Forget Tweaking...I Can't Even Get a Routine Going!

[heatherjo_999]

My LO is almost 3 months old and I am having a very hard time even coming up with a routine. I have observed him and each day seems different and I just can seem to put it all together.

I am just so lost! My baby wakes up different times each day and he never wants to eat. I have tried and he doesn't want it (several times). He gets up at 5-5:30 most mornings as a NW and he eats 4 oz. So this morning he got up at 8:30 and only ate a 1/2 ounce. This happened the day before yesterday as well. So there goes the E.

I also find it very hard to tell when he is tired. He seems to just go, go, go. And then gets a tiny bit fussy. Then I am too late and he gets OT. He has many 45 minute naps. I have played with A times and it seems that they are never consistent. One morning it seems like he can only handle 1 hr. and 10 minutes and others up to an hour and a half.

Any suggestions on how to get things started? I would like to have a bit more structure in the day.

[Barbaara]

Hi there,

Sorry you're having such hard time, but we'll try to help you as much as we can!

Don't worry too much about first E not being much.  When your LO will drop that night feed that will sort itself out.  Right now it'll be just a top up, but that's just fine.

At this age it's normal for naps to be all over the place, it's a developmental thing.  We can try to adjust A times a little to see if that will help.  OT naps are usually 30 mins, so I'm guessing your LO is not OT.

Just a couple of questions to get a bigger picture: is he using a paci?  is he swaddled?  Does he fall asleep independently?  Is he STTN (feeds excluded)?  What do you do during A time?

At 3 mos they typically do 1h20 - 1h30 of A time.

Could you post what you're routine is looking like today?  Even though it's all over the place, please post it so we can have a look at it.

HTH

Barbara
x

[*Becky*]

Hi,
Just wanted to offer some support. Have you taken the BW quiz to find out what type of baby you have. My lo was touchy at that age, now has a streak of spirited but it has always been hard to put him on a routine because of his unpredictability and this can be the case for spirited babies in particular. I found EASY at 4 months and it has def helped me so much but tbh my baby is still quite unpredictable. EASY will help you but it is not a magic wand so don't beat yourself up if things take a while to click into place. Even now my DS at 8.5 months is having a spell where naps are short, not wanting last bottle etc. You will get there, just might take a little while.
Becky x

[heatherjo_999]

I am going to post what happened over the course of 2 days and thank you very much for answering my thread Every day seems different. I am not sure if I should be waking him up a set time every day or what.

-My LO is spirited according to the quiz
-He does use a paci, but he spits it out before he is in deep sleep and I do not reinsert.
-I always put him in his bed semi awake and he can fall asleep on his own. He doesn't fall asleep while feeding either. When he is not OT or UT and he has a brief awakening or when I have heard a brief awakening not food related for a NW he falls back to sleep.
-I do swaddle him but I leave one arm out because he always works the one arm out and gets mad if it's in...lol
-I have blackout curtains and a running fountain for white noise
-Most nights he is sleeping from 8 until 3, 4, or 5 and he is always very hungry at these NW. Last night he slept from 8 until 5:30 with a DF at 10:30.

Here is what the last couple of days have looked like:

Day 1

E 5:30 a.m.-ate and went right back to sleep (2 oz.)
8:35 awake for the day
A 8:35-9
E 9:00-9:30 (ate 2 oz.)
A 9:30-9:45
S 9:45-11:15
Y

A 11:15-11:45
E 11:45-12:20 (ate 5 oz.)
A 12:20-12:35
S 12:35-2:35 (had to go up in the middle and resettle him with paci...he soon spit it out and fell to sleep)
y

A 2:35-2:45
E 2:45-3:10 (ate 3 oz.)
A 3:10-3:50
S 3:50-4:35
Y

A 4:35-5:25
E 5:25-5:50 (ate 4 oz.)
A 5:50-6:30
S 6:30-6:50
Y

A 7-7:30 bath, massage, dressed for bed
E 7:30 (ate 6 oz.)
S 8:00
NW 3:30 (ate 2 oz.)

Day 2

E 7:00 (ate 3 oz.)
A 7:30-8:15
S 8:15-10
Y

E 10:00-10:25 (ate 4 oz.)
A 10:25-11:15
S 11:20-11:50
Y
A 11:50-12:30
S 12:40-1:20

E 1:20-1:50 (ate 5.5 oz.)
A 1:50-2:30
S 2:30-2:50
y

A 2:50-4:20

E 4:20-4:30 (ate 3 oz.)
S 4:30-5:05
A 5:05-6:50
S 6:50-7:15
A 7:15-7:30 bath, massage, jammies
S 8:00
NW 5:30 (4 oz.)