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William’s Week 9 Schedule and Update

Week 9 Babywise Schedule

We made a few tweaks this week to William’s schedule, specifically in the evening hours.

I’ve been trying to get him sleeping longer at night, since I know he’s capable of doing only one middle of the night feeding.

We’re also trying to help combat his witching hour at bedtime, because he really struggles with falling asleep at night.

To address both of these things, we’ve been playing with the evening hour feeds and wake times a bit to see what works best for him.

Last week his schedule incorporated an earlier bedtime for the first time, and we made sure to give him a bit of super quiet wake time after this last feed to help him get sleepy.

week 9 babywise schedule and update (9)

His week 8 schedule looked like this:

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

Naps at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 6:30 pm

At the beginning of week 9, we decided to get his bedtime to where we’d ideally like it to be- 7/7:30 pm.

The first schedule we tried during week 9 was as follows:

Feedings at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 5:30 pm, 7:30 pm

Naps at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 6:30 pm

The evening was super rushed and difficult. I’d feed him at 5:30, then he’d struggle to get down at 6:30 pm. He’s always started his witching hour around this time, so it’s just a hard time for him to sleep.

By the time he got to sleep, it felt like it was time to get him up at 7:30 pm and feed him. It wasn’t working the best.

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The second schedule we tried during week 9 was an attempt to fix this issue:

Feedings at 6 am, 9 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm

Naps at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, no nap between 6 and 7 pm, bed after the last feed.

This is the schedule we’ve done the most this week, and it’s working pretty well.

I think this schedule is tied with the week 8 schedule on how well it works for him, so it’s just going to come down to a preference on our end as to which we’d like to continue with.

I for sure like this new week 9 schedule.

You’ll notice specifically he’s down one nap in this new schedule. In this post I’ll discuss some specific sleep changes that we’ve seen as a result of this schedule change.

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Eating

William seemed to go through another growth spurt during this week. He had a few days of very extended feeding times.

This is right on track with the expected growth spurt times using the 3-6-9 rule (3 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, 9 months for timing of growth spurts).

At his 2 month appointment today, he measured in at 10 lbs 11 oz! He’s doing great!

As for feedings, he’s through his growth spurt and now SUPER distracted and sleepy.

He’s either falling asleep and struggling to get a full feed (to be expected after a growth spurt), or he’s just looking around and distracted.

During his growth spurt he fixed all of the latch issues I discussed in previous weeks.

Unfortunately, now that he’s done with his growth spurt, he’s back to being lazy about eating on the left side for some reason, and back to hurting Mama.

When this happens, I pull him off and start again. I’m trying to not let him eat with an incorrect latch, but also trying to let him eat! LOL

I pull him off after a few minutes and have him try again. Eventually, I just switch sides if we haven’t already.

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Wake Time

Wake time is still consistently 1 hour. Occasionally in the mornings, he likes to do an extra 10 minutes.

In the evening, he now has an extended wake time as well.

He eats at 6 pm, then stays awake until his bedtime feeding at 7 pm. We then do a quick story, get him in his sleep sack, and get him down for the night.

He’s in bed by 7:45, sometimes 7:30 pm.

This is a hugely extended wake time (1 hour and 30-45 minutes).

It is a very quiet wake time, however. He eats, then has his normal wake time activities, then has lights out while he eats again and listens to a quick book.

For now, I’m reading the same book every night just to really get a routine down. It’s one of my favorites- Guess How Much I Love You.

The reality, is that with a witching hour like he has, he doesn’t sleep during these hours much.

We can either be trying to get him to sleep, and he’d be crying during those hours, or we can just keep him awake and minimize stimulation.

He’s happier and we’re happier!

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Naps

His naps have been OK this week.

He either has a great day, or a bad day when it comes to naps – there’s no in between!

Prior to this week, he was about 50/50 with whether he was on his back or belly when it came to naps.

This week, he’s in his second leap, and he’s letting us know when he’s uncomfortable.

Probably 99% of his naps this week were on his belly.

I ALWAYS start off on his back. If I have to go in and settle him 3 times, I flip him.

I don’t want him overtired, and I’m fine with him sleeping on his belly during the day.

On a good day, he’s asleep within minutes (on his belly), and sleeps for the entire nap.

On a bad day, it seems like every nap is disrupted and he’s waking early. I think this is largely in part due to schedule disruptions for things like preschool drop off and pickup.

The on the go busy days seem to turn into the hard days.

The days we get to stay at home, he’s right on track and does great.

