Author Topic: Starting EASY with newborn  (Read 1524 times)

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Offline cgf

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Starting EASY with newborn
« on: March 09, 2017, 20:22:36 pm »
Hello all
Our little girl is just about 7 weeks and I'd love to implement BW with her as it worked so well with my bigger two, but we're having trouble getting started. She definitely needs to learn to self-soothe, and we also need to implement a bedtime routine. I tried having her go down drowsy but awake, but rarely succeed in having her put herself to sleep, even though we have great blackout shades and white noise and follow her sleep cues. I forget how I start? Anyone have detailed instructions for this tired mama?
Also, she sleeps far far better in her carseat stroller than in her crib, I'd love to train her out of that but not sure how. She also seems to have some night/d ay confusion, nothing terrible - her sleep stretches has been getting longer at night so shes not altogether confused, but i did notice a lot of long deep naps during the day and her most difficult time getting down (when even rocking, shushing, holding etc doesn't work) is usually at about 11pm-1 am.

So in short, how do I teach her to self soothe? And how do I implement a bedtime routine, can I just choose the time of my liking, say if Id love bedtime to be about 8 pm? Thank you so much.

Offline Martini~

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Re: Starting EASY with newborn
« Reply #1 on: March 10, 2017, 14:13:51 pm »
Hi Honey:)!

So let's start from the beginning. At this age not every child can self-sooth being honest. To give you a comparison DS1 was settling great in a crib at that age but ALWAYS cried when being swaddled and needed some shh/pat to go to sleep. It ended around 4mo when I took him out of a swaddle and he was able to use his thumb to sooth. He was only going to sleep independently at BT and also not every day.
So the aim at that age is to settle somehow in a crib but use all the resources you have to sooth your LO in a crib. It means shhhuishing/white noise, patting - baby or the mattress in a rytmic pace, swaddling, tucking in firmly so LO feels safe. And still it may take 5-10-15min to help baby go to sleep. You may start from getting him drowsy in your arms but with my both LOs it was useless - DS1 cried when in my arms, DS2 just doesn't understand it's time for sleep LOL. I just poop them awake in the crib and sooth them there. DS1 was much more difficult and only able to do it by himself at 17/18wo, and DS2 now at 10wo already drifts away totally independently.

I would concentrate on 1 nap a day to start with, max 2 and BT. The later the nap is the more difficult it is to be long and to settle - so do not expect too much from you and your baby.

Re night/day confussion it's probably the biggest thing to be solved, so the pattern is well set. At that age you should aim for no more than 5-5,5h of day sleep and naps should be capped around 2-2.5h. Re BT - until 3/4 mo many LOs are not able to sleep 12h straight so you can do a BT of your imagination like 8pm and hope for 7am wakeup, but bear in mind that it's worth to wake your LO for a feed and maybe some small activity around 10/11pm so she sleeps soundly for the rest of the night. Please could you post your routine so we can check what to do?
~Marta

Offline cgf

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Re: Starting EASY with newborn
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2017, 17:07:29 pm »
Ty so much for your response! And sorry it's taken a while for me to get back to you... its been a busy week :)

So, I understand that at this age she may not be able to self soothe, btu I guess my question is, what do I do to avoid creating more of a sleep crutch than necessary? Also, i dont even have any one thing that always works for her.. rocking etc only sometimes works. How exactly do I do shush pat? Is there a link for it with dtails somewhere? When you say concentrate on one nap per day, you mean focus with one nap and bedtime using shush pat to get her down?

Re: night/day confusino, the only reason I believe it to be an issue is because generally she is not a fussy baby, thank gd, but her one fussy period does always happen between 11pm-2 am, not every night but when she's gassy and uncomfrotable its always then, and her first sleep period of the day is uusally till about 11 am, as in she takes a very long stretch in the morning, which makes me think it's her "night".

Right now we dont have much of a schedule, Ive just been folliwng her cues. She usually eats every 3/4 hours during the day, and takes a longer stretch at night of about 5/6/7 hours, its been quite unpredictable but she can definitely go a long stretch at night. HOw do i begin to give her more structured days? Would love her long sleep stretches to be between say, 8 and 8 or so.

Thank you so much! I hope this doesnt come across as too much of a ramble, just somehwat sleep deprived as LO was up until 2 am and then my big boys were up at 6! zzzzz


Offline creations

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Re: Starting EASY with newborn
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2017, 20:55:40 pm »
I forget how I start? Anyone have detailed instructions for this tired mama?
There are heaps of instructions in our FAQs sections which contain far more than we would be able to post in a thread.  Here are some for starters, there is a link inside here called Getting Started with EASY and another Starting EASY with a newborn
Starting EASY - all you need to know and more!
if you scroll down further in the link you will see a sleep training section with links for newborn and the shush/pat how to - these will be very useful areas to refresh your memory.
I would also say if you have any of the BW books now would be a great time to re-read.

I can point you in the direction of other FAQs you might need if you let me know what you are looking for but I'll leave it at that for now as I realise there is a lot to read through.

I also think now is a fabulous time to start gentle sleep training. My LO was sleeping independently at around 8 wks, sure he needed extra help at times, sometimes a great deal, but he had the ability to sleep alone confidently, it's well worth the time and effort.