Brinley Newborn Summary: Week 7

Newborn schedule for baby’s 7th week. Baby newborn schedule and routine for the seventh week of life. 6-7 week old newborn routine. Find out what to do with a newborn all day, newborn playtime activities, newborn growth spurts, and witching hour at this age.

7 week old Brinley

This is for the week Brinley was 6 weeks old–so her 7th week but while she is 6 weeks old.

NURSING

Nursing is still going great!

POOPING

This week, Brinley suddenly stopped pooping 4-5 times per day.

My other girls were always the type to poop several times a day. Brayden, however, was always a “once every few days” sort. So I knew this could be normal for a baby.

They can poop multiple times a day or once every week (or longer). I have to wonder if the timing is with wonder week 5. The book The Wonder Weeks says a baby’s digestive system will be more mature after that week.

WITCHING HOUR

So far, Brinley rarely has witching hour times, but McKenna didn’t start until she was older so I wouldn’t say we are free and clear.

We decided to set up her swing this week. We hadn’t used it at all yet, but I thought it might come in handy sometimes and I wanted to know if she would like it since McKenna hated it.

She had one night of witching hour this week, and for that we put her in the swing and she took a nap in it! Always remember, if your baby has a witching hour, don’t be afraid to do what it takes to keep baby happy and get a nap in. 

Also, if your baby has reflux and needs to sleep in the swing often, don’t worry about it. Kaitlyn took a lot of naps in her swing as a baby, and she is a great sleeper today. It didn’t negatively impact her at all. Sleep comes first.

>>>Read here: How To Manage Baby’s Dreaded Witching Hour

OUTINGS

The big outing for us this week was my postpartum doctor visit. I wasn’t worried at all about how Brinley would do. My other girls did great (Brayden, however, did not. He was crying so much my OB had one of his nurses take him out so he could talk to me. That was before we started with Babywise, though). 

Brinley started to cry as soon as my OB entered the room. Before that, she was fine. But I was thinking how funny it is to have a woman with a 6 week old stripped down and ready for a pelvic exam. It doesn’t really put you in a position to help your baby.

My OB did my exam and then I picked Brinley up and soothed her. Neither of us were stressed; she has four kids, now I have four kids…I guess we are used to it all. My OB commented, “At least her cry isn’t annoying.” It’s true! Her cry isn’t annoying at all. I assumed I just thought that because she is mine. Oh, and you might have noticed the pronoun genders changing with my OB; my first OB moved across the country after Kaitlyn was born so I have a different one now. Anyway, we survived just fine.

DREAMFEED

For her dreamfeed, she pretty much went back to eating from only one side. She sleeps the same with one or two sides, so I don’t stress it out. I try to get two sides, but if she will only take one, I put her in bed and don’t worry about it.

>>>Read: The Basics of a Dreamfeed

WAKETME ACTIVITIES

These are the things we do during waketime. If there is a certain time of day we try to do something, I have noted it.

  • Bath (I always do this after her first feeding of the day)
  • Get held by siblings/parents (this happens a whole lot)
  • Tummy time (this varies based on mood–I like to do tummy time when she is happy and alert)
  • Gym play (I do this after her 10:30 AM feeding. I treat it like an independent play, though I am in the room with her while she does it)
  • Read stories (we do this before bed–after her 7:00 PM feeding)
  • “Play” on blanket
  • Lay there and have me take a million pictures of her
  • Walks 

AS FOR ME

I had no insomnia this week! Hurray!

I had my six week visit this week with my OBGYN. Everything is great with me and I was cleared for exercise, so I decided to start out with simple pilates. With pilates, I don’t get sweaty, so I am cool with doing them at any point in the day and not having to get up early to do them before I get ready.

I figure I will do pilates for a couple of weeks and then try something more vigorous. Pilates will also be good because my abs really need some strength! They are definitely the weak spot in my body right now. 

If your back is really sore, work your abs. Often times back pain is caused by a weak “core”–including your abs. I am sure the extra weight from your breastfeeding breasts doesn’t help, either. I have seen a big improvement just after three times of doing pilates. I did Winsor Pilates (you can find these online also).

SCHEDULE

This is our daily schedule that we shoot for. Our first feeding varies the most. It typically ranges between 6:30 and 7:30 AM.

She is now old enough to do 2.5 to 3.5 hour intervals between feedings, so if she is sleeping when the time comes up, I let her go up to 30 minutes longer. She will eat better if she wakes on her own, and if not, those extra thirty minutes can often be enough to get her interested in eating.

7:30–feed
8:20–nap
10:30–feed
11:20–nap
1:30–feed
2:20–nap
4:30–feed
5:20–nap
7-7:30 (time varies here)–feed, then bedtime
10:00–dreamfeed
Then night feed(s). Typically, this happens between 2:30-3:30 AM.

HELPFUL BOOKS

RELATED POSTS

Week 7 Babywise summary pinnable image

Brinley Newborn Summaries

A list of all of the baby newborn summaries for Brinley. Get a week by week summary of what is going on and a typical weekly schedule and routine for a newborn baby.

15 thoughts on “Brinley Newborn Summary: Week 7”

  1. Thank you 🙂 I have our wall of face-out bookshelves and on it I have pictures of each child reading a book. I wanted to add her to the wall 🙂

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  2. THank you for posting about the use of a swing. I have been agonizing over the fact that my 7 week old has started soothing himself to sleep for a nap but still can only go 45 minutes. I then put him in the swing and he sleeps the rest of the nap time. I was afraid this was going to become a problem in the future. I have also been trying to wake him up at his time to eat but he is usually sleepy right after he eats. So letting him go 30 more minutes will probably help with that.

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  3. She only wakes once at night to eat? My daughter turns 6 weeks on Saturday, and still wakes every 2.5-3 hours at night to eat. She has a good schedule during the day of eating every 3 hours, (feed, wake, sleep), same times every day. We put her down at the same time every night as well. However, there hasn't been one night of her going longer than 3 hours between feedings. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, any ideas? I am exhausted!

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  4. I am so jealous of you right now! My 7 week old is still going thru this crazy growth spurt (I think?!). She won't take her naps, but she does still sleep pretty well at night. Her morning nap is only solid nap she takes, it's constant waking all day after that. How long does this last? It's been going on since last Friday, so it's almost 5 days now. Her naps are always a little touchy, but this is ridiculous! I've tried feeding her more, she won't take it. It's like she wants to eat every 2 hours, but sometimes she won't take a full feeding….I dont want her to start snacking! She's such a mess by the end of the day I feel so bad for her. Any suggestions?

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  5. andreaqn,McKenna's growth spurts seemed to be about a week long. It is also possible you are getting wonder week 8 behavior going on. Brinley had some of that yesterday. If she isn't hungry when she wakes up, try soothing her back to sleep to see what she does.

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  6. Liv, if you are feeding her every three hours in the day and she is up for about 40-60 minutes each time (including feeding) you aren't doing anything "wrong." She is just different. McKenna still woke twice a night at 6 weeks I believe. She will get longer intervals!But do look over the nighttime sleep issues post. It is possible she is cold or something.

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  7. My son will be 6 weeks old on September 29. He is currently still waking twice in the night (is this normal??). He is bottle fed on formula due to what doctors thought may be stomach issues, but it seems he just has a lot of gas. My problem is naps. Every single nap, starting with the morning, he is waking up and crying 15-40 minutes into the nap. I pick him up and once I can get him to take the paci, he goes back to sleep and will sleep for maybe another 10-30 minutes. He gets horrible day time sleep because of this and is a very tired baby all day as a result. I'm not really sure what to do to get him to take better naps, but I am getting desperate. He cries so hard if I put him down for a nap before he is asleep, and his swaddle gets so messed up as a result of the hard crying and fighting. Is it too early for him to have to cry it out before and during naps? I don't know what else to do, but I know at his age he needs to be having much better naps. Help!

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  8. First off let me say I love your blog. Next, I would like to say that I really want to start Babywise with my 5 week old, but I am afraid I can't be consistent enough to make it work. I drop my older son off at preschool 3 days a week and this really affects the baby's naps. Sometimes he falls asleep in the car seat. Sometimes I have to wake him from a nap to go get my son. He already has eat/wake sleep cycle. Do you have any suggestions? I read that I need to be able to do 90% of his naps at home, and I am not sure that is possible. How can I make a schedule work, and how do you do it with 3 other kids?

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  9. Let me also add that I have tried to dream feed him and on several different occasions and it seems to make him sleep very restlessly if I do. I am going to try it again at 6 weeks and give his digestive system some catch-up time to see if that helps. He currently wakes at night at 1:30 am and 5:30 am. He goes to bed at 8:00. I really want him to take a dream feed but am being patient. He rarely cries unless he is hungry or uncomfortable. He gets alot of gas. Thanks so much for the time you take to help other moms out.

    Reply
  10. Your blog has been a lifesaver for my sanity since I discovered it! My son is almost 7 weeks. He goes down for bed at 8 pm and gets a dreamfeed at 10pm. His night feedings are inconsistent, sometimes he wakes as early as 1:45 am or he could wake as late as 3:45 am. He also wakes usually between 5:30 to 6:30 am, which is before his first morning feeding. If i feed him at 6:30, should i just feed him again at his first 8 am feeding, or get him up when he wakes and start his day? This is all temporary, because when i start back to work i will give him his first feeding at 5 am… Thank you!!!

    Reply
  11. Kristen,Twice a night for a 6 week old is normal.Do you give him gas drops and/or gripe water? If not, I highly recommend it. That will help him sleep more soundly.Are you swaddling with a normal blanket? If so, getting a swaddle blanket might help you out.Be sure your waketime length is not too long. Try the 4 S's.I personally don't think he is too young for CIO, but it sounds to me like something else is likely going on here, so I would address the gas and the waketime length first before going to CIO.

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  12. Shea,If you can't be home for 90% of naps, just do the best you can but add some patience there because I think most babies won't sleep as well if naps are more inconsistent. Do you have a neighbor who could watch your baby while you do pick-ups so you don't have to wake baby as often? OR someone you can carpool with? I also have three other children besides my baby, and I use carpooling, my parents, and neighbors to help keep baby as consistent as possible.

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  13. Maggie, I have a post called "early morning feedings before waketime" that will give you details. If he wakes at 6:30 and your normal start time is 8 AM, I would either start 6:30 as your first feeding or feed him and then wake him again at 8:30.

    Reply
  14. Hi there! Your blog has been so helpful, thank you!Our little girl is 8.5 weeks and i have a few questions I would really appreciate your input on.1)First, our schedule is as follows:7:00 (sometimes closer to 7:30)9:30 12:0036911:30 (i have been trying to do this closer to 10/11 if she doesn't go back to sleep after the 9)In reading your and other posts, it seems like i have an extra feeding in there since most people do the dream feed closer to 10 or 11 and only have 6 feedings during the day (incl. dream feed). I want to start spacing out her feedings a bit more and trying to get the last "dream feed" at 10 but wondering if reducing a feeding will affect her nighttime sleep?2) Our baby really doesn't seem to be doing her daytime naps too well. Her morning naps are usually only 45 minutes. I have tried putting her back to sleep, swing, etc. but nothing seems to work. She does usually make up for it and take a longer 2 hour-ish nap later some point in the day. My question is at this age, should we still be aiming for 1.5 hour nap after each feeding? At what point do the naps gets "consolidated"? She is definitely always tired about 1 hour or so after her feeding so it seems naps are the right thing to be doing, just wish she would stay down longer!3) Speaking of nighttime sleep, she is great in that she generally sleeps from that last 11:30 feed until her 7am feed. BUT, she does not sleep soundly – starting at about 2:30am she is constantly tossing and turning, kicking, grunting etc. But she usually does not cry and her eyes are closed from what I have been able to tell. Because she sometimes sounds like she is choking or getting extreme, i have gotten her up around 5ish to feed her and then back up again at 7.Any ideas on if this is normal? Should we just leave her until she cries? She is still in her swaddle but I am thinking maybe she just doesn't like it anymore and move her to a sleep sack. We are also considering moving her into her room (instead of the bassinet in our room) to give her (and us!) more space.Any help or thoughts would be appreciated!

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