Sample Babywise Baby Schedules

Sample Babywise Schedules used by Babywise babies. Find sample schedules used by real Babywise babies.

Baby schedules

I often get requests for sample schedules for certain ages. In this post, I list different schedules from different ages. I might not remember it exactly, but this is what I remember to the best of my ability. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow my own advice and write things down 🙂 Added 4/2009: I will be adding McKenna’s schedule as she grows. See the blog label “newborn summary ” for week by week schedules. You can also see the blog label baby summary for a week by week schedule from age 3 months and up.

Birth:
Kaitlyn was a born sleeper and I had to wake her for every feeding at first. Also, we gradually included waketimes. She was so sleepy I could only force one waketime out of her at first (beyond feeding). We added one waketime per week. So some naps started immediately following a feeding, so I will just list feeding on this list:

7:30–nurse
10:30–nurse
1:00–nurse
4:00–nurse
6:30–nurse
9:00–nurse

I went to bed after the 9:00 nursing. She then woke twice in the night to nurse.

McKenna also seems to be a born sleeper. She does have a short waketime after feedings, but not long. Her total waketime (including feeding) varies from 30-45 minutes. She then sleeps until her next feeding. Here is her actual schedule as a newborn:

7:45–nurse. My goal is for a 7:30 waketime, but 7:45 works quite well for us. At some point in the future I will shoot for 7:30, but for now we are typically at 7:45-8:00.
10:30–nurse
1:00–nurse
4:00–nurse
7:00–nurse
9:30–nurse. This actually can vary from 9:30-10:00 PM.

I then go to bed. She typically wakes on her own somewhere around 2 AM. I then wake her around 5:30 AM so she will be hungry enough to eat at our first feeding in the morning. Once she is old enough to go to 7 feedings a day, I will let her drop one of these night feedings.

4 Weeks:
Around four weeks, the schedule I had created for Kaitlyn started to change. She had different plans :). At four weeks, we were still working on waketimes, but had all but one or two down.

7:30–nurse
8:30–nap
10:00–nurse
11:00–nap
1:00–nurse
2:00–nap
4:00–nurse
5:00–nap
6:30–nurse
7:30–nap
8:30–nurse then bed

She continued with the two night nursings. This schedule continued for a while. Some days, the 10 AM nursing would be 10:30. Also, some days the 4 PM nursing would be 3:30. Around 8 weeks, she dropped one night nursing. Around 9 weeks, I tried to force a dreamfeed at 10:30, but she would not wake up.

For McKenna, her schedule stayed pretty much the same. I had noticed by then that McKenna didn’t eat well if it was sooner than 3 hours:

7:45–nurse
10:30–nurse
1:30–nurse
4:30–nurse
7:00–nurse
10:00–nurse

I still woke her twice in the night.

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6 Weeks
Kaitlyn’s schedule stayed pretty much the same. Here is McKenna’s six week schedule:

7:15-7:45–nurse. I changed our 30 minute window to this.
10:30–nurse
1:30–nurse
4:30–nurse
7:00–nurse
10:00–nurse

She woke twice in the night for the first half of 6 weeks old, then went down to once a night.

3 Months:
At this age, the schedule for Kaitlyn moved more toward my original plan.

7:30–nurse
8:30–nap
10:30–nurse
11:30–nap
1:00–nurse
2:00–nap

4:00–nurse
5:00–nap
6:30–nurse
7:30–bed
10:00–nurse then bed (dreamfeed)

At this age, her night feeding was in those early morning hours, usually around 6 AM. I believe she dropped that feeding around 4 months.

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FOR MCKENNA
Things did vary week to week, but here is a typical day:

8:00–nurse
8:50–nap
11:00–nurse
12:00–nap
2:00–nurse
3:00–nap
4:30–nurse
5:40–nap
7:00–nurse then straight to bed
10:00–dreamfeed

There would then be a feeding on one side around 5:30 AM. During this month, she extended her night feedings so that she started to make it to 7-7:15 in the morning. On those days, we started the day then and then she had a long nap in the morning. Those days looked like:

7:00–nurse
7:50–nap
10:30–nurse
11:30–nap
2:00–nurse
3:00–nap
4:30–nurse
5:40–nap
7:00–nurse then straight to bed
10:00–dreamfeed

4 Months:
Kaitlyn’s schedule didn’t change much, but she did drop a nap. We also started solids at 4 months, so solid feeding times are listed as they were once we had all three.

7:30–nurse + solids
8:30–nap
10:30–nurse
11:30–nap
1:30–nurse + solids
2:30–nap
4:30–nurse
6:30–nurse + solids then bed
9:45–nurse the bed (dreamfeed). I was starting to move it back in preparation for dropping it.

FOR MCKENNAThe first couple of week of 4 months old were a bit unpredictable due to early morning feeds. Once she hit 19 weeks, though, things smoothed out.

7:00–nurse
7:50–nap
10:30–nurse and cereal
11:30–nap
1:30–nurse
3:00–nap
4:30–nurse and sweet potatoes toward the end of the month
6:00–nap
6:30–she would wake, or I would wake her. Some days, she didn’t take this nap
7:00–nurse then straight to bed
10:30ish–dreamfeed

6 Months:
I finally relinquished the dreamfeed. Kaitlyn basically started to refuse to wake up and eat, so I consented and dropped it. Her waketime had also started to extend a bit, and she started to need to go longer in the morning between feedings.

7:30–nurse + solids
8:45–nap
11:00–nurse
12:15–nap
2:00–nurse + solids
3:15–nap
5:00–nurse
7:00–nurse + solids then bed

FOR MCKENNA
McKenna started 6 months with a dreamfeed, but quickly dropped it.

8:00–nurse + solids
9:10–nap
12:00–nurse+ solids
1:15–nap
4:15–nurse + solids
6:00–nap
8:00–nurse then bed
10:00–dreamfeed

7 Months:
About a week before Kaitlyn turned 7 months, I finally moved her to the 4 hour schedule.

7:30–nurse + solids
8:50–nap
11:30–nurse + solids
1:00–nap
3:30–nurse
5:00–nap
7:00–nurse + solids then bed (I woke her up earlier than 4 hours because I wanted her in bed for the night to get 12 hours of sleep)

FOR MCKENNA
8:00–nurse + solids
9:30–nap
12:00–nurse + solids
1:30–nap
4:15–nurse + solids
6:00–nap
7:45–nurse + solids then bed

9 Months:
At 9 months, I started trying to drop the third nap. It was a weaning process. We started by shortening it over time. It got down to the point of being only 1 hour long, then 45 minutes. Then she would have some days she wouldn’t need the nap. Those days, I would feed her at 6:30 if needed so we could get her in bed earlier.

11 Months:
Here is Kaitlyn’s schedule at 11 months.

7:30–nurse + solids
9:15–nap
11:30–nurse + solids
1:15–nap
3:45–nurse
7:00–nurse + solids then bed

Brayden’s Differences
Kaitlyn is a sleeper. Don’t be discouraged by the amount she sleeps. Also, she has been slow in extending waketime. Brayden’s differences were:

  • He had 2 hour waketime and 2 hour naptime.
  • He dropped that 4th nap around the same age. He dropped his third nap around the same age also, but for him it was a drop rather than a wean.
  • Brayden started his day at 7:00 AM rather than 7:30.
  • Brayden slept fewer hours at night. While he had the third nap, he slept about 10 hours at night. Once he dropped it, he slept 10.5 hours at night (8:30 bedtime).

Other Items

These sample schedules only include eating and sleeping, not other activities (like independent play).

