Hi all,
I’ve started EASY routine with my 6 week + 2day old daughter, 2 days ago. I need some help mainly regarding her sleep.
In the last two days, I’ve already managed to turn her from being a snacker into a proper feeder. She’s now breastfed every 2 ½ to 3 hours, depending on her sleep. Should she be fed on a stricter schedule, say only every 3 hours? She does only feed for max. 15min, but my milkflow is so fast she seems to be getting enough. I do hold her of with her dummy sometimes if she wants to feed earlier.
Her sleep – we have her in a co-sleeper next to our bed as we don’t have a separate room for her just yet. Her changing table is also in the bedroom (more to that later).
Once she shows signs of being tired (at the moment this is about 30min after she woken up from her last sleep), I take her into the bedroom, close the blinds, swaddle her on my bed, by which point she starts crying. I put a lullaby on and sit with her on my bed for 5 min and calm her down. Sometimes this needs the dummy to calm her.
Once she’s calm I put her in her cot. She’s normally quiet for a minute or two, but then starts to cry. There’s no fussying, just immediately crying. I try to calm her with the shush/pat but have to pick her up most of the time in order to stop crying. Now, how long do I hold her once she’s calmed down? For 5 min again, or just until she is calm and then put her back in her cot? I don’t want me to become her prop, so don’t want to hold her too long. Neither do I want to give her the dummy, but sometimes it’s the only thing that calms her down.
She does suffer from wind from time to time, which does wake her up sometimes too.
Once I put her back into her cot the whole thing starts again, which means she doesn’t actually sleep more than 5 min at a time (we managed 20 min earlier today). Which explains why she’s showing signs of tiredness again after only 30min.
She does however sleep reasonably well at night, the last three nights we put her to bed at 8pm, dreamfeed at 10:30/11pm (first night she managed 6hrs, 2nd night only 3hrs, last night 4 ½ hrs).
Prior the last two days of implementing easy, we had a lot of accidental parenting going on, at first she would only seep on my belly (tummy to tummy), then she would only sleep whilst being carried in her sling. We never had her on a schedule/routine, she used to snack every hour, so I understand she’s got problems settling to this routine. We just didn’t realise how much sleep a newborn needs, so she was constantly overstimulated. How can I help her? How long can I expect it to take for her to fall asleep (and stay asleep) – a few days, a week?
When should I ‘give up’ on the current sleep cycle, if she just doesn’t fall asleep? After 45min? I don’t want to feed her again then, as otherwise she will just snack. So just leave the room? Maybe change her nappy (same room though)? Or am I expecting too much too soon, seeing that we just ‘sorted’ her feeding issue.
Please help me! I’m desperate!
