9 1/2 week son 45 naps & nightly waking

[Casey10]

Hi there,

Our son is 9 1/2 weeks and we've been successfully doing the EASY method for a week and a half. However the last few days has seen a shift and I've 2 questions.

Question 1: Initially the day time lapping was going swimmingly. He would go down for 90 mins even 1hr45m. The past 3 days however its been impossible to get him past 45mins. We've tried going in at 30mins and sh-patting him though (sometime for 45mins), when he wakes up doing the PU/PD until he settles again, however now this too isn't working. He used to sleep in his pram for extended amounts of time so we've been going on long walks, but this too is no longer provoking sleep so we account this for activity and then get home for the S. Any thoughts on how to get over the 45min mark?

Question 2: Sleeping through the night; He goes to sleep between 7-8pm and  I do a dream meed at 11pm (sometimes 11:15pm). He has been waking with what I believe to be hunger, anywhere between 1:45am-3:30am, feeds and then goes back to sleep very easily. He's even self soothed if he's woken up with the dream feed. He does however wake 4:45am which I think is habit. Would this be an instance of setting the alarm to wake him an hour earlier to break the pattern? Sometimes feeding will put him back to sleep at 4:45am and sometimes not. He feeds well during the day, I haven't ever done the 9pm feed as he's usually just gone to sleep and I'm hesitant to wake him. Would this be a case of 2 dream feeds? If we're following the routine, should he be starting to sleep through the night? He used to sleep for long stretches (2-5 weeks) 1-7am but no longer.

I really look forward to hearing from you. Love the BW philosophy and keen to get the correct habits established.

Thank you!

[becj86]

Hi, welcome to BW

Q1: He may just need to be awake for a little longer now than he has been, try an extra 5-10mins A time and see if that helps. It can also be developmental as there are lots of mental leaps and growth spurts in these first few months, so sometimes its just a matter of trying to resettle with shush/pat.

I'd caution against PUPD at this age as its too stimulating and can burn through a lot of calories. PUPD is a method of last resort when you've done shush/pat or some appropriate variation for at least 2 weeks with no improvement. I'd recommend you stick with shush/pat for now

Q2: I would not bother with the 9pm feed, just do the DF 3-4hr after LO goes to sleep for the night. I tended to tank up before BT at 7pm rather than doing a 9pm feed. At this age, its really reasonable for LO to need 2xNF +DF, so I'd not be trying to eliminate those at this point, especially as feeds at night are helpful for establishing and maintaining supply. Most babies will extend the time between feeds on their own over time and drop NFs without any intervention from you.