Author Topic: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old  (Read 2197 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline shanshan

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 3
  • Location:
EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« on: March 12, 2016, 04:13:33 am »
Hi all.  I was going the Wise Baby way, didn't really understand it, came across EASY and now have the Baby Whisperer getting delivered to our house tomorrow to devour!

Some background of our baby: born shy of 38 weeks.  Seems like a smart/alert baby.  At 2.5 weeks now.  I've had trouble breast feeding so have been doing breast + supplementation (I think baby is getting 2-3 oz per feed, of which 2 oz is formula).    This AM she was a awake from 7-10AM.  3 hours!  She sleeps in a crib, but the grandparents have intervened and now we are forced to put her in a bassinet temporarily, but hope to go back to a crib week 5.  the sleep routine we have done for the last few days is at 7PM, dim the lights, change her, clean her, put her in evening gown... around 745PM we feed her.. first on breast and then if she is still hungry formula.... turn on white noise machine (30 min timer), swaddle, and sleep.   Today is worked like a charm as I figure she finished feeding at 8:30PM and its 11PM and she has been asleep (although a lot of tossing and turning...I just took off her baby hat to see if that does the trick)

I have three main questions.

Question 1)  What should the evening routine be for a 3-6 week old?  I thought I was following the EASY method of a routine and more feedings weighted towards the evening.   But now I am reading that the you never feed and then put to sleep.   So this is confusing to me.  Especially as if you feed and then put to sleep, the baby will sleep longer. 

Question 2)  How does one plan a routine around a baby who can go through periods of super alertness.... like today she was extremely awake for 3 hours.  She then took a short nap.  Was awake.  And then took a really long nap where we were struggling to wake her up at 5:45PM.  We know the baby was so awake in the AM, and that caused it to crash in the PM.. but what is one to do?  That was the baby's natural cycle (I think).

Question 3)  Should we change anything if the baby... for unclear reasons to us... sleeps 3.5-4 hour stretches in the evening?  E.G., 8pm feeding, 11:30-12am feeding, 3-4am feeding, and then a ~7am wake-up?  Those are long stretches... and it's a quasi routine?  Our goal is to get the baby sleeping through the night as soon as possible though -- so we are very open to changes.

Reality is the baby will transition to grandparents house for week 3-4, so whatever we do now in week 2 will be eroded.   So we will be picking up a routine plan in earnest again weeks 4-5....


Offline shanshan

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 3
  • Location:
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2016, 18:54:06 pm »
Just a little update.  Last night wasn't as predictable... 

Below were timing of feeds...

3:30PM breast fed
4:30PM 2 oz formula
6:00PM 1.5oz breast from bottle
8:00PM 2 oz formula
11:30PM breast fed
2:00AM 2.5 oz formula over an hour (spit up and hungry)
6:00AM breast fed
6:30AM 1.5 oz formula
8:45am 1.5 oz breast milk + 1.0z oz formula
11:00am breast fed
12:00PM 2 oz formula
2:00PM breast fed


I have a new question number 3....
EASY always means activity after eating, except for night
This works in the AM. 
but what about when the baby is barely finishing a feed?
Between sucking, burping and held upright... it is ~1 hour for the baby
the baby doesn't always want to do activity after this vs. sleeping
Do you wake up the baby and have it fuss a bit.. and then sleep?


Offline lauradj

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 61
  • Posts: 2003
  • Location: British Columbia
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2016, 22:02:33 pm »
Hi there.  Quick question, are you all going to grandparents house or just your child?  I'm asking because she's very very young to be away from her mother.  As well, please be away that SIDS prevention guidelines to suggest baby stays sleeping in the parents bed room for the first 6 months.
At two weeks old your baby is at a prime age for getting her daytime sleep and nighttime sleep mixed up.  She also still requires A LOT of sleep so you may find she sleeps for large chunks of time.  One of best ways to help her sort out her days from her nights is to cap her nap times.  Tracy suggests letting baby sleep no longer than 2hrs.  I let my babies sleep between 2-3 hrs if they needed it; to each her own.  Regarding the feedings, I have always fed my babies to sleep at night.  It's a lovely moment, it's soothing and no one has suffered as a result.  Eventually both kids stopped falling asleep at the bed time feed and they would just nod off once they were in their cribs. 
Try not to worry too much about a rock-solid routine at the moment.  She's incredibly young right now and any habits formed can easily be changed.  If you need to hold her to sleep for naps, go for it. If you want to feed her to sleep sometimes, knock your socks off.  These first few weeks pass by so quickly, it will blow your mind.


Offline lauradj

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 61
  • Posts: 2003
  • Location: British Columbia
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2016, 22:05:39 pm »
One other quick note.  You cannot make your baby sleep through the night.  Her current sleep is fantastic and I hope it continues.  My boys slept through the night at 2 months and 4 months respectively but I did nothing to encourage that.  If she cries for you because she's hungry, you need to feed her.  It is an exhausting and amazing time, enjoy it!


Offline shanshan

  • New & Learning The Ropes!
  • *
  • Showing Appreciation 0
  • Posts: 3
  • Location:
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2016, 22:36:09 pm »
Thank you for the responses.

I will be going with to grandmothers.  We just need a change of scenery because I'm overwhelmed and need a change of scenery.

In an evolution, we no longer have any sort of routine.  Which is making it even more overwhelming.  Last night the baby only took 1-2 oz at each feeding and woke up every hour.  same for today.  and she wasn't awake at all today versus yesterday.

throw in uncertainty about my milk production now three weeks in... and my husband and mother bickering over what I can/cant eat....  easy isn't the word coming to mind right now....

Offline Lindsay27

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 78
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 4031
  • Location: Ontario, Canada
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2016, 01:21:01 am »
Massive hugs Hun, the first weeks are so hard and tiring!  It is perfectly normal to have no established routine just yet, many find that one doesn't really begin to emerge until 8 weeks or so.  Your LO is still so tiny so while it is great to try to get the EAS pattern down, don't worry too much right now if it doesn't always end up like that, it will come :)

With regard to the NW, there could be a few things happening 1) baby is wanting to nurse around the clock to establish your supply 2) baby is comfort sucking rather than actually needing to feed.  We have some fantastic BF mods here who would be happy to help work through any issues you think you may have with supply.  If you think that she is comfort sucking are you opposed to or have you tried using a paci to resettle?  It is perfectly normal at thing stage for her to need to feed every 2-3hrs overnight right now but if she isn't taking much at each feed and is waking every hour she could just need a cuddle/some comfort.






Offline Lindsay27

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 78
  • Gender: Female
  • Posts: 4031
  • Location: Ontario, Canada
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2016, 01:24:55 am »
Just wanted to post the link for our BF board if you have any questions specifically related to BFing.

Breast Feeding



Offline lauradj

  • Resident BW Chatterbox!
  • *****
  • Showing Appreciation 61
  • Posts: 2003
  • Location: British Columbia
Re: EASY evening routine for a 2 week old
« Reply #7 on: March 14, 2016, 03:48:24 am »
Yes!  I echo what Lindsay said, it really is a chaotic and unpredictable time.  Try to nap whenever you can and accept help when it's offered.  I remember I had an absolutely awful day with my first born when he just didn't sleep.  I was a complete hot mess, my husband had to go to work at night and I was crying at the drop of a hat from the stress.  My MIL came over around 8pm, told me to go upstairs to bed and she took my son out for a walk in a baby sling to calm him and help him sleep.  She woke me up at 1am to feed him and then she went home and DS and I went back to sleep.  Bless that woman.