Reader Questions about Schedules:

  • LEM said…
    I’m having trouble understanding some of the BW scheduling. I have a 3-week old who is eating ever 3 hours starting at 6am. (so, 6,9,12,3,6pm, 9pm, 12am.) and then I let him wake up when he wants to, which tends to be between 4 and 5 am. Ideally, that would be 6am of course so that I could start my day. I wake him to feed during the day, sometimes he wakes on his own. But my question is, do I have to wake him for the 12am feeding or can I just see how long he can sleep? I’m thinking if I let him sleep he may wake up around 1 or 2am and then maybe he will sleep after that till 6am (our normal wake up time).
    June 10, 2008 7:33 PM
    Plowmanators said…
    I would not wake him at 12 AM, but until three weeks you shouldn’t let him go more than 5 hours. So I would feed at 9, then wake him at 2 if he doesn’t on his own, then hopefully he will make it to 6. It sounds like he is doing great!
    June 11, 2008 10:59 AM
    LEM said…
    Thank you so much for the quick response. I am so glad I found this site since I was having a difficult time feeling like I was doing this right.As a follow-up question to that, Would I keep him on this schedule until he drops this 1 or 2 am feeding and then move him to 3.5 hours during the day? Or can/should I move him sooner?(Oh, and by the way he is being formula fed)
    June 11, 2008 1:01 PM
    Plowmanators said…
    Since he is formula fed, you could let him go longer in the night, but I would just get up up early enough that he will be hungry for your start time of the day. Yes, I would stick with the same schedule until he drops that middle of the night feeding. I would also keep him on the same day schedule until he drops that 9 PM feeding. You could moveo waketime back (if you want to), but still keep the same number of feedings per day. See this post:When to Move to a 4 hour Schedule: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/when-to-move-to-4-hour-schedule.html this post will also be helpful for you: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/02/babywise-milestones.html
    June 11, 2008 1:46 PM
  • Kim said…
    I have a six week old and I have been trying to use the feed/wake/sleep program since he was born. I have just started CIO this week for his day naps. He has a problem sleeping in the crib and staying awake at the bottle. We are doing a combo 2.5-3 hour schedule. For his first two weeks he was consistently on a 3 hour schedule. How do I get him back on the 3 hour schedule? In his first two weeks he didn’t fall asleep at the bottle, this has been a new habit. He also can’t seem to stay up for more than 1 hour at times. Our schedule is 6,830,1100,130,400,700,1000. I would like to shoot for a three hour schedule starting at 700. I’ll be going back to work within a week and my husband will be dropping him off at my parents at 700. He will be leaving our house at 615 to 630. Should I wake our LO and immediately change his diaper and put him in the car seat and have my parents feed him at 700to start his day? Should I wake earlier and feed him before he leaves? I think this would be difficult because he will probably fall immediately asleep in the car seat and have no wake time. Should I feed him a partial bottle and then let my parents feed him again when he gets there (I don’t think this will work b/c he has quite an appetite and screams if you take the bottle away before he’s done)? Any suggestions? Or does anyone else have to take their children to daycare?
    June 27, 2008 6:26 AM
    Plowmanators said…
    Kim,1 hour wake time is normal for a 6 month old. 6 weeks is also a growth spurt time, so watch for that. I would recommend a 2.5-3 hour schedule. See this post:Getting a Consistent Schedule: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/getting-consistent-schedule.html When it comes to your new schedule, I think I would either:1-get him up and put him in his carseat to go. If he really will fall asleep in the carseat, then he could just fall asleep and wake up officially once he gets to your parents house.2-get him up and feed him and start his day. He will then need to go to bed soon after getting to your mom’s. It will likely be a little tricky for a while, but he will eventually be able to stay up longer. Good luck!
    June 27, 2008 11:12 PM
  • jsb said…
    Hi, I have been trying to do BW since I brought my 10 week-old home from the hospital. He was doing great on a consistent 3 hour schedule, but we are having some trouble now. At six weeks, he wanted to eat every two hours (growth spurt, I assume) and now he is at around 2.5 sometimes 3 hours. The problem is that we do feeding, about 75 minutes of playtime (this is when he begins showing signs of tiredness) and then I put him down for a nap. He will only nap anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. This means that he wakes way too soon for his next feeding so by the time he eats again, and has some waketime, he has been up for way too long and the cycle continues. I have tried shortening his waketime but it didn’t seem to help. Oh, and he has been consistently sleeping through the night for two weeks now (sometimes he sleeps 10 and 11 hours), it’s just the naps that I am having so much trouble with. Any advice you may have would be greatly appreciated. Your blog is great!
    August 24, 2008 7:45 PM
    Plowmanators said…
    See these posts for my recommendations: 45 Minute Intruder: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/45-minute-intruder.html
    Naps: Troubleshooting: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/naps-troubleshooting.html
    Waking After Only 20 Minutes : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/06/waking-after-only-20-minutes.html
  • The Sullivan’s said…
    I was recently introduced to BW by my sister. She had great success with her 3 children using it. This is my first baby and she is much more difficult than my sister’s children. She is 4 1/2 weeks old. Let me start by saying that I took her to the pediatrician today and she thinks my baby has a mild case of colic (due to the fact that she’s fussy on/off from 5 till 9 almost every night and her naps diminish to 30 mins each…if she takes one at all between feedings).So, I have a few questions not only about CIO but BW in general.#1 – I have her on a 3-hr “routine” (times aren’t the same every day). Should I be striving to create a “schedule” so that our day is more stuctured and predictable?#2 – She sleeps good during the night, only waking once. She sleeps in her bassinet at bedtime. Basically all of her naps take place in her swing because that’s the only place she will soothe herself to sleep (I guess its not self soothing though because the swing is an aide). Her morning and early afternoon naps are great. However, once early evening hits…naps are terrible. She wakes after 30 mins. Both of my sisters suggested that I start putting her in her crib for naps and bedtime so that she gets used to it. I tried putting her in there a couple of times but it didn’t work because I was inconsistant with what I was doing. After reading your blog I’m ready to be persistant and do it. Technically, she doesn’t cry for hours on end like most colicy babies…she’s just really fussy and fights sleep. There are times when she won’t sleep at all between feedings. I think she gets herself worked up and overly tired. My question is…Will CIO work even if she has colic/fussiness? Is it okay if she cries the entire naptime until her next feeding or should I try to soothe at some point? Is it okay to use a mobile in the crib or it that a distraction?#3 – My husbands parents will be here from out of state to visit from 8/12 – 8/21. They aren’t staying at our house, they’re staying at a hotel. Should I wait to start CIO until after they’ve left so that I (and the baby) don’t have any distractions and can put 100% into it?Your help/suggestions are greatly appreciated!!
    August 7, 2008 1:10 PM
    Plowmanators said…
    1- When you are first starting BW, I think it is okay to just do a routine. One thing I would strive for is the same wake up time each morning. Consistent Schedule: Start Your Day Right: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/consistent-schedule-start-your-day.html What Time Should I Start My Day: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/what-time-should-i-start-my-day.html Once you feel comfortable in your routine, get started on more of a schedule:Getting a Consistent Schedule: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/getting-consistent-schedule.html
    2. In the evening (the time of day she is crying nonstop) you can use the swing. But I would move her to a bed for other naps. See this post:Waking Early From Naps/Won’t Fall Asleep For Naps: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/waking-early-from-napswont-fall-asleep.html
    3. I think I would wait until they are gone to do CIO, especially if they won’t be supportive of it. I think you will be insecure and unsure of what you are doing, and if you have an audience watching, it will make things harder on you and then therefore baby.Good luck!
    August 11, 2008 10:37 AM
  • Realtor.Rhoades said…
    Hi. I’m new to blogging, please forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place. I stumbled across this blog one night when my 8 month old would not sleep. I have been following babywise since 4 weeks old. However I got hung up on the pacifier as a sleep prop. Realized that and took it away at 6 months then I did the cio and within a week my baby was sleeping well at naps and nightime. However at 8 months old I bought BWII and read that meals should align with the adult meal times ( I took that mystakenly to mean 7am 12 and 5pm). So that got me way off track. In order to accomplish that I thought I had to change my babys schedule. When things were working she was awake from 7am to about 7:30pm, eating at 7 11/11:30 and 3:30/4pm then one more bottle at 7pm. When I got the second book and thought I needed to change I tried to switch to feeding her at 7 12 and 4:30 – as close as I could get to the adult schedule. This is when the problems began. She started having the 45 minute intruder during her 2 daytime naps and also random nightwakings. I thought it was teething because she already had 2 bottom teeth and 2 more top teeth just under the gums. Sure enough her first top tooth poked through and the next one still looks like its not far behind. I got her up at 45 minutes and pressed on during the day naps. At night when the wakeing first happened it was out of character I thought it was the tooth and probably was to a degree so I got her up rocked her until drowsy put her back to sleep. But then it kept happening and is still happening at 9 months. She wakes at night and is so upset sometimes ive given her a bottle to get her back to sleep. Its taking me 2.5 hours to get her back to sleep. I don’t think its teething now. Also her naps are a disaster. She will sometimes cry the whole nap time 1.5-2 hours or cry and play but not sleep at all or sometimes she cries for 45 min to 1 hr and sleeps for only 45 min. She is cranky. Then about 2 times a week randomly she wakes at about 1:30am and its a 2.5hour process of me getting her to sleep by combo of cio, rocking, sometimes feeding. I feel like the situation is way out of control and I don’t know what to do. I know she is extremely alert now and its very hard for her to turn off her brain and sleep. I’ve spent days reading your blog trying to come up with the best solution. Here is my question… What do I do about the night wakings? I don’t mind letting her cio for her naps. I think with persistance this will get corrected. But at night I don’t know what is the right approach. She can get to a point where she seems way to worked up to go to sleep and since its the middle of the night I don’t have an excuse to get her up and feed her so I don’t know what to do. I’ve gone back to what was working before I tried to stretch her feed times so she is back to a 4-4.5 hour schedule eating at 7 11-11:30 3:30-4 and 7. Ive been back on this schedule for 4 days. What would you do about the night wakings? She doesn’t use the swing anymore and never liked it much. She hated swaddling, and she isn’t one for much affection, she doesn’t do well when I go in there to check on her after say 20 min of crying so I just let her go for the whole nap session. She is much like Brayden from what I’ve read. Please direct me to the right part of your blog or address it anew. Ive gotten a lot out of this blog so far and I am so grateful to have someone to ask for help this is the only place I can get answers. Thank you.
    September 11, 2008 12:00 PM
    Plowmanators said…
    Here is a post on night wakings. Nighttime Sleep Issues: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/nightime-sleep-issues.html I think you need to think through the possible solutions and decide what you want to do. If it were me, based on what I know, I think I would give it a week or two of back to the good schedule, then if she is still waking, resort to CIO at night. See also this post since the night wakings started happening in this age group:5-8 Month Sleep Disruptions : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/05/6-month-sleep-disruptions.html
    September 16, 2008 3:18 PM
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289 thoughts on “Sample Babywise Baby Schedules”

