PLEASE HELP! Need help with BW EASY routine

[iwalktheline]

Hi,
Hoping some of you that are using the Baby Whisperer E.A.S.Y routine can help me.

Now my baby girl is 7 weeks old I think she needs a little less sleep in the day than she did when she was newborn but I still seem to be doing the same routine as I was at the start, though it works quite well.

The problem is that now at night she seems less sleepy so I think she should be getting less sleep in the day so she is still tired at night. At the moment she sleeps though with one wake up at approx 4.30am (except the last few days on a bit of a growth spurt she is back to waking at 3.30am and again at 6am) but whereas she used to wake up, feed and zonk back out, now she is harder to get back to sleep and is really quite awake.

Our day at the moment is roughly:

E 8.30am
A
S 9.50am - 11am

E 11am
A
S 12pm - 2pm

E 2pm
A
S 3.30pm - 5pm

E 5pm
A
S 6.30pm - 8pm

E 8pm
A Bath
S 9.20pm - 11pm

E 11pm

Can anyone tell me how much sleep she should be getting in the day time or suggest how to tweak my day??

Thanks

Bumping for you as interested. These routine thingies facinate me coz it isn't how I do things at all.

deprivng a baby of sleep in the day or shortening naps does not make a baby sleep more or better at night

a well rested baby is easier to settle

i would personally cut out the bath at 8 pm - and get her down much earlier

to only have on e night waking at 7 weeks is brill

try not to take the book too literally - the one thing the BW is good at is helping to identify sleep cues so i would watch for these rather than clockwatching etc ...

Thanks Ruby, I am really happy with only the one night feed but just bothered that if we didn't address what appears to becoming a problem we will end up with harder nights than we currently do.

Was afraid that the answer would be to cut out the bath after the 8pm feed, we really want to do it then to fit in with family life, to do it earlier will cause other problems

I don't want to deprive her of sleep in the day, the times I gave are just a usual day based on reading her sleep cues which I'm getting quite good at now. What I'm worried about is the 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' scenario, where if they have too much sleep in the day they won't sleep at night so I wanted to find out how much sleep babies of this age tend to get in the day IYSWIM?

We'll have a think about how to get around the bath problem...

I really do think that you should be aiming for a 6:30 to 7pm bed time anyway. My 2.3 year old is showing no signs of needing to go to bed later than that.

If you don't get your baby up until 8/830 ish then there is no need to put her to bed at 7. If you are on a 7-7 routine fair enough, but you can adjust the whole thing backwards by a few hours to suit you (as it sounds like you've done)

the baby won't know if she's going to bed at 7pm or 9pm as long as its total sleep time is right.

sounds like you're doing great.

Thanks Luvaduck, you're right for family sanity instead of aiming for a night time of 7pm-7am, we have shifted it so she doesn't get up in the morning until 8.30am.

Do you think we ought to out the bath after the 8pm feed? I guess it would make sense because then her nighttime would be 8pm-8am roughly without the interruption of the bath.

well - i am no routine expert. we sort of fell into a vague baby led routine at 8 weeks, where ds would keep awake for 2 hours at a time, and then need a sleep of either 45 mins or hour and half. He had a longer wake time in the evening.

Gina ford (am not a huge fan of her rigidity but she does make the odd good point) says they need 3 and half to four hours sleep in the day at about 7/8 weeks so maybe she is sleeping a bit too much?? You could try keeping her awake from 5pm for 3 hours, and in that time feed, bath, feed ( i found a double feed - but was breastfeeding - made him go longer in the night) so bath 7pm ish last feed 730ish and then bed at 8?? and make 8 bedtime, and wake for dream feed at 11??
just a thought

Thanks Luvaduck, I'll have to have think and decide what to do. Don't want to change the routine without thinking it through first and then try to change it back!!!

do you need to bath her every day? I didn't at 7 weeks, they don't get that dirty?

I have an 8wk old DS, so these threads are interesting me at the mo. Things are a bit more complicated for me as i have a 2.6yr old DD, so DS has to fit around what we do with her. He is breastfed (tho DH does bedtime bottle of EBM at 7pm) & feeds 3 hrly. He goes down for a nap about an hour after he wakes, but only sleeps for 45 mins at a time so far. In the daytime i can handle that (am hoping he'll nap longer the older he gets & hopefully just has 3 good sleeps a day rather than lots of little ones). Once he's down after his 7 pm bottle he sleeps well, waking prob 3 times for a feed.
It's the evening that's a bit of a nightmare - luvaduck, do you really think it's possible to keep an 8wk old awake happily for 3 hrs?? If it is, what on earth do you do keep them happy for that amount of time? DS gets crabby after only being awake for an hour . I really thought an 8 wk old could only handle being awake for an hour at a time, or am i doing him a disservice?
Sorry for all the questions, but really feel like i'm getting it all wrong at the mo, & DS doing a lot of crying
Sorry for hijack, but any advice would be lovely....

Try posting on the babywhisperer.com talkboard? I get the impression that posts are often answered by moderators with lots of experience.

Flimflam - Thanks, I have posted on there too but TBH I didn't understand the reply I got although I'm sure it was very helpful it just made no sense to me and made my head hurt!!! Thanks for the sugestion though.

Caspercat - We both posted on the 'bedtime' thread, I saw your question and left a reply (can't remember what it was now though!) The only time that we really have lots of crying from DD is early-mid evening, at some point she always has a meltdown. Somedays just a small bout of tears, some nights full blown hysterics. I've done all I can think of to stop it, changed routine/feeding pattern etc but have now come to the conclusion that she just isn't happy at that time of day and have my fingers crossed that its a phase that will pass. Otherwise she is a very happy little thing really.