Babywise With a Six Week Old
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Since Henry has had a few nights of sleeping well, I’ve been getting a lot of questions from people asking about Babywise
So on this post I wanted to recap the basics and the thought process behind the Babywise method.
1. Eat Wake Sleep
In that order. Unless it’s the middle of the night, focus on feeding the baby, then keeping baby awake for their appropriate wake time, and then putting the baby down to nap.
Why?
It allows a baby to learn how to fall asleep because they are tired instead of just being fed to sleep and sleeping only because they are full. This comes into play later when babies become developmentally ready to sleep through the night.
The theory goes…if they come out of a REM cycle (or wake up from the garbage truck or whatever) if they are awake but they are not hungry, a Babywise baby, in theory, could just go back to sleep. But a baby who has not done Eat Wake Sleep and instead has only known being fed to sleep is going to need to eat in order to get back to sleep. Because they have never fallen asleep another way.
Additionally, the book points to this benefit: When a baby does eat/wake/sleep in that order, his “play time” is not hungry time. He has just been fed and can enjoy books, toys, or staring at mommy’s face all happily and not thinking of hunger. When a baby does eat/sleep/wake then that wake time is going to be the time when hunger cries start. Baby is less likely to want to happily “play” as hunger approaches.
2. Focus on full feedings
Each Eat Wake Sleep cycle lasts about 3 hours (until you move up to a 4 hour schedule which won’t be until after 4 months). Three hours between the time one feeding starts and the next feeding starts, that is. So, say the baby eats at 10am. He would then stay up after eating til 11am (more info here on wake time) and then take a nap from 11am-1pm. At 1pm the cycle begins again and he will Eat, then be Awake and “play”, then Sleep.
If you don’t get a full feeding in at 10am in the above scenario and the baby snacks instead, he will probably be hungry right around the time nap time starts. So you’ll feed another mini feeding again which means baby may not be hungry enough at 1pm to take a full feeding…and so on and so on and so on. Getting a full feeding about once every 3 hours is a key Babywise component.
3. Day vs Night
This is easy–help the baby along in their development towards a natual circadian rhythm by showing him that daytime and nighttime are different. When mornings start, throw open the black out curtains, speak at a regular voice and say “good morning baby!”. Talk and play through diaper changes, bottles, etc. (You get quiet again for naps of course.)
At night, keep lights off or as low as possible for feeding and changing, don’t talk, don’t go near a tv. I have never done a bedtime or nighttime feeding anywhere other than the dark nursery (or in my room when baby isn’t in his crib yet).
4. Avoid Sleep Props
Babywise advises you to “start as you mean to go.” Try your best to keep this in mind as you figure out what your baby needs to sleep. We are big on a sound machine. But we do not swaddle. To each their own.
My specific thought process behind this is you have to stop swaddling a baby around 4 months old. Do I want to suddenly have a baby that can’t sleep at 4 months old? Meanwhile some adults are still using sound machines so we can lean on that crutch for a long time, ha!
In all seriousness this part is up to you. Swaddling is a great tool. Just choose now how you mean to go and own it! If you don’t want the baby to sleep in a swing, then don’t do it. If you don’t want to break them of a paci, don’t buy one. If you don’t want your toddler in your bed one day, don’t do it now. (And if you do want to cosleep, then do!) Please understand I am not saying any of this is wrong.
The point is, understand that the habits and routines you begin with are just very likely to stick. So be mindful of what you want to stick and do just that. And don’t shy away from the fact that it is your choice and your responsibility as a parent to create the routines you want to stick.
Do what is right for you and your baby and own it!
It works.
I can’t tell you about the countless other ways to raise up a baby because this is all I’ve ever done. I can tell you it has worked with three very different babies and that I recommend it. If it does not sound like something you want to do, remember I am just here putting the info out for the people who are seeking it. I am never going to say you are raising your baby wrong.
Just want to put that out there again 🙂
Here is what Babywise looked like with these 6 week old babies:
Sam
Babywise notes for Sam don’t start til 8 weeks, unfortunately. But I remember this week with him specifically because we took him to a St Patrick’s Day event and he did so well napping and eating like clockwork while we were there…
THEN he did an 8 hour stretch of sleep that night. I was shook. He didn’t do it again for 2 weeks. Spoiler alert… this is like Henry to a T!
Tom
Okay I stopped doing my journal with him right before 6 weeks. I know from social media that he was sleeping at least some 8 hour stretches starting at 8 weeks but I can’t remember exactly when it was consistent. I do know for sure it was by 10 weeks but no help here since I was a sleep journal quitter….
Henry
Henry, just like his brothers before him, was really starting to be like clockwork during the day for eating. He eats at 7:00/10:00/1:00/4:00/7:00 and a dream feed at 10:30 really really steadily. Rarely ever even a minute or two off actually.
By 6 weeks naps were fairly consistent with I’d say 75% of them coming easily and at the right time in his schedule.
Here is when he woke at night:
6 weeks – slept all night (went to bed after the 7:00 bottle then slept from the dream feed at 10:30 til 6:45, woo!)
6 weeks 1 day – woke at 2:30 and 6:45
6 weeks 2 days woke at 2:45 and 6:45
6 weeks 3 days: woke at 1:15 and 6:15
I did not document for the next few days because we were up all hours with the worst cold ever. Poor baby Henry!
This is a thought for another post because I may research it more, but I think it’s worth noting that the random sleep through the night at 6 weeks (Sam and Henry) happened after they had been outside in cool air for a long period. Henry was at Boo at the Zoo and Sam St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve read some about outdoor napping and cool air…kind of interesting!
Next onto week 7, one week closer to when these babies start giving those glorious 8 hour stretches 🙂
Check out this post for a link to each week 1-12!