  1. So sorry you were so sick! I have to hand it to ya, 2 kids, being sick and STILL posting- you are amazing! Thanks for all your help! Hope everybody is feeling better.

    Reply
  2. This post is so helpful because I’ve been really working on the schedule lately. My daughter is almost 10 weeks and is only doing six nursings a day (7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 10). Is this okay or do I need to squeeze another feeding in?

    Reply
  3. Lindsay,Just another benefit of BW! They are currently sleeping. Earlier, one was sleeping and one was having independent play. Aaahhhhh 🙂

    Reply
  4. Andy,So long as your milk supply seems to be okay (and baby of course), that should be okay. BW says that after 8 weeks old, your baby might be able to move to 6 feedings in 24 hours.

    Reply
  5. I noticed you said at 7 months old, your daughter moved to a 4 hour schedule. But her waketime was only 1.5 hours instead of 2 hours. I was just wondering what made you choose the 1.5 hour waketime. I am trying to move my 7 month old daughter to 4 hours and she is struggling. It is already hard for her to nap solid 2 hours. She usually wakes up after 1 hour and stays awake until time to get up..

    Reply
  6. The reason for our waketime length is that she couldn’t stay up any longer than that. Each baby is different; my son could easily do 2 hours at that age.

    Reply
  7. SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN: I just joined the babywise movement… Right now my son is 16 weeks old. He wakes up between 6-7 in the morning and eats (Bf) every 2 hours until about 7 at night, which is when he will go into night sleep. He will wake up one time during the between 2-4 to eat and then continue to sleep through until 6 or 7 a.m. According to babwise he is supposed to be going 3-4 hours between feedings. How do I do this?

    Reply
  8. Firecracker,I like to do things slowly. I would start by extending feeding times by about 10 minutes. That would involve you trying to distract your baby until it was time to eat. Once he was used to that, I would extend it another 10 minutes. Continue that until you get to 2.5 hours. 2.5 hours would be my first goal. Once that was down, I would continue the extension until I got to 3 hours (or a combo 2.5-3 hour schedule) until he was ready to go longer. From there, just let the schedule naturally extend.

    Reply
  9. Okay so this is my son’s schedule, he is 4 months old…6-wake up nurse7:30-9 sleep9- nurse + solids10-12 sleep12- nurse1:30-3 nurse3- nurse + solids4:30-6 sleep6- nurse6:30- beginning of night sleep#1 Is my son sleeping (napping) too much?#2 Do I wake him to feed him if 3 hours has elapsed or do I let him sleep?#3 This schedule works for me, but my husband comes home from deployment in a month and if My son is going down for the night at like 6 then my husband will never see him awake during the week. How do I adjust?

    Reply
  10. 1. His sleep looks fine, but watch for him to be ready to drop that 4th nap soon. If not drop, at least shorten. Go with when he is ready, but be aware he is at that age when many drop it.2. Yes. If you consistently need to wake him up for feedings, you can start to extend the schedule. I like to start slowly–like just a feeding or two. 3. Number one and two will help. If he doesn’t have that 4th nap, he will be awake in the evening. Also, as he extends the time between feedings, you can push bedtime back a bit.

    Reply
  11. Okay, so I am in a bit of a situation. My 3.5 mo old son was doing great a week and a half ago on a 3 hour schedule. Then all of a sudden he isn’t taking a full feeding during the day. It might be causing his naps to be interrupted. Also, I have tried to extend his waketime to extend his feeding time, but he is like Kaitlyn and just cannot stay up much past an hour. What do I do? I’m EBF and I don’t know how to get him to eat more or should I be changing his feeding schedule? The past few days I have increased the morning feedings to 3.5 hours instead of 3 and it hasn’t seemed to help. Any suggestions? Thanks!

    Reply
  12. Will he sleep longer? You really can’t force waketime extensions; it usually just backfires into a shorter nap. How do you know he isn’t taking a full feeding? Is he just eating faster, or is he waking up sooner out of hunger? Both of my kids got significantly faster at nursing at 3 months old–both cut their nursing time in half.

    Reply
  13. Lots of questions for anyone willing to respond regarding schedules (Plowmanators please kindly weigh in with your advice). We’re really struggling with our schedule for our 6 month old daughter (6 mos this week). We haven’t started solids yet, but will do so this weekend. Currently, she is on a 2 hr 45 min schedule with 6 “scheduled” liquid feedings, with 1.25 hrs of waketime. Sometimes she sleeps all the way through until the end of her nap and we have to wake her. Other times, she wakes early on her own. On any given day, she will do both pretty consistently.1) Does dropping a nap always mean dropping a feeding (i.e. wake-feed-nap cycle)? I feel like she is possibly napping too much, as our current schedule has her taking 5 naps, not including nighttime sleep. BUT, I feel like she needs all of her feedings. If I drop a nap and a feeding will she just start eating more at each feeding so that she consumes the same amount in a 24 hour period?2) Right now she is drinking an average of 4 ounces of breastmilk 6 times per day (approx 24 ounces in a 24 hour period). How much does a typical 6 month old (prior to starting solids) drink in a 24 hour period?3) Unknowingly I did a really bad thing when she was a newborn and started putting her in a papasan cradle swing for her naps. Now, she doesn’t want to nap in the pack n play or crib, she ONLY wants to nap in the swing with it rocking back and forth. UGG! Yes, I did this to myself. Any suggestions on how to overcome this? Do I just continue to use the swing until she doesn’t fit in it anymore? Or, do I cut her off “cold turkey” and only offer the pack n play for naps and just deal with the several days of drama that will ensue because she refuses to nap. She has to eventually get tired…right?? 4) It seems like she can stay awake much longer in the evening than she can throughout the rest of the day. Does anyone else experience shorter wake time in the AM and extended wake time in the PM?Thanks so much if you’ve read this far!

