11 weeks old......a few issues I need help with!!

[beccahv]

Hi - I have an 11 week old son and I'm after some clarification on a few issues!!

Firstly, he is generally alseep by about 7:30 and then sleeps through to 4 or 5 the next morning with a dream feed. When he wakes at say 5 we treat it as a night feed and put him straight back to bed.....do when then wake him 3 hours later for a feed (we are on a 3 hour easy) or do we wake him at the same time everyday to try and set his clock?? If we wake him at the same time everyday do we reduce the 5 o'clock feed so he will take a full feed when we wake him at say 7???

Secondly, we are having the 45min nap issue at the moment and I have been trying to settle him back down to sleep using shhhpat until the next feeding is due. I tend to take him out of his cot to do this (we are back sleepers and I find it hard to do shhpat any other way) but he often ends up falling asleep on me which is not great I know. Any recommendations??

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it!

Bec

[Jaime]

hi Bec,

i think you could go either way...  definitely treat 5am like a night waking as you have been.  as far as when to get up next... when do you want to get up?  i always liked setting my babies' clocks to 8am to start the day.  but if 7am works better for you, by all means go and do that instead.

feeding wise, yes, the 5am feed will get less & less, but you will have to add more to the other feeds to make up for it, as he will still need the calories to get through the day.

regarding the shh/pat, have you seen this post?  it explains a lot of the details:
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/pat-shush-for-babies-under-3-months-old-vt26672.html

mainly, if he is calm, go and put him back in the crib and continue shh-ing.

the big thing is to stay consistent.  my ds was very stubborn with the 45-min naps - it took 6 weeks to get him straightened out, but he's a much better sleeper now!

HTH 

[beccahv]

Thank-you so much for your help Jaime - I really appreciate it!! I hadn't read the pat-shush thread so I'm off to read it all now!