Sorry in advance for the length of this post!!!
My son is now nearly 7 weeks old and i'd like to start moving from letting him more or less set the pace of waking, eating and sleeping to a more structured routine but i think we need some help!
He is bottle fed and is more or less eating every 3 - 4 hours and has been since he was born, the thing we have problems with is sleep time - if he misses his nap time, it throws the whole sequence out. Getting him to sleep is not too difficult, he usually goes off on his own but we've really struggled to get him to stay asleep, especially in the mornings.
His routine normally looks something like this:
He eats anytime between 6-8 am then sleeps for a couple of hours after feed if early feed, not if 8 am feed. After that he's awake more or less until his next feed which is usually between 12 and 2.30. I can occasionally get him to drop off between 8 and whenever his feed is but he rarely stays asleep for more than 15 - 20 minutes. We usually go out in the car in the afternoon to do food shopping etc so he sleeps after his 2nd feed, sometimes a long sleep here. he can go from 2 - 7 or 4 - 9. Then we either feed him, activity for an hour and bath him before feeding again and bed or just feed and bed. He's then fed again between 12 and 2 and again between 4-6. So he has 5 -5 feeds a day and takes 5 -6 fl oz a feed
In the last 24 hours:
E: 6.20 am yesterday
A: 6.35 -6.40 (nappy change)
S: 6.40 - 9.00
A: 9.00 - 10.15
E: 10.15 - 10.35
A: 10.35 - 12.30
12.30 - 1.30 in car, sleeping for short periods
E: 1.30 - 1.50
A: 1.50 - 3.15
S: 3.15 - 8.00
E: 8.00 - 8.30
S: 8.45 - midnight
E: 12.00 - 12.30
S: 12.30 - 4.00
A: 4.00 - 7.00 I could NOT get him back to sleep!
S: 7.00 - 7.30
E: 7.30 - 8.00 am
A: 8.00 - 10.30
S: 10.30 - 11.30
E: 11.30 - 12.00
S: 12.00 and still sleeping now!
Not much of a routine really! So i have a few questions that i hope you can help with!
What can i change to get him into 3 hour easy?
Any suggestions as to how to get him to stay asleep in the mornings? He will only fall asleep on me in the morning and usually wakes 10-15 minutes after i put him down. He sleeps in his pram in the mornings and afternoons and moses basket in our room at night. Do i just accept that he doesn't sleep much in the morning and if so, maybe EASY won't work for us at all?
Should i wake him from his long sleeps in the afternoon/evening? It's such a struggle to get him to sleep in the morning that i have been reluctant to wake him when he does sleep
How do i get him to sleep longer at night, can i phase out one of the feeds? I am a little nervous about dreamfeeding though i suspect it may work for us.
What should i change in his bedtime routine?
How does EASY work when you need to go out and about? Eg visiting people etc, that's another thing that seems to throw us out and he gets so overstimulated just by new folk around that we usually have long screaming fits in the evening.
I am sure i have more questions but you'll all be sick of reading this by now!!
Thanks in advance!
Rachael and Calum (6 weeks and 5 days!)