Author Topic: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby  (Read 3142 times)

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Offline Rhiannasummer

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Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« on: August 16, 2016, 08:41:27 am »
Hi all

So glad I found this site. I read the BW book whilst pregnant and my sister swears by it.

my LO was poorly when born so the first couple of weeks he slept a lot and we pretty much fed on demand to make sure he was at full health. When we got the all clear from the docs (around 2 weeks) I attempted the EASY routine. LO has fed well every 3 hours but was a night mare for day time naps - I therefore decided to give it a break until he was 6 weeks as felt I was stressing out over it. I tried shorter activity times, longer activity periods, putting in a dark room- my LO just seemed to refuse to nap! As he day went on he would get grumpier and grumpier so I knew he needed more sleep!

Anyway now he is 6 weeks I really want to try again. His daytime napping is always a struggle and I'm lucky if he sleeps 30 minutes between each 3 hour period.

Would really love to hear what a standard 6 week routine should be to get me started on the right track and what techniques people used to get a stubborn 6 week old to sleep in the day!

Offline Skadiver13

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #1 on: August 16, 2016, 14:09:26 pm »
Hi hun, can you post the routine you are roughly trying for in EASY format?
A is from eyes awake to eyes shut?
Also remember that at 6 weeks babies are still figuring out their own schedules and some babies can often get overstimulated making it difficult to nap.
My dreamed for Angel Baby DD (other than dreaded 40min naps) Born 4/30/16
Reflux, MSPI, Love my Spirited,textbook little munchkin DS Born 5/17/2012



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Offline Rhiannasummer

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #2 on: August 16, 2016, 18:17:44 pm »
Thanks for getting back to me.

I don't have specific timings other than the 3 hourly feeding. I've been putting LO to bed once I see sleepy cues. Sometimes it's a yawn but most often it's not so I'm not 100% sure I'm reading the cues at the right time but I've tried different variations without success' Should I be following timings rather than cues then? If so, what is a standard for a 6 week old baby?

Just as an example I've included today's;

E - 6am
A - 6am to 6.45am
S - 6.45am (put to bed but did not sleep at all)

E - 9am
A - 9am to 9.20am
S - 9.20am (I think he was so tired he fell asleep straight after feeding so not real activity)

E - 1pm
A - 1pm to 2.15pm
S - 2.15pm (put down but did not sleep at all again)

E - 4pm
A - 4pm to 6pm
S - did not sleep at all

E - 6pm
A - 5.30pm to 6.30pm (includes bath and then feeding and put to bed)
S - 6.30pm (was asleep by 7pm)

Night time is very good. He will sleep now until 10pm when we will feed and will likely wake up 1am and 4am for food, himowever the last few days he has only woken once at  night at 3am).

Kx


Offline Skadiver13

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2016, 18:24:25 pm »
I probably differ than a lot of people but I didn't even bother with a true EASY with my 6 week old (she's currently 3.5months now) she started showing me her routine around 8-9 weeks but before that it was so erratic. So I just put her down when she was almost asleep at that age. Sometimes it was 20min after eating sometimes longer. But if you are already seeing his sleepy cues around 45min that's not abnormal. So after he ate at 6 when did the first nap happen 9:20? Did you try and put him down between 645 and 9:20?
My dreamed for Angel Baby DD (other than dreaded 40min naps) Born 4/30/16
Reflux, MSPI, Love my Spirited,textbook little munchkin DS Born 5/17/2012



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Offline Rhiannasummer

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2016, 18:58:19 pm »


Yep the first nap was 9.20am. I put him down at 6.45am after seeing a couple of yawns but as soon as he is put down he seems to fight sleep, gets himself all worked up so he doesn't sleep. After putting him down at 6.45am, I tried to encourage him to sleep until 8.15 at which point I got him up as I knew he would want feeding again at 9am.