    Reply
  14. no, he’s definitely not eating well. i decided to pump all day today and give him a bottle so i can record just how much he is eating. he woke up at 4am and i bf him and i know he took a full feeding. he acted like he was starving. then when i woke him up to feed him at 7am, i fed him a bottle and he only ate 1.5oz. but he took a good nap after about 45 min of playtime. then at 10am he wouldn’t finish the 2.5oz bottle i gave him. he only ate about 2oz. then of course, his nap after that only lasted about 45 min. and i tried to help him back to sleep. every 15 min he’d wake up screaming. so i knew he was hungry and fed him at 12:30 and he ate 3.5oz. so i’m pretty sure he needs to eat more. should i try to wean him from the 4am feeding? and i have another question, which may seem kind of dumb, but how do you know when they are done with their nap? he seems to fuss alot and cry alot during his naps. I never know when to go get him or encourage him to sleep more.

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  15. TiredMommy,1-No. Definitely not. Your daughter is likely ready to remove naps from her schedule. Most 6 months old will only have 3 naps. Some even start dropping that 3rd nap at 6 months. If you look at my schedules listed, you will see that we had eat, play, eat in the evening.2-I don’t know the answer to that because I breastfeed. I know 24 ounces is what a one year old should get in 24 hours. From things I have seen other moms post, that could be fine. If diapers are wet and she is happy, then it should be enough for her. The book Super Baby Food could answer that for you.3-If it were me, I would do cold turkey. The older she gets, the harder CIO will get. She will get louder, she will be able to stand in the crib…as hard as it will be for you now, it will likely only get harder. 4-Yes, totally normal. That would be the time-period to drop a nap.

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  16. Becky,I would try to figure out the reason he is eating less in the day. One thing I wonder about is teething. They can have pains months and months before an actual tooth ever breaks through. Many moms say baby eats a lot less in day than night. You could try dropping the 4 AM feeding, or cutting back. I knew my daughter didn’t need the night feeding when she ate well at night but not for breakfast. I slowly cut back the length of time she nursed.Does he have any medical issues like reflux? My suspicion is some sort of pain associated with eating. If he is eating better while half-asleep than while fully awake, that points to pain while eating. At your baby’s age, it is normal to wake up crying. They usually stop doing that somewhere around 5 months. So at that age, it is hard to tell from their initial wake up. You can better tell in the disposition during waketime. If they are fussier than normal, then they likely had too short of a nap.

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  17. Valerie,You said You started Brayden at 9 weeks. What age did he sttn? I started mine at 7 weeks. I have not seen her sttn yet. Should i be concerned since she is close to 11 weeks now.

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  18. He was 3 months old when he STTN two nights in a row, then never repeated it again until he was 6 months old. Hopefully that will encourage rather than discourage you 🙂

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  19. Sorry for harassing you with my never-ending questions… But I got another one for ya. I really wish I had found this book when I was pregnant and not when my son was already 15 weeks old haha. Anyways.My son is starting to make me nervous. He is beginning to want more wake time in the morning and sleeping longer for his naps in the afternoon. (i.e. moving towards a 4 hour schedule, since we are still at 3-3.5)The reason this is making me nervous is because he is still not sttn. He used to when he was like 2-3 months old, but stopped once he got close to 4 months. We have a cosleeping situation since I am staying with my Dad. So at night he will begin to stir at say 1 or 2 in the morning but if I get up and go down stairs to sleep he will go back to sleep. Then he wakes at 4 and wants to eat with a final wake up time between 6 and 6:30. So how do I address him lengthening his days since his nights aren’t figured out? He is getting a DF still at 9 o’clock. Thank you so much. You really have no idea how much for site has helped me.Danielle

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  20. I have a question. My son is 4 months and we have been using bw since he was 8 weeks. Lately, I have been having a scheduling problem. He is on a four hour schedule. However, I’m not sure how to keep his schedule the same every day because some days he sleeps longer than other days which means his time that he lays down for a nap is different. He wakes at 7:45 and eats at 8 every morning. The feeding times I always keep the same but if he wakes after an hour and a half, then after he eats he is ready to go to sleep 20 minutes later because he has already been up for so long. How do I fix this and what would a good schedule be for him, and a schedule that will be consistent every day.

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  21. Sorry, Danielle, that was for Hunter’s mom. I didn’t get a notification of your comment? Sometimes it does that. Let me read it over and I wil get back to you 🙂

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  22. Danielle,That is tricky. You really want the middle of the night feed and the dreamfeed dropped before you extend to a 4 hour schedule.My guess is that he is capable of STTN if you think he can go 4 hours in the day. I would imagine CIO at night to be hard with your living situation. See these posts for ideas alternative to CIO in the night and also problem solving night problems:Nighttime Sleep Issues: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/nightime-sleep-issues.htmlEarly Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.htmlCIO is the fastest way to solve that night issue, but other ways will work too. I haven’t ever actually done CIO in the night myself. I do the alternative methods. Good luck!

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  23. Hi Valerie,Thank for your answer to another question I posted on your blog. I could use some more advice if you don’t mind. 1.My son is an inconsistent napper (at 11 weeks) and sometimes it’s 45 minutes, sometimes 2.5 hours. This really messes with the 3 hour schedule I’m trying to keep. He’s able to only stay awake for about 1 hour so he either wakes too early for the next feeding or sleeps past the next feeding. Should I be limiting his nap length to 1.5 hours? I feel bad doing that because it seems like the long naps are making up for the short ones!2. He’s not sleeping through the night yet and my dream feed is not working well because he totally wakes up and then stays awake crying in his crib for a long time after I put him back. I should probably give up on then do you think?Thanks for any help!Lynae

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  24. 1- I would wake him up at the 3 hour mark, but you can let him sleep until 2 hours that way. Awake for one, sleep for two.2-If the dreamfeed doesn’t work, don’t do it. Some moms find that the baby sleeps better without it. Good luck!

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  25. Hi Val, welcome back! We recently dropped the 4th nap and we’re still on a 3hr. schedule. The problem is my lo keeps waking up at 6:30 am instead of 7:00 am and is throwing the schedule off by a half hour so we end up with 3 hours of wake time at the end of the day w/o the 4th nap. If she wakes at 7am I would put her to bed at 6:30 pm but I dont want to put her to bed at 6:00 pm when she wakes at 6:30 am. Gosh did any of that make sense?? Do you have any suggestions? Thank you!

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  26. I would go for 12 hours of sleep. If bedtime is 6:30, you might need to do a 6:30 waketime until she can stay up long enough. Also, be sure to see today’s post on waketime length.

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  27. I dont think I made much sense when I wrote that. She isnt able to handle 3 hours of waketime so I would put her to bed 1/2hr. earlier until she gets used to not having the 4th nap, our normal bedtime is 7pm. But she’s been waking at 6:30am so a 1/2hr earlier bed time would mean puting her to bed at 6pm…which gets us even further from our goal. Actually yesterday I ended up giving her the 4th nap (2 naps were cut short due to dirty diapers) and she slept much better at night…I had to wake her at 7:00am! I dont think we’re ready to rule out that 4th nap just yet…we’ll have to play it day by day for now. Last night she had only 1.5hrs waketime before bed and did so much better.

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  28. That sounds like good troubleshooting on your part. I would recommend reading the “dropping a nap, a weaning process” post. Kaitlyn took forever to fully drop her third nap. Just take it slowly.

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  29. I need help! My 7 week old daughter who is formula fed cannot seem to make it through a whole nap! I made sure that she woke up at 6:30 this morning and she did eat but then wanted to go immediatly back to sleep. I tried to wake her for some play time, but it didn’t work. She then slept till I woke her at 9:30 when she also wanted to go straight back to sleep, but then she only slept for a hour and the whole rest of the day she would only sleep for 30 min before crying – and she cried for 40+ min a few times until I finally just got her up. The rest of the day is just aweful with her crying off and on and I can’t decide if she’s really hungry. Isn’t 2 hours too soon for a formula fed baby to take another meal. I thought we were supposed to be on a 3-4 hour schedule? Should I let her CIO at every nap if thats what happens? What am I doing wrong?

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  30. Did she have the 6 week growth spurt? I would be sure she is getting as much food as she needs. You could increase the number of ounces offered or feed more often if she can’t eat more. After that, really work on her having wake time. It is totally normal for her to not nap well if she doesn’t have playtime. BW even uses that as an example, saying parents feed the baby to sleep only to have her wake 30 minutes later and the parents wonder what is wrong. It is hard with newborns, especially those really sleepy ones. See this post: Sleepy Newborns: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/sleepy-newborns.html

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  31. So my son is still on a three hour schedule, he gets 5 nursing and a dreamfeed. He is sleeping through the night (thank goodness!) and things seem to be going well. But I am wondering if he is ready for a 4 hour schedule. He seems to be able to stay up longer now and his naps are getting shorter. Do I mess with a good thing or do I just let him be?

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  32. Funny Story…..So I posted what like 2.5 days ago about his sleep schedule and if he should move to 4 hours… Well today he decided he wanted to. Ironic huh? He has been going 4 hours between all meals today. woo hooWe’ll see how his sleep goes tonight. Wish me luck!

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  33. At 4 months I saw Kaitlyn’s last nursing was at 6:30. What time was her bedtime? I’m just curiuos b/c recently we stopped nursing right before bed and I’m wondering how early a baby can nurse before bedtime. My daughter sleeps (on a good night) from about 8;15-7:30. Do you think if I fed her at 7 that would be okay or would that be too early?Thanks for answering my other question. We’re going to try working on that this weekend.

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  34. Hi Kate,She was in bed right after eating. It was probably 7:15-7:30. She did have a dreamfeed, though. I just wouldn’t go more than 12 hours between nursing. So if you want her to wake at 7:30 and nurfse, I would nurse her at 7:30. You might be able to go longer. You just want to stay mindful of your milk supply. Some women will pump right before they go to bed to keep that up if they need to. If your baby can handle 7-7:30, then be mindful of milk supply and it will be fine!

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  35. I noticed in Kaitlyn’s schedule at 4 months, she did not have a nap between her 430 and 630 feedings. When is it okay not implement the eat/wake/nap pattern? Was Kaitlyn able to stay awake for the whole two hours? My 13 week old son has a similar schedule, 7,10,1,4,630, bed at 8/830,11,3. I was wondering if I should feed him when he goes to bed at 8/830 to help him STTN and not wake him for dreamfeed. It is difficult waking him up for his 11 dreamfeed. He is in deep sleep and very drowsy. Please advise.

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  36. The first time you don’t really have the eat/wake/sleep cycle is at that age when they drop the fourth nap and go down to three naps a day. I would definitely try to feed at 8:30 and see how he does. If it doesn’t work out, you can always go back 🙂

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  37. My baby is 9.5 weeks old. We bottlefeed her breastmilk that I pump. She has always been a great sleeper, and her waketimes are fairly short. It’s difficult to keep her awake longer than 1.5 hours during each waketime the day. About two weeks ago, she stopped waking in the middle of the night to feed and was able to sleep from 9p-7a. We were on a 3 hour schedule during the day and she was getting 6 feedings. After about a week of good nights, we noticed that she was having a harder time falling back to sleep after the last feeding of the day (9pm with no waketime). And she also started to cry around 5:30 am. We let her cry out the 5:30 am wake up with success. This week, we tried switching to a 3.5 hour schedule and 5 feedings, because we noticed that we were consistently needing to wake her from her naps (see BW page 123 “how to drop a feeding”). I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but getting her back to sleep after the last feeding of the day has gotten even more difficult. Last night she woke up every 1-2 hours crying throughout the entire night. We fed her once, although that didn’t settle her down. It really didn’t seem like hunger waking her up. And we know she can go longer at night. Any recommendations?

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  38. First, just so you know, 1.5 hour of waketime is actually long for her age, so she is totally fine in that area. Most babies her age will only be able to do about 1 hour of waketime.One thing to point out is that BW recommends not dropping a day feeding until you drop that last feeding of the day (your 9 PM feeding, commonly referred to as a dreamfeed). If it were me, I think I would go back to the 3 hour schedule and see if that fixes things. If so, you know she wasn’t ready for 5 feedings a day.Also, BW doesn’t suggest moving to a longer than 3 hour schedule until 12 weeks at the oldest. It also recommends at least 6 feedings a day until at least 13 weeks. So, if your baby isn’t ready for 5 feedings and a longer schedule, don’t feel like she isn’t progressing, she would actually be right on track 🙂

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  39. I have a 4 1/2 month old who definitely wants to move to a four hour routine, but I am not sure how to do this b/c he is not consistently going 4 hours between meals. He will go 4 hours a couple of times a day and then will do 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Of course this throws off the whole day and I find myself feeding him 2 hours apart at the end of the day trying to get that 5th feeding in by bedtime. He doesn’t like that because he spits up a lot from being too full. Should I just force him to wait four hours between meals? Should I feed him more at each feeding so he will wait 4 hours?

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  40. One more question about the 4 hour routine:) Bobby has about an hour and a half of waketime and then takes about an hour to an hour and a half nap. That leaves about 45 minutes to an hour before the nest feeding if I move to a 4 hour routine. Is that okay? Should I just let him play during that time? I love this blog! Thank you for your dedication to helping us new and confused mommys:)

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  41. Hi, I appologize, I wasn’t notified of your first question, so I am glad you posted a second one :)You are at one of those difficult transitional periods where things just aren’t smooth. Have 45-60 minutes between waking and eating is not ideal. It is going to put you into a spin of throwing off your cycle. You can have 15-20 minutes…but 45-60 is a lot. Since he is having 1.5 waketime, that would mean he eats and then takes his nap shortly after he is done eating, which throws off your eat/wake/sleep.Since you asked if you should force him to wait 4 hours, I assume he will eat sooner than 4? If it were me, I would do a combo 3-4 hour schedule for now until either he takes longer naps or he can stay awake longer. I would only have one 4 hour interval at the most right now (and only if he needs it). For example (just as an example):7AM eat11AM eat2:30PM eat5:30 PM eat8PM eatIf he won’t eat 2.5 at the end of the day, I would move the 2:30 to 2 and 5:30 to 5 and then do 8. A combo schedule is just fine. I would just avoid moving to a 4 hour before he can make it the whole time; you will only cause stress for yourself if you move early. Before too long, he should be at a point where this transition is a bit easier. Good luck!

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  42. Hello Postmaster, Thank you for your time and wisdom! My son sounds like how Brayden was so I appreciate you posting his info too. He is almost 7 months, is on a 4 hr schedule. His naps will be 1.5 – 2 hours long. For his first 2 naps he rarely sleeps for the full 2 hours. He seems to fight the cat nap but you can tell he is tired his cat nap is around 4:30-5:00 or later depending on when he starts to get tired (if you have any suggestions for this please let me know). His bed time is between 8-8:30pm. I want he is supposed to wake at 6:30 but for the past few weeks or so he wakes at 6 am..YIKES!! Even if we have a busy night and he goes to bed at 9pm he still wakes at 6 am! I nurse him and feed him solids at 6:30pm and then nurse him before I put him down for bed. Should I nurse him at 6:30 and then feed him solids closer to his bed time?? It seems like all he needs is about 13.5 hours of sleep a day and he is good to go. What do you suggest we do to have a later wake up time???

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  43. You know, I have really found June to be a low-sleep month in general. The sun is up the longest, and if you have a sun-rising baby, then you have a much earlier waketime and a later bedtime (because a sun riser is usually also a sun setter). It is totally normal for a child to wake at the same time even if going to bed later. You could try to do nursing and solids at 8:30, but I think closer to 6:30 is probably better. I would just try to back up wake up time by waking 15 minutes later at a time, hopefully getting him to sleep later. I would also consider the possibility of other reasons waking him (sun, heat, cold, etc.).

