daily wake up time variation

[shannoncorrin]

Hello! 

It was just last week that I was concerned that my newborn was getting up every 2 hours.  Well, so far for the past 4 days, he has gone between 3.5-4 hours at night!  My sleep deprived self is happy about this, but at the same time I'm a little sad. He is already a month old!!  I know tonight could be back to the every 2 hours wake UPS, but I don't think so. 


I am having a difficult time establishing a DWT. We always seem to get on track throughout the day and his last feeding is usually between 10 and 10:30, but depending on when he wakes up at night, his DWT ranges from 5:00 to 6:30.  I am going to be going back to work in a few weeks, and I would prefer a 5:30 wake up.  How do I shoot for that? Start waking him up at that time?  Also, he usually takes a 2 to 2.5 hour nap after his first feed.  Is that okay, or too long?  The rest of the day I limit his naps to 1.5- 2 hours. 


Thanks!

Shannon

[jessmum46]

Hi Shannon,

Congratulations on your LO, they do grow up way too fast don't they?

I don't think our wake time stabilised here for a good few months really, but one way would be to use the idea of a wake-up 'window' where you aim for a 5.30 start, but accept that starting the day anywhere from 5 is ok (treat as NW anything before that).  If LO gets to 5.30 and that's where you want to start the day, then you could either wake LO then or allow up to say 6am, waking LO then if he has not already woken.

About the long first nap.....with such an early start to the day I would suspect LO is actually using the first nap as an extension of night sleep, unless you are compensating by doing BT by 5.30/6pm.  We tend to aim for a 12h day so that's something to bear in mind.  I know some mums who work will do an early 'dreamfeed' before they leave at 5am ish, and then LO keep sleeping and start the day at a more normal hour.  But that will depend on whether you need to actually have LO up and out with you, or whether someone else will be responsible for childcare in the mornings. 

What do you think?