Brinley Baby Summary: Week 21

Baby schedule for baby’s 21st week. Baby schedule and routine for the twenty-first week of life. 20 week old baby routine and daily life. Learn tips for increasing milk supply and extending wake time length.

20 week old opening a Christmas present

This is a summary for Brinley’s 21st week. She was 20 weeks old. Because of the Christmas blog break, I am bit behind on the Brinley summaries; next week I will do two so we can get caught up.

NURSING

Nursing continued on–I still take Fenugreek. Most bottles (or all–I don’t know I haven’t read every bottle) say to take it three times a day. I shoot for that, but in all honesty, I don’t remember to take it three times a day very often. I do some days (very few) and the remainder of the days are probably split between 1 or 2 doses a day.

SOLIDS

This week, we added peas to Brinley’s menu. I wanted to add something to help moving food through the system since she likes bananas so much. She wasn’t constipated, but I believe in prevention.

She was not so fond of peas. Not fond at all. She is my first child to dislike peas. Then she started having runny poop that led to a diaper rash (her first ever).

We did have some “runs” going through the family at the time, so I was not sure if she had caught the runs or if the peas would have caused the runs. It is highly unusual to have a negative reaction to peas, but it can happen.

So I took her off peas. We will try them again someday. 

>>>Read: How To Introduce Solid Foods to Your Baby

4th NAP

This week, the fourth nap was completely gone. We haven’t taken a fourth nap since.

WAKETIME LENGTH EXTENDED

Waketime length extended this week a bit. You can see details in the schedule below.

>>>Read: When and How to Extend Baby’s Wake Time Length

CHEWER

She started to love to just chew and chew on stuff this week. She bites down the way a child will when teething, but I see no signs of teeth at all. And I hope that she is not going to get teeth for many months to come. I much prefer nursing babies with no teeth 🙂

20 WEEK OLD SCHEDULE

Our schedule typically looks like this:
7:30–feed with solids
8:45–nap
11:30–feed with solids
1:00–nap
3:30–feed
5:00–nap 
5:30–feed with solids
7:30–feed, then bedtime

HELPFUL BOOKS

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19 thoughts on “Brinley Baby Summary: Week 21”

  1. I have a baby a week older and I have only been feeding her solids once a day… maybe I should be feeding solids more often? I give her the oatmeal cereal once a day. I guess I can start veggies or fruits too? What solid foods do you give her at each feeding?

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  2. I know this is a little off topic, but I have been keeping an eye on your blog since my little one was 3 weeks, and you always offer such great advice. I am finally writing to you out of desperation. I read BW before having my baby, and we started using the methods right away. Everything was going wonderfully and he was STTN at 7 weeks; however, it was in an inclined sleeper. We started to remove the incline after he started transition to naps in a crib (due to having to be in day care). As soon as we started, our journey began. Just as he was getting use to being in his crib at night, he got RSV (9 weeks). Of course, while he was sick, BW went out the window, so we could cater to what he needed to feel better. Luckily, he needed no hospital time and the worse passed in a few days. We started transitioning him back to his back and he was doing okay. He would wake once to feed, but then stir due to the congestion still lingering. His sleep pattern consisted of these kind of nights through our Christmas a New Years travels. We did not try to retrain him because we knew that it would be impossible during the time spent with family. When we returned home after New Years, we started pushing BW again. He was almost fully STTN 9:30-4:30, and then he started playing the ‘paci game’. Around 2:30am he would stir, wake for his paci, and every 30 min., it would start again. My husband and I have since removed the paci from the crib. He now only takes it when we are rocking him to sleep before nap time and bed time. We even poked holes in them, so they don’t have the same suctioning appeal. We wanted to go cold turkey, but felt that too cruel-So far, so good. He had started going back to his 9:30-4:30 routine for a couple days. THEN the rolling began. Starting just a few nights ago, baby boy rolls from side to tummy, from back to side, and when he does, he wakes screaming. A couple times he has gotten himself stuck in the slots of his crib. At this point, I am at a lost and desperate for relief. I don’t really want to put anything in the crib to support him for fear of SIDS and adding another sleep prop for him to just have to been weaned off of. I feel so bad for him. He definitely WANTS to sleep. He is so, so tired when he wakes in the night, but the rolling spooks him. Sometimes, he can self soothe, but his little whines still wake us up every 30 minutes or so. On top of all that, he is still battling the congestion as well; therefor, on nights when it’s not the paci, the rolling, then it’s the congestion waking him. We are exhausted and at a loss. Any suggestions? Any help? Could you point me in the right direction?

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  3. Cassie, I use a Safe-T-Sleep in my crib so I can keep it inclined and it prevents sliding/rolling. Not sure if it's just an Australian thing, but you can google it. They're on eBay Australia.

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  4. Hi Val, I have a question about naps. I look at the schedules that you post as a guide (my baby is younger than yours, though). Does Brinley sleep from the time that you put her down all the way until her next feeding time? And was this the case when she had shorter wake times? Thank you!

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  5. My son is just a tiny bit older than your daughter and I have been struggling to get him on a good napping/eating schedule with only three naps. Thank you for posting yours so I have something to base it on! My first child was so easy with schedules! We are also having a hard time getting him to sleep all night. Some nights he does and others (like last night) he wakes up multiple times crying. We could do the paci game, but no thank you! If I go in, he calms down, but then just crys again as soon as I leave. Should i just let him CIO? At 6 months, I'm SOOOO ready for sleeping all night! Any thoughts?

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  6. Val- my son is 20 WO. Is her 3rd nap always 30 minutes, does she wake on her own? For her first 2 naps does she nap until feeding time? My son has been a chronic short napper ( I have tried it ALL!) anyways, it's gotten a bit better just this week. He still takes around 45 minute naps for his first and third nap. But has been napping 2 hours for his 2nd nap (woohoo!) not the ideal schedule, but I'll take it. Anyways, he wakes up once a night to eat- around 3 am (he is BF only) but he has been waking at night a lot more now because he rolls to his tummy and gets stuck. I'm assuming this is a phase and will get better as he gets older? Should I not roll him back? He gets very upset and I've only seen him roll back once, it isn't something he is doing on a regular basis yet.

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  7. Your blog is great! Thank you. My baby is 21 weeks. How many hours can babies go at night without breastfeeding? Does your baby go all 12 hours before nursing? Did it take time to get there? Thanks!

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  8. Just FYI. I saw you mentioned that Brinley had the runs. I have heard that Fenugreek can cause diarrhea in mom and baby. Just thought I would mention it. My sister had to use it at the beginning of breastfeeding her first born.

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  9. Michelle take it at your own baby's pace. Good foods for this age are:sweet potatoesbutternut squashgreen beanspeasbananaspears (if cooked)peaches (if cooked)AvocadoapplesauceprunesWait at least four days between each new food–I like to wait a week.

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  10. Cassie,Wow you have been hit by the perfect storm it sounds like!You can incline the crib mattress by putting something under the mattress (I have something made for such things, but I bought it for a reflux baby and I don't know if I would spend money on it for a cold. But the problem you will then run into is him sliding down the mattress because of the incline. Do you have a humidifier in there? It can really help as can saline drops in the nose. For the rolling, try some tummy time in the day and just practice, practice with him so he can learn to move himself.Unfortunately, a lot of your issues really just need time and/or consistency to resolve.

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  11. Molly, he is definitely old enough to do some night CIO if you are comfortable with it. I am a terrible one to ask about night CIO because I have never done it and I just am not able to do it at night. I have such a hard time sleeping myself that staying awake to monitor CIO intelligently wakes me up too fully to be able to fall back asleep.

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  12. EveryMomentCounts, Yes, she is pretty much 12 hours exactly from feeding to feeding. She did this pretty average age for a Babywise baby, but younger than any of my other babies. Brayden was…I can't even remember. At the youngest, 6 months old, but he may have been even older. Kaitlyn was 7 months (or just about) and McKenna was 6 months.

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  13. Pennywells, I have a post called "Nap Disruptions: Rolling, Standing, etc." or something like that–it will give you ideas on what to do.Her third nap ranges from 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I have to wake her just so I can keep the five feedings in the day; most of the time she wakes on her own. It is probably a 66% wakes on her own and 33% I wake her.

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  14. Valerie, since my 15 (almost 16) week old daughter isn't far behind sweet Brinley, I wondered if you might have some insight on my situation. We are on a 3/3.5 hour feeding schedule, but this doesn't seem to working really well anymore. I usually put her down after about an hour of wake time because she seems tired enough (though she's such a happy, social-bug baby all the time, often making it challenging to read her tired cues!). We've been battling the 45 minute intruder for about 2 weeks. I don't think it's growth-spurt related because I can only get her to eat for a few minutes when she wakes up. And then she gets tired easily, goes to sleep for her next nap, then wakes up hungry after 45 minutes because she didn't eat well the last time, and the cycle begins. I really feel like she is just not tired enough to fall asleep again after that 45 minutes. I watch her on the video monitor and she will look around quietly and happily for about 10 minutes, talk to herself, then start the crying. I'm pretty sure she's ready to move to a 3.5/4 hour feeding schedule. BUT she isn't sleeping through the night consistently (maybe every other night) and we're still doing the DF. My gut is telling me that I need to 1. move her to a 3.5/4 hour schedule so she will eat better, 2. lengthen her wake time to 1 hour 30 minutes, and 3. drop or begin dropping the DF. Think that's too much to do at once? 🙂 Honestly, I can't wait for her to be up for longer stretches! I love hanging out with her! Would love your input/insight if you have time. Thanks for the wealth of info and ideas on your blog!

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  15. Hi Valerie,My baby is 5 mo, 2 weeks, and he's been sleeping through the night (about 12 hours) since he was 11 weeks old. He is formula fed, and has been eating rice cereal as well, and we've been on a 4 hour routine for a while (maybe a month and a half?). My problem is naps. He takes 3 right now, but for some time they have almost always been interrupted. Sometimes that means he will take 2 short naps then a long nap, sometimes it means he will have 6 small naps. If I get him up after the 45 min. intruder (which I have done when he wakes from the 45 min. nap happy and babbling) he will be tired in about a half an hour, and I'll put him back in for a nap and he will sleep more. Sometimes, after waking up 30-45 min. in, he will be whining and will put himself back to sleep. Yesterday he took an almost 2 hour nap with no intruder at all. But his other 2 naps were only 45 min, and I had to put him to bed early because he was just so tired.I'm not sure what to do. I can tell that his 45 min. naps are not long enough, because he's either waking tired, or waking happy and alert but tired 30 min. later. I always watch him carefully during awake time, and put him in for a nap when I see sleep cues, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. He seems to be totally erratic with his naps. Everything in the house will be the same – light, noise level, etc, – but one time he will sleep through, one time he will sleep 45 min and wake babbling, one time he will sleep 45 min wake whining and cranky. I know he's not hungry, because when he's hungry, he cries. He pretty much never cries when waking from a nap. He usually is kicking around in his crib and talking to himself.He is teething now, but he was doing this before any signs of teeth. I'm totally mystified as to how you can get your baby who is almost exactly the same age to sleep for over 2 hours for her naps. And I'm totally at a loss as to how to help him get the sleep he needs. Any advice or help you can give?

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