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  44. Hi, My baby is starting the 9th week of life. Her schedule is as follows…(astricks *** are next to PROBLEMS i am having in the schedule)7:30 nurse8:30 nap10:30 nurse11:30 nap1:00 nurse2:30 nap4:00 nurse**** nap ****6:30 nurse7:30 nap8:30 nurse***bedtime***10:30 nurse (dreamfeed)****go right back to sleep****5am (she wakes up on her own at this time for this dreamfeed)go right back to sleep——-questions:1. before the 4pm nursing she woke so happy. until this point she has not cried at all or very little goign down for naps. after feeding her i put her down for a nap at 5:30 (1.5 hour wake time)she cries until 5:50 where i go, pick her up, and put her back down. she continues to cry until 6:10 on and off. by that time it is almost her 6:30 feed so i take her out and just play w/ her unti 6:30. this is consistently a hard time for her to nap. should i just omit this nap completely and just keep her up from her 4 pm feed until her next 6:30 feed? what would you do?2. in your schedule you made kaitlin’s bedtime at 8:30pm right after that feeding. however, after i feed abigail at 8:30, when i put her in the crib, she will cry VERY LOUD indefinitely…every 20 minutes we go to comfort and put her back down). we found the only thing that keeps the crying to a minimum is put her down at 8:30, let her cry, go get her 9:10 let her feed again, put her down, let her cry until 10 feed her again, and then she goes down to sleep. once asleep she goes 7 hours until the morning. this 8-10pm period is the hardest part of the day. its very inconvenient to have her so fussy during prime evening hours and its stressful to hear her crying non stop fro 8-10. please any suggestions or recommendations on how you would handle this situation would be greatly appreciated.

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  45. 1. Part of it might just be normal fussiness for a baby, but I would suggest you try to put her down earlier–maybe even after only one hour. She is young enough that 1.5 hours might be too much for her; my daughter was still at only 1 hour waktime for part of the day at 7 months.2. It seems this is not all that uncommon. I might try giving her some waketime. My son had a later bedtime. Some kids just need more sleep than others and more waketime than others. Find what works for her and do it that way. You will see that my two children have been very different and had different schedules. As Kaitlyn has gotten older, he schedule has come to be more similar to Brayden’s, but it is still not just what his was. She is a different person with different needs. Take what you can from the samples, but always do what you find to be best for your baby. Experiment and see what works. It might take some time. Have heart. I know it is a lot or work, but it really pays off in the end.

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  46. My son will be 10 mos shortly and I am looking for a sample schedule. I started out babywise and now I feel like I have lost my way. It seems like the only time he goes down for a nap is immediately after I nurse him! Not what I want and I know that is not what is best for him. It seems like he can eat less often then his current every 3 hour schedule but I do not want to compromise my milk supply. He is teething and has been refusing to nap for the past couple days – but honestly I think it is because I am missing his cues and he is overtired by the time I get him to bed. Any help or guidance would be much appreciated!!! Also – I try to feed him solids immediately after nursing him but he is not too interested and would prefer to wait….which also throws off our schedule.

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  47. Hi,I have a question about your 3 month’s schedule. I notice that you said she would wake at 6 AM and you would feed her, then the wake up time is 7:30AM. So, would you feed her at 6, put back to sleep, then wake at 7:30 to feed and start the day? MY 12 week old son is doing the same. I dreamfeed him at 10, then he wakes at 6 AM and I feed him and we start the day. I would love to have our wake time at 7:30, so should I put him back to sleep after the 6 AM feeding? Do you think he will eat a full meal 1 1/2 hours later? 🙂 Thanks for your thoughts. Ashley

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  48. germansheps, I would encourage you to try out a longer schedule. At 10 months, your supply should be well-established. He will eat the same amount, just take larger portions at a sitting. For the solids, try nursing one side, solids, nursing the other. Take a look at the 9 month and 11 month schedules above to get ideas for what you can be doing for your son. Good luck!

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  49. Hi Ashely,Yes, she ate at 6 AM, then I woke her at 7:30 to start the day. I would encourage you to try to put him right back down, then wake him at 7:30-8:00. He will likely take less than he usually would, but you want to establish that waketime. If he won’t eat at all, it is a good sign he can drop that 6 AM and move it out. See this post for more on that:Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html

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  50. I am so happy to have found your website. I wish I would have had it when my three year old was born. She was a babywise nightmare. Anyway, now I have a 5 month old little boy and I am doing babywise again. Here is my problem:My little boy is a great sleeper. Sleeping consistently 11 hours straight at night since he was 9 weeks old (formula fed). He took 4 great naps at the time and soon after 3 months started sleeping longer during naps and switched himself to a four hour schedule. I tried to fight that in the beginning and feed him every three hours, but he just refused to eat and I didn’t want to force feed him. He would just cry when you layed him back to give him the bottle. So I just got over it, and let him switch to four hour schedule. He would wake at 7:30 eat and nap at 8:45 and sleep until 11:30. Eat at 11:45, nap at 1:15 and sleep until 4:00pm. Eat and nap again around 5:15 for maybe 30 minutes. Then I would let him play and then bath at 6:30 then bottle and bed at 7:30. It was WONDERFUL! Now he is having a little switcheroo! He is still in the bed at 7:30, but he started waking up around 5:45 and just talks to himself. One day I just decided to wait and see what he did. After 30 minutes of talking, he went back to sleep without fussing and slept until 7:45. It put our schedule off a little, but I was trying to be a little flexible. He took his nap at 9:00 (instead of 8:45) and has started waking after 45 minutes not crying. He talks to himself and hardly ever cries-he sounds happy as if he is ready to get up. I once again decided to leave him alone and after 40 minutes of talking he went back to sleep and slept 2 more hours. So then his afternoon schedule is crazy and he eats around 12:30, then asleep at 2:00 (instead of 1:15) and does the same thing. Wakes up after 45 minutes, talks and goes back to sleep for 2 hours. Then it is around 5:00pm. Too late for 3rd nap so I keep him up and bed at same time which puts those feeding closer together (2.5 hours)but he does accept this pretty easily. PLEASE HELP! I know that I could have worse problems, but why is he waking up. It is so frustrating. Is it just a phase? I know it is not hunger because he never cries and goes back to sleep without any trouble. Some some suggestions would be great. How to deal with the early morning wakeup and going back to sleep. How to deal with the 45 minute wakeup during naps and then sleeping on? I know I should probably wake him up, but he is so grouchy after I do that. I know he needs his sleep. Or maybe just deal with it for now and he will stop waking up early in the morning and after 45 minutes? Is this his new schedule? Your suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

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  51. Oh, one more thing. About the time this all started, I switched him from his bassinet to his bed. Maybe that has something to do with it? But he has been in the new bed for over a week.Thanks and sorry for the novel, but I really need your help.

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  52. I’d love your advice!My baby has been on a three hour “pattern”, as you’ve aptly distinguished from a schedule, since birht–except at night when I’ve fed him anytime he’s woken up which has been 4+. He didn’t always eat much before dozing right back off. I recently moved him to another room and after two nights it looks like he’s only really waking up twice and all the other times I was just responding before he could fall back asleep. He’s now 15 weeks and I’m trying to introduce BW to our lives. I’m having a very hard time drawing up a schedule because feeding/napping times have always varied for him or his naps have been interrupted by our lives. Ironically, I’ve kept a sleep log since he was born but am also having a hard time creating a schedule to implement because in the last week or so he’s started sleeping 1.5-2 hours at naps (some not all and different naps each day). He’s NEVER napped longer than an hour before so I’m noting it as a change in development. I’m trying to clear our schedule this week so I can watch him closely without external interruptions but thought I should loosely start guiding him into a set schedule.He’s mostly BF but I a couple meals a day I find he’s unsatisfied and supplement. He has no problem going 2 hours between naps but I’ve never known him to go longer without fussing. Here’s a rough look at what I’m considering:7:00 wake and feed9:00-11:00 nap11:00 feed (this 4 hour spread has been what he’s done the last few days on his own) 1:00-2:30 nap2:30 feed (this is 3.5)4:30-5:30 nap5:30 feed (this one’s 3)7:30-8:30 nap8:30 feed (another 3)10:00 bed11:00 dreamfeed? (2.5)Is it crazy to have so many combinations (2.5-4)?I just don’t know about staying up much later than 11 to dreamfeed him. Why isn’t it recommended to feed him before his bedtime? Because it’s too close to his last meal? I’ve always done a bath and bottle for his bedtime routine because I don’t want him to fall asleep nursing but want him to go to sleep with a full belly. Right now it looks like he gets up 3.5 hours into the night for his first meal and around 5:00 am for his second. I don’t want to CIO until he has a firm daytime schedule because I think it may eliminate one of his night feeds.I’m slowly making it through your past posts (I just found your blog) including the starting babywise late, bedtime, consistent schedule: start your day right, getting a consistent schedule, when to move to a four hour schedule. I have soooo many more to read so thank you thank you thank you for this resource. Any suggestions for us would be great. I do struggle with my milk supply but love that he’s gained the ability to nap for 2 hours. So I’m open to adding another meal to the day to eliminate night but keep up my milk, but am not sure how to fit all the napping and eating in! Decisions, decisions. 🙂

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  53. As a follow up…it looks like my son only takes two hour naps after he’s had a supplementary bottle after BFing. Even though he’s ready to sleep for longer periods of time, perhaps I need to start on a 3 hour schedule and shift gradually to keep up the milk? Sniffle sniffle. I’ve loved the two hour nap but I want to BF as long as possible.

