6 weeks today - probably should have been more earnest sooner

[Lynnieowl]

Hi everyone,

I'm a total newbie to the forums, and was excited to find them after reading Tracy's book twice. Once before my little guy was born, and just recently again. I've been trying to implement EASY but fear I'm not doing a good job, and would love suggestions.

I think the biggest issue is that I don't really know how "flexible to be" when it comes to each day. It's been a hectic 6 weeks - I have not been able  to just be at home with the baby and do the same thing each day. My husband lives 100 miles away, didn't have the ability to take any time off from work and travels a lot,  and he has a 12 year old that also needs attention and care (mostly from me while he is at work) and desperately wants to spend time with her new baby brother since they won't live together during the school year.

In 4 more weeks my mom will be coming up to help me as I'll be bad to work as a medical resident in anesthesia (read - terrible hours) and she will do most of the daytime care and I'll do the evening/night on my own.mim petrified - because I want to have him on some sort of schedule before I start working 14hr days and I get no sleep.

For the most part he is a textbook baby (although can be spirited in some aspects like his dad!) but gets totally crazy sometimes and I struggle to get him off the OT ledge. At those times he is a total bear to get to nap, and I don't know how to improve that. 

At the moment I have 3 questions -
1)He often falls asleep right after a feed, even if it's not a huge amount, thereby missing the entire A section of the program. I'm not sure what to do about this because by the end of the day he doesn't want to nape or his sleep at night becomes very short.

2) how many cycles each day is reasonable for my 6week old? How long should each one be?do they all have to include all aspects of EASY?

3) he almost always falls asleep in the car, even if the journey is only 5-10 minutes. I can't NOT do the things I need to do, so we often have to go in the car, but should I wake him then on return if the timing isn't right for a nap? It seems mean to wake him, but then I worry it will mess things up for later.

I appreciate your suggestions,

Lynnie

[*Ali*]

Honestly hun you are never too late. I didn't discover BW until my DS1 was 3.5mo and many mamas on here started much later.

In the early days it is really normal for them to just wake to eat and then go back to sleep. They often are awake for an hour and asleep for an hour or more. Or something like that it will change every day. As his A times extend he will naturally stay awake for a bit after his feeds. His A time will increase gradually to around 1.5hrs by 3mo.

I'd try to time car trips with his naps or just not worry about it if it happens now and then.

[Buttonbobs]

Hi honey and welcome. I agree with Ali, it sounds like you're doing fine. Have you seen this link?
I know I found it helpful in those early days:

Getting started - how I survived the first 3 months

Also, you asked about how many cycles of EASY you should expect. At this age as the A time is so short, there will be quite a few. I do remember feeling the days were endless because I'd cycled through with Dd so many times. There are some samples of routines here:

chronological EASY samples, 0-3 months

You will see there are only a couple of samples for this age group. I think this is because many LOs don't actually nap brilliantly at this age. They are still so new and they are just getting used to the world. Many mums here would aim for getting one good nap with LO in a crib/cot but perhaps would try to help baby to sleep in a sling or a baby chair or similar for the other naps so you actually get some Y time (which can be much needed at this age).

A time needn't be much at this age - just a quick nappy change or similar before S.

I hope this is helpful, please come back if you have any more questions