Wake naturally or wake yourself?

[GabrielleD]

I have recently started my 3 month old on EASY and I have a really basic question. When Tracy is talking about wake times in the morning, is that the time that the baby wakes up on his own or a time when you are supposed to wake him. I've been watching my baby and he seems to wake up on his own around 6:30 am most mornings, so I've designed his EASY routine with 6:30 as his first feeding. But if he is not up on his own by 6:30, should I wake him or let him sleep in?

[Aarismom]

At that age I'm inclined to say you can do it either way.

That said, when he gets to be 4 months, it's a good idea to start getting him up at a specific time. You *can* do that now if you like, that's up to you. It makes the day slightly more predictable and sets the biorhythm for the day.

The reason I say to do that at 4 months is because after 4 months you can really start looking to the clock more for naptimes, since he'll be moving to a 4 hour EASY. Right now, regardless of when you get him up in the am, you need to get him down within 1.25 to 1.5 hours or he gets overtired real fast, and it's hard to get him to sleep after. After about 4 months or so you can actually keep him up a little longer than his window and still get a decent nap out of him as long as you don't keep him up too long.

Hope this helps a little!

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[Jaime]

well... do you like being up at 6:30?

if you don't mind, then you may want to go with it.  if you don't like it, let him sleep and see if his clock will adjust to a later time on its own.

keep in mind too that if he does happen to sleep later some mornings, you can just adjust his schedule accordingly.

if i had my way, my kids would never be up before 8am.  course, i'd also be a millionaire  :wink: