McKenna Baby Summary: Week 15

Schedule and routine for a 14-15 week old newborn baby. Get info on this baby’s daily schedule and what her routine was each day.

15 week old baby sitting in a bouncer

I thought I would change the title of these posts to “Baby Summary” instead of “Newborn Summary” since McKenna is no longer a newborn. This week had its ups and downs. McKenna is losing that newborn ability to sleep well wherever she is, so disruptions are more disruptive to her.

NURSING

McKenna was less social this week while nursing. She did, however, sometimes seem to not eat as much at a feeding.

NAPS

Naps started really well. I was having to wake her from most naps. I even made the mistake of thinking, “I think we might be past the times of short naps.” HA! Don’t ever think that. After a weekend of disruptions, it took her a few days to get back on track. But she got there.

WAKETIME LENGTH

Waketime lengths stayed the same as last week. I did notice the extreme importance of her first waketime, though. It really needs to be 50 minutes–absolutely no more. If it is more, she doesn’t nap as long for her first nap.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP

McKenna went back to waking early in the morning. I would feed her from one side only and then put her back to bed. By the end of the week, she had woken at the same time almost to the minute for a few nights in a row.

SICKNESS

I wasn’t worried about this early morning waking, however, because she had a cold. Yes, this is her third cold in life! Poor thing. I think Brayden was older than a year old before he got his first cold.

This is the nature of having siblings to bring sickness home. I try to keep the kids away if they have colds, but they just love to kiss her and hug her and it is impossible to guard her completely. On a positive note, Kaitlyn had more colds as a baby than Brayden but that has translated into fewer colds as a toddler. And while McKenna was waking aroun 5:30 AM, I thought things could be a lot worse.

Babywise Schedule Week 15 pinnable image

BABY MILESTONES

McKenna rolled over this week! It always takes me by surprise for some reason when my kids do this for the first time. Since McKenna is currently the youngest of three, she also just seems young to me. She is a couple of weeks away from 4 months, which is the age Brayden and Kaitlyn started solids. She is still a baby! I can’t imagine her eating solids right now. I find the psychological aspect of placement in the family so interesting.

WAKING HAPPY

McKenna started waking happy from some of her naps this week. She wakes up and coos. If your baby isn’t doing this by this age, please don’t panic. Babywise says baby starts to wake up happy around 5 months. A poll I did almost a year ago, however, had 42% waking happy somewhere from 3-4 months old. See Poll Results: At what age did baby start to consistently wake up happy from naps? .

WITCHING HOUR

I am so happy to report that the witching hour is over! We no longer use the swing at all. I am going to spend some time reflecting on the witching hour experience and will write a post on it in the future.


Read: How To Manage Baby’s Dreaded Witching Hour


SWADDLING

We are still swaddling. I know that is nothing to report, but this is an age where parents constantly consider dropping the swaddle, so I thought I would make it clear that we still are. I am, however, closely watching and monitoring for the time to stop. Kaitlyn was around this age when we stopped.

I will wait until I am confident she has good control over her arms. I am not sure she will be one to slowly wean (with one arm out at first). She uses one hand to hold the other hand in her mouth, so I think leaving just one hand out would frustrate her.


Read: Dropping the Swaddle


I don’t think there is any rush to drop the swaddle. Some moms swaddle up until a year old! I do want to drop it as soon as she is ready for it, but I am not going to drop it until we can do so without causing problems to sleep. One exception I would make for this rule is if she started to roll from front to back while swaddled. It would then become a potentially dangerous situation to be swaddled and I would stop the swaddle to maintain safety.

15 week old baby schedule pinnable image

BABY DAILY SCHEDULE

8:00 AM–eat
8:50 AM–nap
11:00 AM–eat
12:00 PM–nap
2:00 PM–eat (sometimes this was at 1:30 PM)
3:00 PM–nap
4:30 PM–eat
5:40-5:50 PM–nap
6:30 PM–sometimes woke. She is starting to usually take a shorter nap at this time of day. If she woke at 6:30, I got her and held her until starting to feed her at 7:00 PM. If she didn’t wake at 6:30, I got her up at 7:00 to eat.
7:00 PM–eat then right back to bed.
7:30 PM–in bed
10:00-10:30 PM–dreamfeed
5:30ish AM–eat from one side

OUTINGS/EVENTS

This week was the Fourth of July (Independence Day). We always host the party at our house for both my side and my husband’s side of the family. My mom was very awesome. She called me a few days before and asked me if I wanted her to stay at the house with McKenna while we went to the parade. My mom doesn’t feel bad at all about missing a parade. I accepted. This was so nice for McKenna! She literally slept the entire time we were gone for the parade. When Brayden was a baby, he was very overstimulated by the parade; I ended up leaving it early because he was having such a hard time with it. I thought this was very nice of my mom.

HELPFUL BABY BOOKS/WEBSITES

RELATED POSTS

25 thoughts on “McKenna Baby Summary: Week 15”

  1. I have been mulling over your blog for a few days now, and I hope that my questions aren't redundant. I also want to say that I am so thankful that you have this blog. I always had questions about the book "On Becoming Babywise." Anyways, my question is related to my 4 week old son, Laken. My oldest son, Kai, is a BW baby and was stabilized by 9 weeks. My first question is regarding nighttime. I am having a really tough time at night. It is always so different that I cannot establish a consistent waketime. Then my times during the day are always different due to 2 1/2 to 3 hour feeding schedule. Somedays he is every 3 hours and sometimes its a mix. How is this possible to get a consistent time schedule? Regardless, I cannot get a consistent morning start. This is a sample of our evening to night: 9pm eat1am eat4am eat, then after this feed he is so fussy. It is much harder to get him to go down. And he is waking every hour from that point. sometimes even at 30 mins. I am not feeding him. Up until this last week, my husband would just take him to the swing and he would sleep from 5ish to 7ish. He is yawning and is tired during this time but is really throwing a fit being in the bed around 4-5am. Should I just let him CIO? I have been doing CIO for naps the last couple of days. I have also tried waking him up for a dreamfeed and that did not help. But I only did that one time. Also, my next question is re: waking early. He has been waking early after about 45 min to 1 hour and then I will put him in the swing. He will then go back to sleep, clearly not hungry. He does this a lot and I am wondering what is waking him up?? If not for hunger??? I don't get it. I also limit his waketime to 30-40 mins and he is clearly tired, yawning, fussy, when he goes to nap. I am letting him cry and fuss for a while before I do get him. I really appreciate your help. Thanks, Jessica

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  2. Thanks for this blog it is awesome. I have a 19month BW toddler (now doing toddlerwise) and a 12wk old who I am establishing on Babywise at the moment. It is so great to follow your Baby Summary as my 12wk old is only a few weeks behind McKenna so I am finding this blog so useful.

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  3. Just to follow up with my last comment. I thought I would let you know how my last night went. 7:30 eat8:30 bed (took him 30 min to finally go to sleep crying off and on, overtirred and ate for a while)10:30 I woke him for a dreamfeed12am woke up choking and doing weird noises, so i immediately got him up and he had MAJOR burps3am eat4am eat5am grunting, fussy, trying to calm him down, he didn't want to eat, I finally had him resting on his side propped from the incline to sleep from BRU6:30 took him to the swing, another burp, and he slept 7:30 woke him up to eat (I am wanting our day to start at 7As you can see, I am at a total loss of what's going on with him. He seems stuck to wake up at 4am but also very gassy/burpy. I give him gripe water and gas drops. Thanks again for your help, Jessica

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  4. I think my Ben is almost the same age as McKenna. He turned 17 weeks yesterday, born 3/17. I appreciate the information about swaddling as Ben is not ready to be weaned from it. His arms are out of control. But, I do still try the last nap of the day, on occasion, to try and see if he's doing any better. He starts to fuss and doesn't go to sleep. I then know he's not ready and go up and swaddle him, then he's out. I did BW with my first (now 4). With Ben, to keep both boys on a similar schedule b/c Jack still naps, I have kept Ben on a three hour routine in the morning, then a four-hour routine in the second half of the day. He is still getting his 28-30 ounces a day. I guess my question is: I am still waking Ben from each nap. He has always been a big sleeper. Even in the afternoon, after a 2.5 hour nap, I still have to wake him. Is this normal? It is RARE that he wakes on his own from any nap. Thanks for your input or comment. I love your blog. Thank you so much for posting everything you can think of; you know someone will relate and need to read it:)

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  5. thanks so much for your AWESOME blog! I have been pouring over it as much as I have time to for days trying to trouble shoot problems with my 15 weeker (born april 2nd) as well as my 20 month old twins. I BW my twins, but pretty loosely. They took to it all very well. With my new baby i did the Feed/wake/sleep and got him full feedings every 3 hours from the first week. he was a great "natural" sleeper and has always gone down GREAT at night and naps with minimal if not no crying. I started working on Scheduling nap times and used your schedule as a guideline and i'm sure i'm doing something wrong because my supper mellow,happy good sleeping guy has become irritable and now he is crying every single time I put him down. I do swaddle him and shhh him (as I always have). I never rocked him to sleep although i rock for a few before he goes to sleep, he has a pacifier, he wakes 45 min into every nap and I've frequently needed to put him in his swing (although I hate to do it but he seems overtired or something), but then after he gets back to sleep i need to wake him after sleeping 2 hours! He is still on a 3 hour schedule and I think he could stretch that out, but he has not dropped any night feeds. he was ready at one point to drop, but then we had some BF issues that complicated this. Any ideas would be much appreciated. I'm just wondering if when he was regulating more on his own he wasn't letting himself get overtired OR he was sleeping less? Thank you sooo much for sharing your knowledge and talent. I'm now going to do some more reading of your blog for my twins =)

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  6. First, thank you for all your hard work on your blog. It is incredible. I have given the web address out to all my friends with babies/toddlers. I have a little boy about the same age as McKenna (born April 1). He is a chronic 45 minute napper and I'm not sure how I should do his feed/wake/sleep cycle. His wake times are around 60-80 minutues throughout the day. He goes down for 45 minutes, but then we still have about an hour before our next feeding. Sometimes he will go back for a quick nap before the next feeding and then somtimes he will be ready to go down right after his next feeding for another 45 minute nap. He is not fussy when he wakes up and does not seem overly tired. He sleeps great at night. He goes down around 6:30, wakes at around 3 to eat, and then again at 7am. (he's still pretty hungry at the 3am feeding so I will continue to feed him then) This seems to work for us now but I'm worried that when we switch over to two naps (I don't know when that happens)he will continue to nap for only 45 minutes. What should I do?

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  7. My DS is 16w 2d and he is doing great on a 3h. schedule with feeds at 7/10/1/4/7 and DF at 10:30. He goes to sleep at 8pm. I did CIO with him to stop night feedings, starting 10 days ago, and since then he has woken once or twice (usually once) in the night but goes back to sleep after fussing for 2-10m. Last night was the first night he went to our 7am wake time without a peep.I have a couple questions: 1) you say in this post that if McKenna doesn't wake up at 6:30pm from her last nap you got her up and fed her at 7pm and right back to bed. So really her bedtime is 5:40/5:50 with 2 dreamfeeds? This is confusing to me. My DS would sleep until I wake him, even for the 4th nap. I get him up at 6:30 so that he can be in bed by 8 (his wake time is 1h 25m). He goes down for his 4th nap at 5:25. Am I supposed to not have waketime after the 4th nap?2) I wake my DS for basically all his naps consistently. I think he can do 3.5h between feeds but that means dropping a feed. What do you think? Like I said above, he is just now STTN. But he only nurses about 10m. total at each feed. Maybe he'd take more in if it was 3.5? Thank you for this blog and your advice! I didn't start BW until he was 6.5 weeks and those first couple of weeks I spent all my spare time reading and re-reading your posts and the Q&A's. Thank you! ~Kelly

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  8. Hello Valerie. Your post is amazing, and I am so glad I found it.I really have two questions for you. I'm posting on your Seven Week post as my daughter is in her seventh week, will be 8 weeks old in a few days. She has transitioned into sleeping through the night quite nicely. I started putting her down for bed at 9 and she sleeps until 4-4:30. However, the last 3 nights she has awoken at 2:30 and then again at 3:30. The first two nights, her arms had creeped out of her kiddapotumus wrap, so I rewrapped her, rocked her a bit and put her down. Same thing again at 3:30. When it happened again last night, I finally realized that it could possibly be a growth spurt, so I fed her at 3:30. Is this what it could be? Her daytimes have been ok, but for her to wake at night I found odd, especially when she gets a pretty hefty feeding at 8:45 for her dreamfeed (we give her 1 bottle a day at this time to ensure she has a nice big meal).My second question is in regards to naps. She's really having a hard time going down for naps, and I have a feeling this is affecting her nighttime sleep as well. For example, today, after feeding her at 3:30 am, she ate again at 6:15, then 8:30, then 12:15 pm, with hardly more than a 30 min nap in between. I have tried everything, and have started to CIO, with not much luck, and let me tell you, it's very hard!! She had a full feeding at 12:15, with a total waketime of 50 mins, I kissed her, put her down in her crib at 1:00 and at first I thought I was successful. She talked to herself for about 20 mins, and then she started crying..The crying has gone on for exactly 30 mins and I don't know what to do!! I know CIO is hard, and I am ready, but at what point does her sleep take precendence over her crying in her crib? I hope I hear from you, thanks for your amazing site!~Lindsay

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  9. Our first child Sophi is 19 weeks old. Until our vacation, right at 4 months, her waketime was 7am with a dreamfeed at 10pm. During vacation, she started off on schedule, but as the time got longer and her schedule got interrupted by constant going, she would go to bed by 9 and wake at 3am. I would feed her to avoid waking up the house of 10 people and she'd go back to sleep. (Plus Daddy had gone back home for work and baby was in the same room as me-hard to work out!) So I know this pattern started then. We'll now I'm learning.. We've been home for about 2 weeks now and now she is waking up at 3am. Dad goes in to put her back to sleep. She falls right back asleep, but wakes up between 5:30-6 wanting to eat. She goes right back to sleep after eating and wakes at 9. She is on a 3 hour schedule, which makes her last feeding at 9pm. I haven't been waking her at 10 to eat, since she just ate at 9. How do we eliminate the 3am waking and move her back to the 7am wake-time? Is she getting too much sleep?Should we let her CIO at 3am?Should we let her CIO at 5:30am?Just for reference, she's a great napper. She is usually awake 1hr. 15min. and then takes 1hr. and a half/2hr. nap. She doesn't cry when it's time for bed, usually falls right asleep. I've tried to push the awake time longer, but then she has a VERY difficult time going to sleep w/o CIO. Thanks for your help!

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  10. Jessica,The first thing to realize is that the beginning weeks are just hard. If you are a normal person, you are remembering things with your first son as better than they really were. I remember when Kaitlyn was a baby. I thought, "Brayden was never this hard!" I then looked at my journal from when Brayden was a baby…well, he was much harder! Consistent schedules each day don't really develop until around 3 months because those first three months you have a big growth spurt every few weeks. The spurt lasts a week, you spend a week getting back on track, a week on track, and a spurt happens again 🙂 I have some posts for you to read:Getting a Consistent Schedule: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/getting-consistent-schedule.htmlEarly Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.htmlWaking Early From Naps/Won't Fall Asleep For Naps: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/waking-early-from-napswont-fall-asleep.htmlWaketime When They Wake Early: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/waketime-when-they-wake-early.htmlConsistent Schedule: Start Your Day Right: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/consistent-schedule-start-your-day.htmlWhat Time Should I Start My Day: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-time-should-i-start-my-day.htmlSee also the blog label "CIO"

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  11. Mama of two, It definitely is NOT normal…but also definitely NOT something to worry about. It is something to rejoice about 🙂 By not normal, I mean the majority of babies are not this way.Ben is just a little older than McKenna. I am glad to hear he isn't (or wasn't) ready to stop swaddling. McKenna still isn't ready, which seems a bit strange to me 🙂 But I know I would tell myself to not worry about it!

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  12. Ashlee,There are several possibilities. One is that it might be a growth spurt for the early waking. Another is that the pacifier might be intervening with sleep. Many babies start to have this be a major disruption around 11 weeks to 4 months. Many moms choose to drop it at this point. Some don't. See the label "pacifier" for more on that.McKenna started crying somewhere around that age. I don't know what it was? See the blog label "CIO" for the In Action post about it. Good luck!

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  13. Anna, I wouldn't worry about this in terms of "when you go to two naps". Most switch to two naps at 8 months, some at 6 and some as late as 11 months (that would be my Kaitlyn). So just worry about how it is affecting life right now. See the blog label "sleep problems" for a lot of ideas on why he might be waking early. First, be sure it isn't due to a growth spurt. Good luck!

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  14. Kelly, 1. For part of her life it was a dreamfeed basically. But that isn't what you would do for an older child. Typically what happens now is she wakes up about 6:30, which is 2 hours since the last feeding. So I just have her play for 30 minutes, then I feed her and put her to bed.By this point, your son might not need a fourth nap at all. Brayden and Kaitlyn no longer took a fourth nap after 4 months of age. McKenna is still taking one and has been four months for a week.2. I would drop the dreamfeed before extending your day schedule. It is normal for babies to be really fast at eating at this age. I am glad the blog has helped!

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  15. LindsayJay,It could be a growth spurt. My kids tend to sleep through, then not, then do, then don't, etc. So it could also just be her way of learning to sleep through.See the blog post "Waking Early from naps/won't fall asleep for naps" for my thoughts on your second question 🙂

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  16. Jessica, it could be the disruption from vacation or the four month difficult time, or a combo of both. If I were you right now (if she is still doing it), I would feed her the first time she woke in the night, then hold her off until 7 AM. Since she is waking early in the morning hungry, she is hungry. That way you can stick to your daytime schedule. OR an alternative would be to feed her more often in the day so you can end sooner than 9 PM. Good luck! I am going through something similar with McKenna right now. We were on vacation and she is 18 weeks old. It is "fun" problem solving 😉

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  17. Thanks! Of course she has totally changed her patterns on me again and is back to her 7:00 wake time. Her last feeding is at 7 then she's off to bed by 8. This weekend we decided to let her sleep and not dreamfeed. One night was successful, the other night, she woke up twice. She managed to go back to sleep w/o eating and woke up for her 7am feeding. Hopefully we are on the right track!!My only question would be that makes her getting 5 feedings a day, instead of 6. Does she need that sixth feeding if she keeps waking in the night?I'll try the strategies you suggested if she does, thanks. 🙂

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  18. We have tried adding the DF back, changing the bedtime to a later time, and changing her pjs (thinking she was too warm) and she still is waking around 3a.m. We are thinking it may be the pacifier and I've read your previous posts about pacifiers. We let her CIO for 5 min. then Dad goes in and she goes back to sleep, waking bet. 5:30-6. She also is a HUGE mover while sleeping and often wakes because she is stuck in the corner of her crib or trying to roll one-way and can't. We're just stuck! One reason I gave her the pacifier was b/c she was sucking on her arm leaving a hicki every time. The only 2 things we haven't tried yet are: giving her cereal or removing the pacifier. We'd love to sleep through the night again! 🙂

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  19. Thanks! We have made it through! It took 1 night of not going in to see her and now she doesn't wake. She is sleeping 12hrs.!! (Knock on wood)

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  20. Thank you so much for your blog. I have been a most devoted follower for quite a while now. My son is 14.5 weeks old and still not consistently STTN. He is on a 8-11-2-4.30/5.00-7 schedule with a 10/10:30 dreamfeed. Pretty much right along with where your baby was on your baby summary posts. He is a great sleeper with no sleep props except his favorite blanket :). What am I doing wrong? I have done BW since the beginning. At 8 & 10 weeks I kept hoping that the 12-week mark would do it. He wakes consistently at 4 or 4.30 am each morning. This morning I tried rocking him back to sleep without nursing and that worked. I rocked him till he was sleepy and then he slept till his 8 am feeding. But still, I am exhausted and ready to stop the MOTN feedings!Also, I cannot move his schedule around according to BW (to a 3.5 or 4-hr schedule) till he STTN.Can you help me?Thanks,SR

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  21. SR, There are a couple of options. It sounds like he doesn't need the feeding. So the trick is to figure out WHY he is waking. Is it habit? Is he cold? Is there something going on at that point?Once you discover the reason, you need to eliminate it.Then you need to re-train his habits. You can do that by helping him get back to sleep. Some do CIO. So do "wake to sleep" by the Baby Whisperer. Some just wait. Do what you think is best. Good luck!

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