Babywise

I followed babywise for my son. We started at about 3 weeks old. We loved it. Babywise is not ferberizing. It allows for some variation. The book talks all about this. We had Rudy on a good schedule at 5 weeks (only took 2 weeks) and stuck with it until he was about 15 months old. We love love love it. Can't tell you how great it was for us. My son is healthy and happy.

Lacy

I agree with Cassie; you have to just go with your gut. I disagree with your friends that you are being too soft. Two weeks is really early to be sleeping through the night, especially when he is breastfed. The length of nursing sessions will gradually decrease. Most babies are slow nursers in the beginning, but quickly become more efficient. Both of my kids took at least 45 minutes to nurse until they hit about 4 weeks and then the nursing sessions cut down to 20 minutes, then 10, then 5. They also hit a growth spurt at two weeks and ate every hour for 4 or 5 hours straight....as soon as they were done nursing they were ready to go again in 15-20 minutes.

[HouseofWool]

I agree with Cassie; you have to just go with your gut. I disagree with your friends that you are being too soft. Two weeks is really early to be sleeping through the night, especially when he is breastfed. The length of nursing sessions will gradually decrease. Most babies are slow nursers in the beginning, but quickly become more efficient. Both of my kids took at least 45 minutes to nurse until they hit about 4 weeks and then the nursing sessions cut down to 20 minutes, then 10, then 5. They also hit a growth spurt at two weeks and ate every hour for 4 or 5 hours straight....as soon as they were done nursing they were ready to go again in 15-20 minutes.

Yes yes and yes. Hang in there Laurie - IMHO there is no way to be "too soft" on a newborn. Heck - he just got booted from a 9 month vacation where he got to sleep any time he wanted. It is all a learning curve for them too.

[peggyfromwastate]

I used a modified baby wise ( basically followed the sleep-eat-play schedule) for the twins bc that was the only way I could keep my sanity. At 6 wkd they cried themselves to sleep for the most part. I remember putting them down awake. I just couldn't rock them to sleep or sooth them to sleep. I don't use this with my single babies tho- I still rock j to sleep but she's my last one so why not. We do use CIO for our kids, even Josie I think we didn't do CIO until they were at least 5 months or so.

[peggyfromwastate]

Sorry about all the typos. iPhone. The most helpful book had been the healthy sleep habits happy baby. I mostly followed that advice for all the singletons. But I remember pretty much only using babywise for the twins.

[Michele]

too soft with regards to sleep for an 18d old? thats just craziness to me!

do what feels right. because (if you are anything like me) you are going to second guess everything anyway, at least if it feels right, it gets another notch in the plus category.

[alison]

By "sleeping through the night," what do you guys mean? Is it 5 hours in a row? Or do you mean from the time the baby goes down for good until the time s/he wakes up for good in the morning?

[MrsK]

I think my main issue with Babywise (since we hadn't gotten to the point where I would start dropping feedings) is the "cry periods". (They seem a lot like CIO, and he's so little for something like that.) DS doesn't cry much at all, and I can't imagine letting him scream himself to sleep instead of holding him until he's sleepy enough to put down and have him sleep. Or is that a bad habit I shouldn't let him get started? The residents DH has talked to say they did it - let them cry for 15 minutes, and if they're still crying, they would place a hand on their stomachs to calm them, and not to pick them up. Ugh, I'm just not sure I can do that right now!

Laurie, I asked a friend about this. He is a sleep psychiatrist and father of two. He says that before 6 months is way too soon for CIO. For now, just love him up and do whatever it takes to get him to sleep in the evenings. Nevermind if he is sleeping on your chest, in a carseat, or suspended from the ceiling. . . . and that's pretty much a direct quote.

By "sleeping through the night," what do you guys mean? Is it 5 hours in a row? Or do you mean from the time the baby goes down for good until the time s/he wakes up for good in the morning?

At that age, I consider sleeping through the night to be 5+ hours in a row.

