I started sleep training Hunter at just about 4 weeks old. He was quite the alert and awake baby. My mother in law says that "wide awake" for him is redundant because he is ALWAYS wide awake. His first two weeks home he barely slept! Which came as quite a shock to me because in all I've read and heard about newborns is they sleep 17-19 hours a day! My little guy would go 6 hours straight sometimes without sleep! When he finally stopped fighting and gave into the exhaustion, he would be up again only a couple of short hours later. He was sleeping a total of 11 hours a day. He was fussy and would cry around 4 hours a day. Sheesh! What was wrong with my boy? What was I doing wrong? Something had to change, and it was my job as the mommy to help him...
I started to implement the Feed/Wake/Sleep schedule for Hunter. I knew he had already mastered the first two, as he was a champ eater and loved to be awake...but sleep was the challenge. I broke the day up into 8 separate 3 hour cycles. (sometimes the schedule was closer to 2.5 hours if he was hungry sooner, making 9 complete cycles) Every 3 hours hunter would be fed for about 30 minutes, then he would have some wake time (which could be a walk, a bath, play time with mommy etc) for about 20-30 minutes, and then as soon as he showed signs of being tired (yawning, or getting fussy) then it was time to be put down for a nap. I would not let his naps exceed the allotted 3 hour cycle timeline. For example if Hunter ate at 12:00pm until 12:30pm, and then had his play/wake time from 12:30-1:00, and went down for his nap around 1:15pm, I would wake him up at 3:00pm if he did not wake on his own (which he usually does). Then the cycle would begin again at 3:00pm. This helps him not oversleep during the day, and helps him organize his days and differentiate between days and nights. He was not a fan of being "put down for naps" for the first week we implemented this, so we had to let him cry it out at almost every nap. I would go in and check on him every 10-15 minutes of crying. If there was no dirty diaper and he was soothed immediately once I picked him up, then I knew he was just fine, he just did not want to sleep...so back in the crib he went! At first this process could take an hour before he finally fell asleep. I never let him go longer than one hour of crying (with me checking on him every 10-15 minutes) without going to get him and trying to bounce him to soothe him, and if nothing else worked I knew he was probably hungry so he would then get fed. Then the cycle repeats itself again. I am happy to say that Hunter is 6 weeks old now, and he is only (usually) fussing for about 5 minutes when put down for each nap, and then drifts off to sleep. It is not perfect but we have come a long way in these couple of weeks! He is also only waking once at night to feed, so that means this momma gets a good 8 hours of sleep with only one feed in between! Praise God for this schedule, it has been tough but so necessary for this little one to get help organizing his days.
Being the organized scheduler that I am, I recorded Hunters happenings each day to make sure I was being consistent. Also to help identify any patterns that may be helpful if he has a rough day or night!
Here is a sample of what I do each day:
SAT MAY 10
FEED/WAKE TIME
6:54am
9:45am
12:45pm
3:40pm
6:08pm
8:30pm
2:25am
SLEEPTIME
8:07 cried/slept on and off until 9 slept until woke him up @9:44
....1 hour total sleep
11:08 had to wake 1245
....1 hour 30 min total sleep
1:57pm fussed and fell asleep after 5 min had to wake 3:40
....1 hour 40 min total sleep
4:58pm slept 10 minutes total then started to cry, checked on him, soothed him he fell asleep for a couple minutes, then woke up crying, this repeated until 6pm when I picked him up and fed him.
...10 minutes total sleep
7:30pm after walk put in crib and fell right to sleep until 8:08
...40 minutes total sleep
9:25pm cried until 9:55pm picked up and rocked for 5 minutes before back in crib, slept until 2:25am
....4 hours 30 minutes total sleep
3:00am right to sleep until 6:50am
...3 hours 50 minutes total sleep
Total sleep for the day: 13 hours 10 minutes
He is still not sleeping for the average 15 hours a day that most 5-6 week old do, but this is sooo much better than his 11 hours, and he is such a happier baby!! Like I said naps are not perfected yet, but he is only 6 weeks old, patience and flexibility are so necessary as a parent!
For more information on scheduling baby please email me and I would be happy to help! xoxo-B
Coming soon...Getting baby to sleep through the night!
