Babywise with a One Week Old

I think my favorite part of these weekly sleep posts so far has been finding a picture to use of each of my three boys for that week! I just spent way too much time poring back over my Instagram and found so many sweet videos and memories along the way.

Ah hormones. These babies grow SO fast!

Henry is officially 2 weeks old today, so I am going to go back and show you how Babywise went during his time as a 1 week old, as well as what I recorded for the other boys.

I’d say my biggest pointer for this week is to get to know your baby. Look for little patterns and quirks.

If yours are anything like mine they probably like to cry around 5-7pm. With my first baby this stressed me to no end until I realized I should just expect it each night.

With Henry I just assumed he’d have a witching hour, and he sure does. I just like to think of it as his time to exercise his lungs each day! We do our best to make him happy but know that it’s okay. This too shall pass.

Henry has also declared another grumpy time of day, like clockwork, and that would be 8-9:30am-ish. This actually is okay because I can get kids dropped at school and come back just in time to pop him in the stroller to beat the heat with a morning walk. Or I can stay in the car after school drop off and run some errands. These work great since he is happiest in motion during this time.

Every baby is so different. But keeping track of these little quirks, for me, makes all the difference in how the day goes. I like to be prepared, if you can’t tell…

Here are the Babywise notes for our three (technically still two since I have no Sam records!) one week old babies:

Sam

Not helpful since we weren’t Babywising yet! If memory serves, we had an ice storm this week and my car was in the shop for days. I almost lost my mind!

Sam was sleeping in his rock n play beside our bed and working hard each night to escape his straight jacket…I mean swaddle blanket 🙂

I think that velcro thing caused us more grief than help. We never used with our other kids!

I remember one of our routines we settled into was me taking a shower right after Travis went to work each day. I was so baby bluesy I could cry for no reason (I was a hormonal mess this first time), and Sam seemed to love the sound. I’d pull his rock n play right next to the shower and he’d be a happy baby.

Since adding more kids I’ve become a night time showerer so I’m not sure if this would work to soothe Henry’s fussy mornings or not!

Tom

We were shooting for the 3 hour schedule–7:00, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00 and 7:00 with a 10/10:30 dream feed. Looks like he wanted some cluster feeding in the evening which is why I have worked it in as part of the every day plan for Henry.

It seems like early morning wakings that weren’t quite middle of the night wakings (between 5-6:30) made it a little difficult but for the most part a 3 hour pattern was shaping up!

1 week 1 day – fed 6:30, 9:00, 11:45, 1:45, 3:45, 6:00, 8:30, 10:00 and he woke on his own at 2:00 and 5:30

1 week 2 days – fed 5:30, 8:30, 10:00, 12:45, 3:45, 5:45, 8:00, 10:30 and he woke at 3:00 and 6:45

1 week 3 days – fed 6:45, 9:45, 12:45, 3:45, 6:30, 8:30 and 10:45 and then he woke up at 2:45 and 6:45

1 week 4 days – fed 6:45, 8:45, 10:45, 12:45, 3:00, 5:45, 8:00, 10:30 and he woke at 2:30 and 6:30

1 week 5 days – fed at 6:30, 9:20, 12:30, 3:15, 5:20, 7:00, 8:30, 10:45 and woke at 2:30 and 6:45 ( this was the first overnight in his room, but he was in his rock n play by the bed, not actually in the crib)

1 week 6 days – fed at 6:45, 9:30, 12:00, 2:45, 4:45, 6:15, 7:45 and 10:30 and he woke up at 2:30 and 6:30

1 week 7 days – fed at 6:30, 9:30, 12:15, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 10:30 and then he woke at 2:30 and 6:15

Tom’s night wakings were really consistent this week–almost always around 2:30. I don’t have any notes on how he napped since I was just focusing on full feedings around every 3 hours but I recall he did not enjoy being flat on his back! Turns out he had reflux so I don’t blame him.

Henry

Henry’s patterns of crying in the morning and the evening emerged as I mentioned above. I did focus on both sleep and feeds with him this week since the 3 hour schedule with evening cluster feed and the dream feed suits him really well and we don’t usually vary from it.

I have found that he almost never naps on that first Eat Wake Sleep cycle after the 7:00am feeding. It’s just eat, wake, still awake, still awake and mad…..eat again at 10:00. Walks, snuggles, and car rides are my answer for now 🙂

1 week 1 day – fed at 6:40, 9:45, 1:00, 4:00, 6:00 7:30 and 10:30 and he woke up at 2:55 and 6:50. He napped each cycle but the first one had to be in motion. (This was his first night in his crib and he did great!)

1 week 2 days – fed at 7:00, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, 5:35, 7:00, 10:30 and he woke at 2:00 and 7:00. Good naps other than that early morning, ideal wake time seems to be 45 mins to an hour after start of feed.

1 week 3 days – fed at 7:00, 10:05, 1:00, 4:00, 5:30, 7:00, and 10:30 and he woke at 2:50 and 7:00

1 week 4 days – fed at 7:00, 10:05, 1:00, 4:00, 5:30, 7:10 and 10:30 and he woke at 2:30. Good naps. He was very fussy after the middle of the night bottle. I rocked a while and gave him more at 4:00. He woke at 6:30

1 week 5 days – fed 6:40, 9:45, 12:55, 4:00, 6:00, 7:00 and 10:30 and he woke at 2:00 and 7:00. His naps were good other than fussy morning as usual. His wake time 45 mins – 1 hour after start of feed seems consistent.

1 week 6 days – fed at 7:00, 10:00, 1:00, 4:00, 5:35, 7:00 and 10:30. He woke at 2:00 and 6:45.

1 week 7 days – fed 6:55, 10:00, 1:15, 4:00, 5:30, 7:00, 10:30 and he woke at 2:15 and 7:00. This was the first time I got a nap out of him on that first Eat Wake Sleep cycle. It wasn’t perfect and he needed lots of snuggles first but he napped around 9:20-10:00 in his crib which was a first morning nap that didn’t require motion 🙂

I can’t recommend that dream feed enough! Henry gets a bottle at 7:00 and is asleep in his crib by 7:30. Instead of waiting for him to wake up at some point, Travis goes in and feeds him while he is barely even awake at 10:30. This means I could go to bed at 8:00 and not need to feed Henry til his 2am waking.

I never go to sleep that early but I really should one of these nights!

Henry, like Sam and Tom (other than Tom’s colicky weeks), has been great at night. We have a few off nights here and there so I am making bigger bottles now after that one especially restless night.

At night I don’t talk, keep the sound machine blaring, feed him in his dark room, and even manage diaper changes with only the tiniest sliver of closet door light. At 7:00am it’s all smiles and blinds open and regular voiced “good morning!!”

Who knows if how I treat day verses night really matters to a baby this age, but if you want to go “by the book”, be sure to approach night time differently than day time!

Here’s to hoping the first growth spurt doesn’t rob me of too much sleep. I think Henry is a pretty easy going baby at this stage in the game. But it’s sure to change just as soon as I think I’ve figured him out!

To navigate through each week check out the links at the bottom of this post.