Laurie,
Like Kris said, if your milk supply is established and he is gaining weight, then I think it is fine to let him sleep at night when he goes past a feeding. The only time I woke one of my babies at night to make sure we got in all of his feedings was when my son had jaundice. Sleeping in 5+ hour stretches is not the norm (it's wonderful, but not the norm) for 18 day old breastfed babies and you shouldn't feel like you're doing something wrong if he wakes more frequently. When my first was born, I was afraid that if he didn't learn to put himself to sleep at an early age that he would never learn. Seriously, I can remember nursing him to sleep when he was a couple weeks old and thinking, "Is this going to be my life for the next 18 years?" I think believing that we had to get the sleep thing figured out right away or else we would be stuck with those habits till he went off to college was more stressful than the actual sleep deprivation. Your little guy will get it figured out soon enough. Just do what you think is best for your baby and don't worry about the rest.

[peggyfromwastate]

When we used the Babywise system for our twins, it was pretty much the daytime stuff we followed (tha feed-play-sleep pattern, and the spacing of 3 hr between feeds which we only did when they were old enough for it). I remember watching the clock saying, I can't feed them yet because it's only been 2:45. The problem was that if you put them down for their nap after they were up for say 1:30, then the next feeding wasn't supposed to start for 1:30, and if they woke up early you were always stressed about should I feed them now or should I ignore them until scheduled feeding time??? Anyway, I usually would feed on a 2 1/2 hr to 3 hr schedule, depending on the naps.

I never did the Babywise system for sleeping through the night. None of my kids were ready to sleep through the night (as in, sleep from 10 pm or so until 5 am or so) until they were at least 6 months. I know some babies may sleep thru at 6 weeks, but that was way too soon for any of my kids. They didn't weigh enough, for one thing.

I could never get on board with the super-scheduling of babywise for my singletons. It just wasn't worth it. Where I felt I needed a schedule for the twins (and even then I fudged a lot), it just wasn't needed for the singletons. I felt more like I could handle *going with the flow* for the babies. And it worked out. Josie did have to CIO eventually (as did all of them) to be able to sleep through the night.

[HouseofWool]

By "sleeping through the night," what do you guys mean? Is it 5 hours in a row? Or do you mean from the time the baby goes down for good until the time s/he wakes up for good in the morning?

Alison - for a little one - I would consider sleeping through the night to mean 5+ hours. At 6-9 months, it stretches out to mean that I don't have to get out of bed in the middle of the night. By a year, it should mean that once the LO is down, they don't get up until morning. Occasionally, S will squack around 3 or 4 and then go back to sleep. If she makes noise for more that 5 minutes or so, I go in and give her another pacifier because she has usually lost the one she went to bed with.

[Vishenka69]

Reading this makes me wonder if I should try to get DD on a stricter schedule. Around 4 weeks she ate every 3 hrs during the day but now at 8 weeks we're back to every 2 hours. Because I'm nursing, it's killer on my boobs (even when I try to skip a feeding by giving her pre-pumped milk, I just get too engorged by the 3rd hr). She does have longer stretches of sleep at night but it's never the same, sometimes 7-12, sometimes 9-2, etc.

Another off topic question, when can I stop burping. I hate burping, I rather change poopy diapers. With DD burping takes forever and doesn't always succeed in an actual burp.

[SuzySunshine]

Julie, if she's eating at shorter time frames she may be cluster feeding because of a growth spurt.

As for burping, Robert is the same way. I've read in a couple of places that if you try to burp them for 3-4 minutes and they don't burp they're most likely not going to and not to stress about it. Robert burps about 1/2 the time he eats.

[alison]

Julie, if she's eating at shorter time frames she may be cluster feeding because of a growth spurt.

As for burping, Robert is the same way. I've read in a couple of places that if you try to burp them for 3-4 minutes and they don't burp they're most likely not going to and not to stress about it. Robert burps about 1/2 the time he eats.

Dd is a big burper and farter, because she's gassy and refluxy. So. Much. Gas. I swear, when she farts while we're in public, people think it's me... It even comes out both ends at the same time occasionally. We're all about class in this household!

I agree with Cheri on this one. My dd is so gassy that sometimes if I just prop her up (like in a bumbo seat once she's got head control), the burp will often come by itself.

[HouseofWool]

Honestly - I rarely burbed Sophie once she was a couple of months old. Sometimes I would just have her snuggle on my chest upright, but she wasn't a big burper, so it worked for us.