Morning wake time

[lehoc27]

My Daughter is 2 months old and I am breastfeeding.  Ive started implementing the easy routine and in general, throughout the day, she responds very well to it. My trouble spot is figuring out when to wake her in the morning. I want her bedtime to be between 7:30 and 8. I know it sounds late, but its the only thing that will be doable with my work hours when i go back to work. So right now I feed her and give her a bath starting at 7pm and try to get her down at around 7:30. sometimes this works, sometimes she gets cranky and it takes a while to get her down. Then we give her a bottle of pumped milk at around 10:30/11p.

Right now, she is waking at around 5:30 AM. Do I wake her again to eat and start the day at 7? 7:30? 8:30? or do i let her just keep sleeping? If i let her keep sleeping, she will go to 9am, and then the schedule is really messed up, and i worry its not encouraging her to start the day at a standard time. 

Any feedback would be much appreciated. thank you!

[lauradj]

Hi hon.   In our house, starting and ending the day 7 works best.  It allows hubby and I a chance to eat dinner together and just have some us time.  It also makes DS's day very predictable.  Is there a way you, or your partner/spouse/care giver, could get your LO to bed earlier? 
I wake my DS at 7am, if he's not already up.  Though he generally STTN now, if he does wake from hunger I give him a little feed and then yes, I do wake him at 7am.  When that happens I usually wait until 7:30am before I feed him.  We have a little activity, feed, activity and back to bed.  I hope that helps!

[nugget13]

Hi,

I had a similar question to waketimes. I've heard both ways - allow them to wake naturally and adjust schedule based on that. Or enforce a waketime to get the internal clocks used to it. The latter makes more sense to me but I can't find what TBW says about it...unless I missed it...

Sometimes my baby wakes at 6am or 630am (though sometimes 5-530) - he's not consistent. Should I feed and then put him back to bed only to wake him back up at 7am? I would like a 7-7 routine for him as well but by doing this, he'd only get a 10 minute nap! I'm not sure what to do. This morning he woke at 530, played for half an hour before crying to be fed at 6. I fed and then kept him up till 7 at which point I initiated an activity and tried to get him back to sleep around 7:30am.

He's 8 weeks old tmr.

Thanks.

[Ima shel Alon]

So do I get it right that you want a 7-7 routine? If that's what you want then I would aim for a 19BT and wake him up at 7 in the morning. IIWY I would deal with those EW with a feed at this age as I found it's the easiest to send them back to sleep that way - simply treat it as a NW.
If you can't do a 19BT then you can do it whenever works for you but it would be good if you can allow a 12h night. So for example if BT is at 20 then I would allow him to sleep till 8 and then wake him up.

I would like a 7-7 routine for him as well but by doing this, he'd only get a 10 minute nap! I'm not sure what to do.

^^^I'm afraid I don't get it. Why would he only nap for 10min?

[nugget13]

Hi,

Well he usually gets up around 6am. By the time I feed and put him back to sleep - it's close to 645. Do I wake him at 7 then? That doesn't seem right.

[Ima shel Alon]

Ah, ok, I get it now.
I remember having the same problem and what I did was to wake DS a bit earlier so he doesn't wake up at 6 for a feed. It's kinda like a DF but around 4 or 5 (you know when to put it according to the length of time he usually sleeps between NF).
You can either do that or put him back to sleep at 6:45 and WU at 7:30.

[nugget13]

Thanks so much! This really helped. Sometimes I put him back to sleep and wake at 7:30. Other days he's been sleeping right through to 7:30 - it's just not consistent yet though.

Appreciate the help!