I was also going to leave a routine until he was a little older but thought some sort of routine might help with the naps ss surely a 6 week old needs more than 3 hours sleep in the day (which I'm sure he does as he gets very grumpy towards the afternoon if not).

Offline Skadiver13

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #5 on: August 16, 2016, 19:21:58 pm »
Here is my thoughts. If after 10-15min you can't get to sleep just get him up and try again 10-15min later. I wouldn't try from 645-815 to get him to sleep. You'll just drive yourself nuts. And yes I would definetely start a routine. What we do for naps is when I start to see signs of tiredness we go upstairs dim lights, i'll rock a little till she's very drowsy but not fully sleep and sing a song than put down and shush/pat until asleep. For Bedtime the winddown is a little longer. We do bath or quick wash with wipes, sing, a book, rock and feed then asleep.

Have you checked out the EASY board for sample routines?
My dreamed for Angel Baby DD (other than dreaded 40min naps) Born 4/30/16
Reflux, MSPI, Love my Spirited,textbook little munchkin DS Born 5/17/2012



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Offline lolsyb1982

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #6 on: August 16, 2016, 19:57:51 pm »
Hi just popping by to see if you've seen this? Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!
I find it so helpful. At your LO age you're looking at about an hour or so of A time.
Lauren




Offline Rhiannasummer

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #7 on: August 17, 2016, 06:34:17 am »
Thanks both - I'll take a look at the links.


Offline Rhiannasummer

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #8 on: August 17, 2016, 06:49:29 am »
Sorry just read the link and have a question.

If the awake time is 1 hour or so, I presume you start the wind down before hand so they are asleep by this time. So if it takes LO 15 mins to fall asleep we should head up to bed after 45 mins of awake time.

It's surprising how little awake time they have. I may try to keep to timings today to see if that helps as may be I'm not noticing an early sleep cue. This morning has already been a little better - also started to fuss when I first put him down, waited 15 minutes and took LO out of his cot and then out back down after 15 minutes- he then was a lot drowsier and is now asleep - hopefully not just a fluke!!

Offline lolsyb1982

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #9 on: August 17, 2016, 09:28:33 am »
Hi yes it feels like all you do is put them down for naps in those early weeks doesn't it! Those A times do get longer pretty quickly so does get better  :)

Yes the 1hour is from eyes open yo eyes shut so would include the wind down to get to sleep.

Fingers crossed you get a better day!
Lauren




Offline Skadiver13

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #10 on: August 17, 2016, 14:54:20 pm »
If the awake time is 1 hour or so, I presume you start the wind down before hand so they are asleep by this time. So if it takes LO 15 mins to fall asleep we should head up to bed after 45 mins of awake time.
It honestly depends. My DS needed a longer wind down so we went up earlier, by DD jsut needs a quick one for naps so we go up a little later. You'll find what works for your DS.
My dreamed for Angel Baby DD (other than dreaded 40min naps) Born 4/30/16
Reflux, MSPI, Love my Spirited,textbook little munchkin DS Born 5/17/2012



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Offline ireneasheard

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Re: Help and advice for routine for 6 week old baby
« Reply #11 on: August 20, 2016, 12:25:35 pm »

At 6 weeks old I would definitely be watching the clock carefully. I would start to head up to bed no later than an hour as babies this age get v tired quite quickly. Sometimes by the time you've acted it is already too late as they are exhausted already. I say this as I note some of activity times may be a little long? E.g. awake time 4pm-6pm and no sleep. My son is 20 weeks old and doing 2-2.5 hours awake time so thinking that a 6 week old should not be awake that long without sleeping.

I worked hard at making sure our routine was on track - EAS - and making sure it wqs solid. If it needed adjustment I would tweak it. I made my observations about activity time,what worked re put downs, used shhh pat etc to settle and made sure my wind down routine was always consistent. A lot of it is trial and error at this stage.
DS 1: Textbook baby, February 2012. Kind and loving big brother to...
DS 2: Textbook (with a little touchy) baby, April 2016. My smallest and dearest bear.