William’s Week 5 Schedule and Update

Week 5 Babywise Schedule

Feedings occur every 3 hours at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 9 pm

William has a pretty distinct witching hour that I discussed in his last update.

From about 6 pm to midnight, he’s unsettled no matter what we do. Occasionally he does great from 6 pm to 9 pm, but then has a rough time after that.

As a result, I tried something new this week- cluster feeding.

With Caroline, I did cluster feeding as a way to calm her, and also as a way to sneak in an extra feeding. I much preferred cluster feeding over a dream feed.

Caroline needed to be woken fully to feed, and William is the same. So the dream feed idea just wouldn’t work for us, and didn’t work for Caroline when we tried it.

As a result, cluster feeding was our method of choice. It worked great for Caroline. I wrote about it in her 2 month update.

Well, we tried it with William and it was a huge fail.

I fed him at 6 pm like usual. Then I woke him (if he was actually sleeping) at 8 pm. He would eat no problem since it was two hours later.

Then I’d keep him up and feed him again at 9 pm. It was a struggle. He was not hungry and also wouldn’t just eat to eat.

I tried two nights in a row and then just let it be.

The result, was him waking around 11 pm, and needing two more feeding times at night. So, instead of helping, it seemed to only backfire with nighttime sleep.

Eating

During week 5 he started getting a bit lazy with his feedings. He was latching on quickly and incorrectly (a shallow latch).

It was uncomfortable. He’d latch, drink a couple of gulps, then pull off.

He’d scrape my nipple against his gums and pull off fast.

Then he’d surprise me and try to just suck it back in without opening his mouth.

I was having to slow him down, get him to open his mouth nice and wide, and make sure I pulled his bottom lip down to get a better latch.

All in all though, his eating is going great.

He’s still gaining weight very well. He was 8 lbs 7 oz at his one month appointment.

He’s staying awake well during his feedings now and not requiring a lot of effort from me to keep him up and get a full feed.

Wake Time

Morning wake times are my favorite. I get him up at 6 am, feed him, and we get some nice quiet time together.

He’s really awake and looking around. I get a good full hour with him in the mornings before having to put him down again.

The rest of the wake times throughout the day are shorter- more like 40-50 minutes.

At times he’s yawning at 30 minutes, but if we put him down, he’s wide awake and it never works. So, we tend to ignore a yawn around the 30 minute mark.

Naps

Naps went great for most of this week (other than the witching hour times).

He’s sleeping well, and going down with little assistance.

The last part of the week, marked his first leap (wonder week leaps). We followed the wonder weeks with Caroline, and are doing it again with William (update to come soon).

He started his first leap at the end of the week, and he became incredibly fussy during naps.

I was having to go in every few minutes to settle him. I’d leave, and he’d be ok for a few minutes, and we’d repeat.

We’ve been a bit of a stickler for naps and sleep assistance. We help him, but don’t get him to sleep completely like we used to do with Caroline. We set him down awake.

Nighttime Sleep

His witching hour seemed to only become worse last week. Partially because of my attempt at cluster feeding, and partially because of his first developmental leap.

This resulted in us having a very difficult time getting him to bed. That being said, we aren’t rocking him or helping much.

We settle him, then leave, then repeat. We occasionally use a pacifier to help him settle, but most of the time we pick him up, or put our hand on him, or bounce the crib mattress… and as soon as he’s calm, we set him down for him to go to sleep on his own.

We repeat this as long as we need to. There were times it went on long enough, that I just fed him a tiny bit early (30 minutes) and reset to try again.

On these nights, the benefit, was that he’d fussed so long after the 9 pm, that he ended up sleeping longer stretches and only doing 1 middle of the night feeding.

Not ideal, but there was a plus to what was happening! I got a couple of nights where he only woke at 2:30 am, and then not until 5:30/6 am to start the day.

The other nights, he is waking twice a night, but stretching it to 4 hours instead of 3. Usually around 1 am and 4/4:45 am. The timing on the second feed is hard since we are aiming for a 6 am wake time.

If he wakes at 4 I just feed him and then feed him again at 6 am.

If he wakes closer to 4:45 am, I give him the pacifier and stall him as long as I can.

I can usually stall until around 5:30. That’s close enough to wake time that we don’t have to feed twice.

Life With Two

When William is fussy I feel so bad having to interrupt his sleep.

He’s flexible and goes with the flow. I have to disrupt his nap, and take him along for Caroline’s pick up times and drop off times at preschool. He goes back to sleep, though.

When we get home, I usually just transfer him to the rock n’ play to finish his nap. He does great, but the reality is that it’s interrupted sleep.

With Caroline’s activities, he has to just go with the flow, and I don’t get to prioritize his sleep as much as I would like.

Caroline is continuing to be incredibly patient with William’s minimal wake time.

She’s also starting to express her frustration with me having to “deal with William all the time” as she puts it.

She certainly takes it in stride and helps out as much as she can, but I feel so bad that it’s impacting her this week with his fussiness stealing a lot of my time.

New This Week

Wonder weeks! I am so excited to start recording how William does through his leaps.

I find the Wonder Weeks to be so fascinating. Joe and I followed it for Caroline and it was always spot on.

The book (there’s also an app) predicts the times that a baby will go through a developmental leap during the first year of life.

It tells you what new skills your baby will exhibit, and to expect a certain level of fussiness for a specific amount of time.

The book timing says it’s based on a baby’s due date, but for Caroline (and now William), the birth date seemed to be spot on!

William entered the first leap (wonder week 5) during this week, just as the book predicts.

If you have the free app and find it interesting, I’d highly recommend the book, as it has WAY more information and is incredibly fascinating.

Books worth purchasing:

I’ll be doing separate posts on each leap throughout William’s first year. Leap 1 post is soon to come!