Our Version - Babywise: Week 3

Prior to Kingston's arrival, I wrote about how CT and I wanted to try out the Babywise methods from birth. We have a really good friend who had awesome success with following it's principles and her little one was successfully sleeping throughout the night from age 8-10 weeks.

'Sleep training' is a very controversial topic, but I figured why not give it a shot and if we get sleep sooner rather then later, that's awesome! 

The gist of Babywise:

-goal is to be sleeping through the night by 7/8 weeks

- feed every 2.5/3 hours (but if your baby becomes hungry sooner - feed them)

- eat (full feedings), wake time, sleep 

Ever since my milk came in, Kingston has been on a great schedule of becoming hungry at the 3 hour mark. It makes planning our day and judging his mood easy. There are some days, mostly in the evenings (his fussy time) when he will want to eat every 2 or 2.5 hours and we do so. I think of this as his cluster feeding time where he is hopefully getting more calories to help him sleep longer at night. 

I like to think of the Babywise method as a routine and less as a schedule. We have no real start time and the times he eats each day aren't consistent, but we do have a routine we follow.

The last few days here has been Kingston's routine (3 weeks):

Sunday 

(going through a 'growth spurt' = more hungry then normal)

600am - eat/wake/nap

815am - eat/wake/nap

1100am - eat/wake/nap

130pm - eat/wake/nap

330pm - eat/wake/nap

600pm - eat/wake
(fussy - fighting sleep - no nap)

815pm - bath/pjs/eat/sleep

Monday 

1245am - eat/ sleep

415am - eat/sleep
730am - eat/wake/nap
1030am - eat/wake/nap
130pm - eat/wake/nap
400pm - eat/wake/nap
645 - eat/wake 
(fussy - fighting sleep - no nap)
830 - bath/pjs/eat/sleep

Tuesday
1215am - eat/sleep
400am - eat/sleep
630am - eat/sleep
915am - eat/wake/sleep
1245pm - eat/wake/sleep
(out visiting CT for lunch so little longer then 3 hours between feedings)
400pm - eat/wake/sleep
615pm - eat/wake
(no evening nap because we were at Friends volleyball game)
845pm - bath/pjs/eat/sleep


Wednesday
100am - eat/sleep
430am - eat/sleep
700am - eat/wake
(no nap - tummy time & swing)
915am - eat/wake/sleep
1130am - eat/wake/sleep
130pm - eat/wake/sleep
415pm - eat/wake/sleep
615pm - eat/wake/sleep
830pm - bath/pjs/eat/sleep 
1230am - eat/sleep 


 Kingston is going about 3.5-4.5 hours between feedings at night. Usually in the evening he eats sooner then the 3 hour mark because this is his fussy time, he doesn't want to nap and I figure I'll keep his belly more full in hopes he will sleep longer at night. 

Right now he naps about 1.5-2 hours at a time, but the older he gets the longer I will try and make his wake time so his naps will get less. 

I'm not 'super strict' in following the Babywise methods, but for the most part we have a pretty good routine going and I'm getting a few good stretches of sleep at night. 

What I'm working on now is getting Kingston to fall asleep the first time after he is put in his crib. At night he's good at falling right back to sleep, but for nap time he likes to be held/rocked to sleep and then sometimes wakes up when we put him down. It's crazy how every day is a learning process and I'm working my way through trying to find out what works best for us as a family.