed one more time..and then hope she gets along sleep in the middle of the night?
I have no idea what i'm doing  b/c megan was  a nightmare as a baby and we couldn't get her to sleep at all, day or night lol.
thanks for the advice, i TOTALLY Appreciate it!!!

Nicole

[*Nicola*]

Just wanted to send a big thank you 

We have been sticking to a 2.5 ish hour EASY for last couple of days, getting out in daylight, and keeping nights quiet ... pleased to report that Callie seems to have gotten her days and nights sorted out 

[*Nicola*]

Ok ... can I ask another question    I know, I'm a pain!

Things are still improving with the day/night switch which is great  but resettling at nights is still a bit of a nightmare.

During the day Callie is fed, burped, swaddled, patted for about 10 mins and put into cot then shh'd past any jerks etc then she falls asleep on her own.  During the night we do the same but have to hold her until she is asleep before putting her down, and even then she wakes up after being down for 10 mins or so, meaning we have to repeat the cycle! 

We are continuing to encourage and work on the day sleep hoping it will impact positively on the night sleep but I'm wondering if she the night settling is likely to be still due to the day/night switch.  I know some others said it took a good couple of weeks to sort out totally. 

Nicole ... how's things with you and Erika?

TIA wonderful ladies 

[*Nicola*]

Stacy that is exactly what we were just discussing here.

She still feels too young to do much 'sleep training' so we have been doing the above during the day but holding off doing it at night (SO TIRED!)

LOL I guess we need to do it day and night. 

Stacy, thank you for your help ... you are a star 

[*Nicola*]

  Updating ...

Last night we fed, swaddled, held for 10 mins (instead of 20/30) and put Callie right down.  Shushed if needed but only for 10 mins max and she was sound 

She slept 730-1130 then til 230 then til 5. Each time we were able to put her right down after feed and just shh her thru the 'jerks'.  However,  after her last wakening we shh'd her til about 30 mins into sleep as she was really fidgety.  Got back to bed ourselves and was woken by here 15 mins later! I fed her as it was feeding time although she hardly took any, but afterwards it occured to me that she was probably at the 45 min mark, and had woken herself up with 'jerking'.  Goodness, this kid is SO fidgety and noisy!!

Anyway, we watched her at her nap this morning and sure enough she is SUPER fidgety at 45 mins. DP stayed to sh her and she slept through it.  I am now wondering if that is the cause of her wakening when we put her down sleeping?  We had been holding her til 30 mins or so then she was awake 15/20 mins later.  I will check out her sleeping today and maybe we will take it in turns to sh her thru the 45 mins.  Hopefully, working on it during the day will sort it out at night.

Ok ... thanks again, update over    (writing it out helps me get a grip of it all!)

 

[yaya]

HUGS nic, you are putting so much work in already well done you keep it up. re: nights...if remember correctly both mine did this and i would actually hold to for ages till sound asleep   (at night) what worked for us with the jerks is a heavy blanket ( or a pair of jeans folded up-they r pretty heavy ) on her chest  (shes swaddled right) ...the weight helped to hold them down during the jolts and Swaddle as tight as poss!