How old is your child? - 5 months (born April 6, 2006)
What’s his/her daily routine? - 4 hour EASY schedule
here's an example of our regular routine (this isn't always like clockwork because we don't stay home every day. we get outside, we go to mom and me aerobics, we're starting a mother goose nursery rhyme class this week, etc. so the schedule gets adjusted accordingly)
-7am wake (or I wake him)
breast feed (both sides all day, between 10 and 20 minutes total) and cereal (just started a week ago and all's going well except he seems RAVENOUS! doesn't want to stop eating cereal so I cap it at 4-5tbsp)
-7:30/7:40 - 8:30am: exersaucer, floor time with toys, etc.
-8:30am: read books and wind down for nap
-9-11 nap (1-2 hours usually)
-11am breast feed
-11:15/11:20am - 1pm: jolly jumper, floor time, exersaucer, sitting time (he just started sitting up a few days ago), run errands in stroller or car
-12:30 or so: books and wind down for nap
-1-3pm nap (1-2 hours usually, has a tougher time falling asleep for this nap)
-3pm breast feed
-3:15/3:20pm-nap time or next feed time: usually outside doing various things; sometimes stay inside and play
-sometime between 5 and 6:30pm might have a catnap but has a VERY hard time falling asleep for this nap still. sometimes he seems wide awake and just doesn't fall asleep. other times he seems sooo tired but fights sleep.
-7pm breast feed and cereal
-7:30pm bath and books
-by 8pm bed (he usually falls asleep within minutes with a pacifier, sometimes without)
-10:30pm dream feed (mostly been giving him a 4oz bottle of breast milk but i was starting to wonder if this wasn't enough, so last night i breastfed him b/c he started waking up just before 10:30 and i figured he'd be able to breast feed and not fall asleep).
-last night he woke at 3:45am, 4:15am and 5:30am. all 3 times we went in, gave him a pacifier, walked back out and didn't hear from him till the next time. he was still asleep at 7:15am so i woke him up to start the day. he was happy when i woke him up and gobbled up breakfast as usual. he was FAST asleep at 9am and is still sleeping now and it's almost 11:30am (he's never slept this long during a nap!).
-he's usually waking 3-5 times/night and wakes up crying/screaming but as soon as he has the pacifier in his mouth, he's content and quickly back asleep. we don't spend any time in his room, we don't pick him up unless his crying doesn't stop with the pacifier and we assume teething or hunger but we don't feed him after the dream feed and before 7am.
Are there developmental issues such as teething or milestones?
-he just started sitting up this week
-he seems to be teething all the time
-this night waking started a month ago when we went away for a week and he slept in his playpen. and although he's managed to sleep through the night (9-11 hours) since then, he's mostly waking 3-5 times per night, every night.
Have you introduced cereal? Why, how much, and how many times a day? (for LO’s under 6 months)
-yes, rice cereal and oat cereal. he was showing ALL the signs so we started a week ago. he gets 3-4 tbsp, 2x/day but i think he'd eat more if i gave it to him. i tested this morning and he took almost 7tbsp and still showed no signs of being full!!
Do they have a prop? If so what is it?
-we give him a pacifier when he needs something to suck on and a teething toy isn't doing the trick. he gets it for nap and bedtime for the most part although sometimes he spits it out and falls right to sleep. other times, he spits it out while he's still awake and then screams or cries till we put it back in. he can sometimes get it back in himself.
Do they have a lovie?
-no
HELP! Our baby was born April 6 and was sleeping at least 6 hours through the night by 3 weeks old. He quickly moved up to sleeping 8-9 hours and then 10-12 hours. He was on the 3-hour EASY schedule.
I didn't get Tracy's latest book until recently and had no idea that at 4 months a baby should be on a 4-hour schedule. OOPS! So I just switched him onto the 4 hour schedule about a week ago (around the same time we intro'd cereal).
Here's the problem though...he's no longer sleeping through the night. Not because of the switch in schedule though. He's been doing this for about a month now and we're going crazy!! It all started when we went away for a week in August and hasn't cleared up since we got home.
He's on the 7-8 schedule (wake at 7am, in bed by 8pm, breast fed every 4 hours, cereal at first and last feed as well, and then a dream feed around 10:30pm, 2 naps per day and sometimes a cat nap although he fights that nap like crazy! The morning nap is the easiest...put him down with a pacifier and he's out within minutes. The afternoon nap is more of a struggle and the evening nap only sometimes happens. He seems tired and ready for a catnap some days and other days he seems fine.). He's fast asleep by 8pm, sometimes with no help, sometimes with a pacifier (but once he's fast asleep, it falls out or we remove it and he doesn't wake up). Here's the catch though...he's waking up screaming/crying 3-4 times/night. As long as we go in and give him the pacifier, he's back asleep within seconds but we're then awake and not able to fall back asleep for awhile so we're getting sleep deprived!!!
He's not waking at the same times every night. Some nights it's around 1:30/2am, then 4/5am, some nights it's 3:30am, then 4:15am, then 5:30am and then he's fast asleep at 7am and I wake him to start the day.
What are we doing wrong!??! Has he become so reliant on the pacifier that he can't get himself back to sleep on his own? BUT, I know he can do it b/c I sometimes hear him making small noises and then he falls back asleep on his own so that makes me think it has nothing to do with the pacifier. OR, he spits out the pacifier when he's down for a nap or for the night, and still falls asleep while sucking his hand.
Why would he be waking a few times during the night screaming/crying? We tested it for one night to see if he'd soothe himself. We waited 15 minutes but the crying got louder and louder and then he was beside himself with tears streaming down his face when we finally went in. I was thinking it could be a growth spurt or teething but it's been going on for a month now!! It just doesn't make much sense. Is he just sooooo hungry and I should up the solids asap?!?!? I've done a yield of my milk and manage to get 4oz when I bottle feed him and have missed a feed off my breasts.
Please HELP!!! We ADORE the Baby Whisperer and know her methods work. We just can't figure this one out.
Thanks,
Jenny
White Rock, BC, Canada
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