Week 8 Babywise Schedule

Feedings occur about every 3 hours:

6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 5:30 pm, 8 pm

We changed up the last feeding to be earlier with a more extensive bedtime routine.

He’s still doing a full 1 hour wake time. Occasionally he needs slightly over 1 hour for his first wake time.

His naps occur as a part of the eat, wake sleep cycle at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, and 6:30 pm

Eating

This week he’s gotten much better with the pulling off and sucking back in issue I discussed last week.

He’s still super distracted, but he’s not hurting me quite as much.

He’s taking good, full feeds and back to taking about 20 minutes total for the feed on both sides.

Wake Time

Wake time this week is still consistently at 1 hour, with the exception of the morning wake time.

Occasionally, he is doing slightly longer than 1 hour just for the very first eat, wake, sleep cycle.

He’s really enjoying his playmat.

He’s getting much better at holding his head up, and is still interested in trying to roll.

He rolled almost 3 weeks ago now, but hasn’t been able to repeat it yet.

He’s grabbing at things now very intentionally… often that means my hair, or even my nose.

One time he got both at the same time in different hands. It’s quite the task to try and unclasp his hand!

My husband thoroughly enjoyed that moment watching me try to get him off of both my hair and my nose! LOL!

Kisses… oh my gosh, the kisses have started (mostly for Mama). He rubs his face against mine, and opens his mouth for such good kisses on my face. It is the sweetest and I just love it.

Reflux meds update:

He’s starting to get more and more refluxy again. He goes in for his 2 month checkup soon, so we’ll get a new weight check, and adjust his dosage soon if need be.

Cloth Diapering:

Cloth diapering is going so well! We are still using disposables at night, and the cloth diapers seem to be breaking in a bit and are rarely leaking at this point.

I think they just needed to get a few uses out of them again to get them functioning properly once more.

Naps

Naps have been pretty good this week. He struggles in the evening during his witching hour.

It’s also been hard in the evenings, since we trunkated the cycle time from the full 3 hours to accomodate an earlier bedtime.

Often, by the time he gets to sleep, it’s time to get him up. We’re still in adjustment mode with it, but overall the new schedule has helped the witching hour a lot!

Nighttime Sleep

Last week, William wasn’t getting to sleep until 11:30 or midnight. It was hard.

We adjusted the bedtime to be earlier (8pm instead of 9). This has helped tremendously!

We’ve incorporated a bit more of a bedtime routine, to help him get some quiet wake time (instead of just eating and going straight to bed).

Bedtime Routine:

Diaper change
Feed
Family story time with Caroline on blanket
Put zipadee-zip (sleep sack) on
Turn off lights
Story time with Mama and Daddy in the glider (we keep the hall lights on to see just enough to read)
Turn on sound
Hold for a few moments
Lay down in crib

The combination of the earlier bedtime, along with the bedtime routine, has really helped to get him asleep faster!

The second things I’ve been thinking of changing up, is the middle of the night feeding tactics.

He currently wakes twice a night, with the occasional night of only once per night.

Since he’s capable of sleeping longer stretches, I’d like to challenge him to do so more often so we can start to make that our norm.

Night stalling tactics I am considering:

Having my husband go settle him if he wakes (instead of me, since he associates me with food).
Immediately giving him a pacifier instead of feeding him and pushing him as long as I can.
Using the wake to sleep method to reset his sleep cycles and get him sleeping longer stretches.

I am currently only “stalling” him if he wakes in the early morning around 4:30 am to 5:30 am. I stall him to just get him to his 6 am feeding, which happens easily!

These early morning wakes only happen when he’s woken once around the 1 am – 2 am hour (which happens when he wakes only once per night).

He started his second wonder week, during this week, so I haven’t bothered to push the other middle of the night wakings yet.

As I mentioned in my week 7 update, I am no longer changing his diaper in the middle of the night, and I am only feeding him 5 minutes per side.

This is still working very well.

Next week, I might try feeding on just one side again, or even less on each side. I think he’ll prefer less on each side, with still getting to eat on both sides.

Life With Two

It’s never quiet. Can I just say that this week has been hard!?

Caroline is in a not listening phase, and our yard is a muddy mess, which makes the dogs a task during the day trying to clean them up.

With having to feed William every 3 hours, get him down for naps, go to him if he needs me, deal with Caroline’s emotions, play with her, have time with her, deal with the dogs, feed everyone, get Caroline to school and activities… OMG. I’m tired. I need peace and quiet for a moment.

Tuesday’s are especially hard with Caroline’s school schedule.

I am having to feed him late twice, disturb his naps, etc. I don’t get any down time at all, if this disturbance causes him to not sleep well.

I feel like I’m rushing around all day just trying to get everything done.

I welcome Wednesday so much, since it’s a day we just stay home!

Morning Snuggles:

Every morning I wake up with William for his 6 am feed. We have quiet wake time together, and then go wake up Caroline at 7 am.

I put William in bed with Caroline, and they have the sweetest morning snuggles.

It is so special and they both enjoy it so much!

New This Week

Gripe Water- He’s been pretty gassy this week, and more challenging to burp. We’ve started giving him gripe water, which has seemed to help.

Zoli teething stick– We got out the teething stick that Caroline started to really love around 2 months! This stick is so great (read my review here). He hasn’t quite taken to it yet, but he will soon!