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Nighttime Sleep

Let’s talk bedtime to start.

This new bedtime routine is working well.

As mentioned above, he eats at 6 pm. He then stays awake until his bedtime starts at 7 pm.

At 7 pm it’s lights out.

I sit in his room in the glider, give him one last feed.

That’s followed with a story, getting him in his zipadee-zip, turning the sound on, and putting him down in his crib.

He’s not fussy at all during this time.

He is then so content just lying in his crib looking around.

He doesn’t put himself to sleep right away, and does get around to eventually crying out for us, but he is so content it makes me think we are on to something.

He’s got a definite witching hour, so he’s always struggled at bedtime. We used to put him to bed after his 9 pm feed and he’d be up until almost midnight crying and upset.

Now, he’s content, and needing some assistance eventually, but he’s much better at bed now. He’s asleep by 8:30 pm.

It’s stressful for me, because I know he’s been up since 6 pm.

But the reality, is that he used to pretty much be up from 6 pm to midnight, since he’d fight the last nap and bedtime.

Now he’s much more at ease and happy and calm throughout, and he’s getting to sleep much earlier.

I call that a huge win!

What I’m not happy with, is the fact that he’s pretty much only happy sleeping on his belly now.

We used to be able to flip him after awhile, so he didn’t go all night on his belly.

That’s working less and less. And more and more, we’re leaving him on his belly…

It makes us nervous.

He has strong muscles. He does great head lifts. He can roll from belly to back (although not consistently yet) when he really wants to.

I think he’s probably ok, but it still makes us nervous.

The great part however, is the middle of the night feedings.

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Middle of the night feeds

When he’s on his belly, he only wakes 1 time at night for a feeding. Typically around 1 or 2. Last night he went his longest and didn’t wake up until 3:30 am.

Occasionally he wakes around 4:30 or 5 am as well, but he’s easily stalled until the 6 am feed. I just flip him on his belly, if he’s not already, or give him a pacifier.

Since he’s doing so great, I’ll most likely now be stalling until this 2 am hour if he wakes up earlier.

We also have a new swaddle on order.

We used the zipadee-zip with Caroline for a bit, and then used the swaddle-up. The zipadee-zip provides very little resistance. William has pretty much never taken to being swaddled, so it’s worked well so far.

Now that he’s been on his belly so much, I think he’s waking more easily with the startle reflex on his back.

We’d like to have him on his back, however, so we’re hoping the swaddle up works as well for him as it did Caroline.

Also hoping he’s not too addicted to being on his belly!

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Life With Two

Caroline is just an amazing big sister. These two love spending time together already, and it just makes my heart so happy.

William is a pretty quiet baby, not a lot of talking. He looks though. He follows her and finds her with his eyes. He loves morning snuggles in her bed, and loves it when she holds his hand and touches him in any way.

We put Valentine’s hearts on Caroline’s door with 14 things we love about her. She decided to do a few for William as well.

She had me write about how she loves that he loves spending time with her. She also had me write one about how she loves that he eats with his eyes closed.

She’s so observant of everything he does.

I’m considering changing his schedule so it works better with her school and ice skating days.

I’d love for it to be consistent every day, instead of having 3 days of disruptions and changes.

If I change the daytime feeds, it would look something like this:

Feeds at 6 am, 9:30 am, 12 pm, 3 pm, 6 pm, 7 pm

If I made that one little change, I’d only have some minor tweaks here and there to accommodate Caroline’s outings.

He’s also become VERY fussy in the car. Like red faced, screaming, can’t breathe type of crying. Hoping this phase is quick because he does have to be on the go a lot for Caroline.

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New This Week

William enjoyed having tummy time on the boppy this week.

He is starting to really look at the items hanging down from the playmat (Caroline took the time to make an extra special collection of toys for him).

He totally got a tiny taste of chocolate ice cream (I know, crazy Mama).

He’s smiling and talking a lot more, although he’s still a very quiet baby.

He’s been enjoying his little baby chair (I used this as a chair to have in the bathroom for Caroline). I love having places to set him down throughout the house.

Products we love in week 9:

Baby Sleep Solutions
Boppy
Baby chair
Swaddle-Up
Guess How Much I Love You
Zipadee-Zip
Baby Sleep Solutions
Boppy
Baby chair
Swaddle-Up
Guess How Much I Love You
Zipadee-Zip
Baby Sleep Solutions
Boppy
Baby chair
Swaddle-Up
Guess How Much I Love You
Zipadee-Zip

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