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  54. Darcie,The first note I would make is that two hours of wake time is most likely going to be too much for him at 15 weeks. He will most likely be from about 60-90 minutes (including feeding).It is perfectly fine to have combo schedules, but I might knock the 4 hour down to 3.5…and BW suggests not going up to 3.5 at all until baby can sleeps 7-8 hours in the night without a feed. Baby needs so many feedings in a 24 hour period, and if there aren’t enough in the daytime, there will need to be some in the night. I would also put him to bed really soon after his 8:30 feeding. I would feed, do bedtime routine, and put in bed.This post should help:Sample Schedules : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/03/sample-schedules.htmlIf you want to continue to breastfeed for a long time, I would cut out the supplementary feedings. You can take it back slowly so your body has time to make up what he needs. So long as you don’t have a medical condition that prevents you from making enough milk, your body will make what he needs if you give it the chance. He might not nap as long right now as he would on formula right now, but at some point breastmilk has more calories than formula (as baby gets older, calories per ounce increase in breastmilk, though not formula).

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  55. Hi, I’m trying to transition my 6 month old daughter from BF to solids and I don’t want to mess up a good thing. Her schedule is as follows… 7AM FEED8:30 NAP10AM FEED11:30 NAP1PM FEED2:30 NAP4PM FEED7PM FEEDWhat time do you suggest I introduce solids and nap her? Should I switch her to a 4hr schedule?Thanks

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  56. My little girl is 15 weeks old today and for the past week I have had a terrible time putting her down for naps. She also has become disinterested in her 8:00 pm feeding. I thought about going to a 3.5 hr. routine, but that would drop her down to 5 feedings and I wasn’t sure if it was too soon for this??? I wondered if I should try dropping her DF first? Please help! This is my schedule as of right now:8:00 am Nurse9:30 am Nap11:00 am Nurse (usually have to wake her)1:00 pm Nap2:00 pm Nurse3:30 pm Nap (having a hard time with this one)5:00 pm Nurse7:00 pm Nap (having hard time w/this one)8:00 pm Nurse9:30 pm Bed10:30 pm Bottle of expressed milk given to her by daddy (DF)Thanks

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  57. Hi,Your blog is extremely helpful. The info/help I’m looking for might be here somewhere, but I’m just not finding it. I have been doing BW with my 6 month old twin girls since they were 3 weeks. They were STTN (10.5 hours) by 9 weeks. We are currently on a 3 hour schedule, which works fine for me. However, they will not nap longer than 30-40 minutes. I have tried the nap fixes. If I put them down earlier, they play or scream in their crib. They are averaging about a 1.5 to 2 hour wake time. The problem is that with the short naps they are waking up before the next feeding so our schedule is becoming eat, play, sleep, play, eat, play, sleep… Is it possible that they only need the short naps? I would love to try two naps a day but I can’t figure out the right schedule for it and I am afraid that if they only sleep for 40 minutes that my entire day will be shot with fussy babies. Also, both have reflux and they seem to need slightly different amounts of sleep but I am keeping them on the same schedule for my sanity… Could you suggest a good two nap schedule? They currently take their first and last feedings at 6am and 6 pm which works out great for my schedule.Thanks!

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  58. Debbie,I would leave her on the exact same schedule and start to introduce the solids. I would introduce at the 7 AM feed so you have all day to watch for possible allergies. Remember to only do one feed a day for the first bit. See the many solids posts for more on that. On your current schedule, I would feed solids at 7, 1, then either 4 or 7. I would do 7, but some do 4. It will likely take her at least a month to be eating enough solids consistently to make a huge difference for her schedule (as far as extending). Just watch for the signs. It will likely come within the next month or two.

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  59. TwinMommy, Reflux does often delay good sleep. Once that calms down, their sleep should improve.Do they sleep in the same crib? I don’t have experience with twins, but if they sleep in the same bed I would guess they are disturbing each other at this age. If so, you could even just get a pack and play and put it somewhere and trade who sleeps where.If you think they need to do only two naps, I would shoot for 8 (2 hours after waking) and 12 (two hours after waking assuming they sleep 2 hours for first nap). The problem is that they are then up from 2-bedtime, again assuming they take a two hour nap. Things should get easier soon as they are able to stay up longer with more success. Good luck!

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  60. I put the girls in separate cribs at about 10 weeks because one was kicking the other while they were settling in for naps. There was not much worse than when the sleeping twin was woken up this way – talk about grumpy!I don’t know if I’ll try the two nap approach since I really don’t expect they will sleep for two. At least with the short naps they are staying well rested and happy. I will keep troubleshooting the nap length/waketime for a while and see if anything improves. I keep wondering if maybe they are getting what they need and it just doesn’t match up with my hope for 1.5 hour naps. I can’t even imaging what I would do with a break that long anymore. Probably sleep LOL!

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  61. lol! Sleep is right 🙂 Have you seen the twins post? I don’t know if anything in there will help or not. My friend Lauren is one of the contributers on that post. I know she said she uses a white noise machine or fan or something in the room to prevent her twins from waking each other. I don’t know if that is in that post or not, but I know she does it.Babywise and Twins: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/02/babywise-and-twins.html

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  62. Twins post was nice. I guess we all just pretty much do what works. Keeping them on schedule definitely makes twins less stressful! Thanks for all the helpful information. I am reading Babywise II now. Will be working on conquering rasberries while eating solid foods… Things have gotten a little messy! At least only one of them is doing it!

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  63. HA! If you thought that was funny, I broke the one (Melanie) of it and the next day the other one (Sarah) decided it was her turn! Truly never ending fun with these two!Got an hour and 15 minute nap from Sarah yesterday. Not sure what happened to lead to that but sure am going to try and figure that out. Daddy was on watch at the time so props to him for hitting the mark. Melanie on the other hand seems to be suffering from a lot of teething pain. She took her morning nap, a 10 minute snooze after the 9 am feeding and a 5 minute snooze after the noon. Finally after the 3pm feeding I got her to go down for nearly an hour and a half. Got lots of one on one time with each yesterday but boy was I tired by the end of it all! Of course, if I can get them both to take the one longer nap at the same time it will be heaven! I must just love the insanity of it all because now we’ve added an 8 week old puppy to the mix! Now the fun truly never stops 🙂

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  64. I have been working on my 6 month old son’s naps and I have determined that he can do 1.5-2 hours of wake time, but the problems I am having are that if I put him down at 9:30 instead of 10 he wakes up at 11:30 and he has to wait till 12 to eat. Then in the afternoon if I put him down at 1:30 he will wake up at 3 and thats 1 hour before his 4pm feeding. He will not sleep longer than 1.5-2 hours. We always sturggle with the afternoon nap. Alos, in the afternoon I feed him at 4, 6 and 8 he isn’t that hungry at neither the 6 or 8 feeding do I need to just feed him at 4 and 8? How should I modify his schedule? Does he need to be on a 3.5 schedule? He seems completely fine eating every 4 hours, but I am having trouble making the naps work. He hasn’t been taking an evening catnap in about a month. I have found that if he takes a catnap then he will wake up 2 hours early in the morning. This has been his schedule:8:00am-8:30am Diaper Change and Eat bottle and solids8:30am- 10:00am Awake10:00am-12:00pm Nap12:00pm-12:30pm Diaper Change and Eat bottle and solids12:30am-2:00pm Awake2:00pm-4:00pm Nap 4:00pm-4:30pm Diaper Change and Eat 6 oz bottle4:30pm-5:30pm Awake6:00pm-6:30pm Diaper Change and Eat bottle and solids6:00pm-7:45pm Awake7:45pm Bath8:00pm Eat 6oz 8:30pm BedtimeThank you so much!Shawna

