Because my semi-type A personality likes schedules and a routine, when my friends told me about "Baby Wise" I knew it was worth a shot. The concept behind this parenting philosophy is to start your baby off on a routine for eating, sleeping, and wake time from birth. Establishing a schedule for your baby rather than him making his own. Our first priority (birth through 2 weeks) was to get Truett to get good, solid feedings, eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Success! Then we worked to maintain that 3 hour eating cycle. My body is not a 24 hour snack bar so knowing when he was going to eat has helped us with our plans and my personal sanity. If he didn't have this routine and ate as he wanted there's the chance that he would eat a little here, then get hungry thirty minutes later, etc. So we've got our eating routine down. Success #2! Now on to week 5- We continue to feed every three hours but at night we now let Truett sleep up to 4 hours rather than waking him up. We'll gradually allow him to sleep longer and will eventually go to 3 1/2 hours between daytime feedings to 4 hours and so on. Assuming we are able to continue this progression, he should be sleeping through the night by 8 or 9 weeks. I go back to work on May 9th so hopefully we'll all be sleeping soundly by then.
We started this new phase Sunday night. He went down at 12 after his last feeding and slept through to 4am. Unfortunately for me, he was wide awake afterward and wanted to hang out. Last night was much better. He went down at 11pm and slept through to 3am. Ate and then went back down until 6am. We'll continue on the 4 hour sleep cycle for a week or so and see if he can go to 5 hours. We have to be aware of his calories and make sure he's getting enough to eat during the day to hold him through the night.
This isn't for every family but it's working well for us. :)
 |
| My sweet boys |
 |
| I love this picture |
 |
| Toga! Toga! |
I can't wait to meet him this weekend, he's so precious! Let me know how the Baby Wise routine goes!!
ReplyDelete