- Somewhere between 4-6am: Hannah wakes up crying...I try giving her the paci if it is before 5am because I really don't won't to feed her that early, but sometimes that doesn't work, so I end up feeding her. My goal would be to drop this early morning feeding, if possible, but I don't know how to do that if she is the one waking up this early and won't go back to sleep. After this feeding I put her right back down and she goes back to sleep.
- Somewhere between 8-10am: Hannah wakes up crying...I try to give her the paci again if it is before 8:30am, but if that won't work I get her up, but don't usually feed her til closer to 10am. This nursing session is not usually a very good one. She doesn't seem very interested. My guess is that she isn't very hungry since she got such a good feeding a few hours earlier. Ideally I would combine these two feedings somehow and have her first feeding be somewhere between 8-9am ("Breakfast"). I also feed her solids after this nursing. After this feeding we run errands, have playgroup, and don't have a schedule nap, although she does cat nap sometimes. But I really need this time to be able to get out of the house and not have to be home for a nap, that is why I have always down the afternoon nap.
- Usually about 1:30pm: I feed Hannah again. This nursing session is also not very good (she is generally not nursing well anymore except in the early morning....she is so easily distracted and is fussy while nursing...I am a little worried that my supply is dropping) I feed her solids after this nursing as well. Then I put her right down for her afternoon nap (I hope for 3 hours, but lately it has only been a 2 hour nap). She usually goes down pretty well for this nap.
- Somewhere between 3-5pm: Hannah wakes up from her nap (My goal has been for her nap to be from 2-5pm, but things are changing around here!). I try to put off her next feeding to closer to 5pm no matter when she wakes up from the nap. I nurse her and give her solids at 5pm.
- 7:30pm: Bedtime routine (bath, pjs, nursing, storytime, prayers) I nurse her again (even though she just ate a couple hours ago) and she sometimes eats well, but most of the time does not. But she is again very fussy while nursing, as if she is hungry but can't get anything out. This is a very challenging time of day for me because it can get pretty stressful. I have given her formula on occasion at this feeding and she usually will gulp it down, which then makes me worry about my supply again! :-( However, she is 17lbs right now, so I really don't think she is lacking in the food department!
- 8pm: In bed...this is where the fun begins. Sometimes (most of the time) she goes down okay, but then after 30-40 minutes she is awake again, crying. We try to let her cry for 10 minutes before going in the room, in hopes that she will fall back to sleep, but that usually doesn't happen. So we end up going in after 10 minutes and giving her the paci, which usually (though no always) puts her back to sleep. Then the schedule starts all over again....
Thanks so much!!
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I wish I could give you more practical suggestions, but it's hard to remember the early days with babies... my biggest help was referring to the Baby Wise books by the Ezzo's... have you read those? They have schedules in there, and I tried to stick as close to those as possible, and it was a huge help. Obviously every baby is different, and you have to take that into account, and be flexible, but those books were my biggest help. Let me know what you figure out, I'll keep praying for ya'll!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you are doing everything right- try not to be too hard on yourself :) We had a definite schedule with Drew, similar to yours, but with an am nap and a pm nap always in his own bed- it did make it hard though, as far as getting out for a bit in the am. We also noticed that if he bathed before be he wouldn't sleep well- so we bathed him an hour and a half before bed. We would do books downstairs and be in the living room for awhile and then go to his room so he knew he was there for songs and sleep. It worked like a charm!
ReplyDeleteRegardless, you will find out what works best for you and Hannah! Hang in there- you are doing great!!
You are doing so great! It can be so frustrating! Declan has always been a good sleeper, so I'm afraid I am not much help either. I remember asking the doctor the same thing about Declan's schedule. My only suggestion is to let her cry it out in the am. She should be able to sleep a little longer, because she has gotten plenty to eat. It may take longer than 10 minutes. Declan was doing that, but in the middle of the night!!! It took 3-4 days of crying it out consecutively before he learned to soothe himself. It is so hard to remember, but I think we fed him bottle, played for a while, then solids, play and then nap. Up 2hrs and nap for 2 hours. Then he eventually dropped his naps until he had only a morning nap and afternoon nap. Not sure if that helps at all, but I am thinking about you!!! Hannah is absolutely precious...and I don't care what anyone says...I see so much of you in her pictures :-)
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