Any 'baby whispering' experts out there??

[LucyLu1981]

Am trying to follow the EASY routine with my 12wk DD but am a bit confused. I do a dreamfeed at 11pm she then goes on to sleep for 5-6 hours (as the book says she should) so wakes at between 4-5am for a feed so I feed her and she goes back down (sometimes) for another 1-2hrs. The book says to then get them up at 7am and start EASY the first step being eat but if she's fed at 5am then she's really not interested in food by then? Any advice would be appreciated!

[Rantmum]

The nice thing about this book (to my recollection) was that it is flexible. I had the same prob with DS, so I just started EASY at 8am rather than 7 and followed it loosely to get a routine, rather than a schedule in place. You need to make it work for you, so don't be too concerned if your baby doesn't exactly follow the pattern. The best part is just getting enough night sleep to cope during the day!

[PrettyCandles]

Don't worry about the schedule, concentrate on the routine right now. Ultimately the day does slot into place better if you start at about 7am, I found, but it's not critical.

With any luck your dd will stretch that nighttime gap further and further, until the next waking after the dream feed becomes the first feed of the day. But to help her do this she will need to get up early enough to fit in plenty of feeds during the day. That's why you'll need eventually to adjust her getting-up time.

There's no reason she has to feed as soon as she gets up, so you may find that getting her up at 7am and washing and dressing gets her appetite up for a feed.

[Rantmum]

Yes as Pretty Candles says, once you have a regular routine, with lots of daytime feeds the night ones slowly begin to stretch out. Eventually your dd should wake up for her feed around 6.30/7 due to hunger and skip the 5/6 one. For now, just concentrate getting baby up and ready for a feed around 8.

[SpacePuppy]

The one thing I had to constantly remind me of was that the times in the book were only "random number" babies don't have clocks and you adapt the routine to their need. Remember though their routine changes every 3-4 weeks. Just as you get the hang of it, they reach a milestone and they change their routine. Ds is now 18 months and he thrives on his routine, down to the point of little rituals before nap and bedtime.

[3monkeys]

I didn't worry about the times, just used the principle of eat and then activity before sleep. Never got the you time though!

[babygooner]

I never worried about the time/ routine side of it either. Just used the idea of Eat, Sleep, Activity in that order to help DD settle into the routine that suited her. Once I'd got there, I'm afraid I chucked the book out as, with all other parenting books, you always feel like you're failing in one way or another. Also, when I say 'routine', its a very very loose one as DD wakes up at different times of night/day all the time and if she does settle into something it only changes again a week later! The most useful bit of this book was making you think about your baby's signals and watching carefully for signs of tiredness. Also, would say that the b/f advice is absolute tosh...