I heard about this when Mareea was little. It helps me get the baby sleeping better at night and awake more during the day. Here's how we do it at our house (or try to at least).
Baby wakes up in the morning...say 8 am. I feed him and change him and then keep him awake and play with him until he starts to get fussy. This is usually around 9:30. Then I either hold him and let him fall asleep on me or I put him in the baby carrier and let him sleep on me for awhile. After he is good and asleep (and I am getting sore from wearing him) I put him in the swing to sleep.
At 11am I wake him again to eat. I try to put the babies on a 3 hour eating schedule. Any more than that and they don't eat enough during the day and any less than that I get sore and the baby doesn't eat enough to hold him off very long. After he eats I again keep him awake until he gets fussy, wear him to sleep and then let him sleep in the swing until 2pm. get it???
So basically...nurse, play for an hour or so, then sleep.
The idea is that by letting the baby sleep BEFORE eating they will be awake enough to nurse well and get more milk in. Playing keeps them awake more during the day so they will get their days and nights right. Waking them every 3 hours to eat also helps them get enough during the day.
At night, I usually nurse him one last time around 10 or 11 and let him fall asleep. We then sleep until he wakes up (I never wake him to nurse at night). When he does wake up to eat, I quietly nurse him and we go right back to sleep.
Does this make sense?? Hope this can help someone else with a newborn!
1 comment:
yep, we basically do the same thing - although i don't ever wake them up, mine have both gotten into the rhythm of that cycle pretty naturally after the first month or so. glad all is going well!
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