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  65. I love your blog! You have helped me so much and I could really use your suggestions again. My son will be 11 weeks soon and his schedule looks like this:7am – wake/feed8am – nap10am – wake/feed11am – nap1pm – wake/feed2pm – nap4pm – wake/feed5pm – nap7pm – wake/feed/bath8pm – bedtime10:30pm – dreamfeedI am having a few issues though. 1) his naps are not always 2 hours long sometimes they are only 1 or 1.5 hours and sometimes he wakes intermittently. If he’s content I usually let him be but sometimes he’ll just stay awake until I come get him. If I get him when he wakes early would I have to adjust my schedule for the rest of the day? He can only to 1 hour of waketime. But if I feed him earlier than the 3 hour mark I know he won’t be hungry. Which brings me to my next issue – 2) He’s not always hungry. At 2 months he is getting about 20-23 ounces of formula in 24 hours. The doctor says he’s gaining weight appropriately so she’s not worried but I feel he should be eating more. I wanted to work on dropping the dreamfeed soon but I wonder if this would make it worse! 3) He is consistently these days waking around 5 am and fussing on and off until I come get him at 7. I don’t go in earlier because he is fussy but not crying and his eyes are even still closed.Is there any changes I should make to my schedule to deal with these issues or is this just a quirky phase he is going through and I should just give it time?

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  66. TwinMommy, That is funny. The puppy thing is insanity! We got a puppy when Brayden was 13 months old and that was hard enough. Good luck with it all! Sounds like you have your hands full.

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  67. Shawna,You can have about 20 minutes of waketime after waking to eat if needed, but I wouldn’t do an hour. I would cut back to a 3.5 hour schedule for now. To feed every four hours then every two is quite the jump.8:0011:303:006:008:00I would try that eating schedule and see if it goes better. It is possible that he needs to drop that 6 feeding. I would try this first since he isn’t sleeping long enough to make the four hour schedule yet.

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  68. LEM,1-See this post about that:Waketime When Baby Wakes Early : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/04/waketime-when-baby-wakes-early.htmlandWaketime When They Wake Early: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/waketime-when-they-wake-early.htmlIf he consistently wakes after 1.5 hours at certain times of day, I would make that the schedule. A 1.5 hour nap is acceptable.2-It could make it worse, but it could possibly increase the amount he eats at other feedings. One thing, though, is I would encourage you to let him set the pace. He knows what he needs. Since the doctor is comfortable with it, I wouldn’t worry about it.3-Since he is doing this, I would probably wait until that stops before dropping the dreamfeed. It might all be a quirky phase.

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  69. I just wanted to echo the thanks that others have left here! This site has been very helpful and it has been great reading about other mothers who love the BW method. We were given the book while I was still pregnant and it was also recommended by a few other mothers. My husband and I couldn’t be more happy with it!Having said that, I do have a couple of questions. My son will be 3mos in a couple of days. He is currently eating at 6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 4, 7, and 10. He is able to stay awake in the afternoon for about 1.5 hours and then get a 2 hour nap (between the 12:30 and 4 feedings). Here are my questions:1. I have not the best at actually waking up at 6:30. My son has to be woken up at 6:30 and I have found myself sleeping in to 7 the last couple of days. Is that a problem with that only being 2.5 hours? I would rather not adjust the rest of the feedings later (which is also part of my next question). 2.My son has a fussy period between his 7 and 10 feeding. We have tried putting him down for naps then, but he usually doesn’t sleep when we are at home. We are very active in our church, which means that most Sunday nights and ever Wed night, we are not home and usually don’t get home until it is time for his 10 feeding. When we are out, he will catnap while being held, in his carseat, or in a pack-n-play. His 10 feeding is not a df because he is often already awake. Is that preventing him for napping btw those feedings when we are at home? Church is something that we are not willing to change, but that makes it hard to have a earlier bedtime. Should we just let him CIO on the evenings that we are home? Any suggestions???Thanks again for all of the postings and comments. Everyone who sees my son comments on how happy and content he is. BW has worked wonders for him and our family. I get really angry at the BW bashers and don’t think that they fully understand what BW is all about!

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  70. You could let him sleep until 7 and then cut the 12:30-4 stretch down to 3 hours if needed. He might not eat as well at 9:30 after 2.5 hours, especially if you are BFing because you will have a lot of milk in the morning.I personally would try to get him to go down after the 7 feeding and have that be bedtime, not naptime. I didn’t do that with my son, and we had to slowly work back bedtime as he got older. With my daughter, I treated after 7 as bedtime and just put her down. It has always been much easier. That is a normal time of day to be fussy. If he won’t sleep, just keep doing what you are doing but know that at some point you are going to have to move bed up. I would consider not napping between 4 and 7 and skip that sleeping period rather than the 7-10 one. But do what workds for your schedule.

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  71. Please Help!!My baby is 15 weeks old (born 3.5 weeks early) He is on a 3 hr schedule and used to sleep from 10pm-4am. I thought that wasn’t even that good for his age. Lately he has been waking at 1am or 2am to eat and he is hungry then waking at 4 again to eat. His waketime is 7:30. He doesn’t like a pacifier and if I go in to check on him he cries even harder. He rarely falls asleep if I do CIO or falls asleep only to wake up an hour later (and he is hungry) Is there something else I should be doing?? I am ready to cry.. It just seems like he never hit any of the BW milestones when he should have. Oh and he eats for a long time like 45 minutes during the day.. he is awake 1.5 hrs sleeps 1.5 hrs and his schedule before he did this waking up was 4am feed, (start of day)7:30 feed, 10:30 feed, 1:30 feed, 4:00 feed, 6:30 feed , 9:00 feed bed and now wakes at 1 or two THIS STINKS!! Please help

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  72. If he is hungry, the best thing to do is to feed him. Since he was born early, he most likely will meet milestones much later–at least 3.5 weeks earlier, but perhaps longer since development outside the womb is slower than inside. You can try feeding him every 2.5 hours in the day to get an extra feeding in to try to prevent the night one, or at least get it later in the night.

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  73. my darling 9wk old girl is on a 3 hr schedule, from 7.30am to 10.30pm (so 6 feeds) she has been sleeping through since 4.5wks!! didnt expect this, but she just kept pushing the middle of the nite feed back and then went all the way through. anyway, given that she sleeps those 8.5hrs every night, at what point do i look at dropping the dreamfeed? should i do it earlier as she is sleeping so well, or not mess w a good thing? i cant seem to find in BW when the DF is dropped… will day schedule change first?

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  74. Just when I think that I have it all figured out…:) Bobby is now 8 1/2 months old and he is so off schedule. The reason for this is because his eating habits are totally changing. The dr. said that he should be getting 24 ozs of formula a day and 3 solid feedings. So I am trying to give him four 6 oz bottles and 3 solid feedings a day. The problem is that he doesn’t like the bottle anymore. It is a fight to get him to finish a bottle– he will usually only take 4 ozs. Because he will only take 4 ozs, I try to sneak in a bottle here and there to make up the difference. This is the problem–it is throwing off his feeding schedule. He is not sleeping well at night either. He wakes up and cries a few times a night. Do you think that is all tied to his disrupted schedule? Should I just give him 4 oz + solids and hope that he starts to take more? Should I move him to a sippy cup? I’m so confused!! Thanks for your help!!! Tami

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  75. I thought of a couple more details that might help with the prognosis:) He is taking 2 good naps and 1 catnap a day still. Should I drop the catnap? Also, when we are out in public he will not take a nap, b/c he is soooo interested in everything going on. I’ve noticed that if he doesn’t get his 2 good naps, he doesn’t sleep as well at night–He’ll fall asleep very quickly, but then wake up multiple times a night. He has also had a cold for a couple of weeks. Do you think that could be a contributing factor?? Thanks so much!!Tami

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  76. Just to give a follow up…He was sick! He is just starting to feel better and is definitely back on schedule. Poor little guy!

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  77. My 5 month old is on a great schedule. But I am a planner by nature (just read your “first born” post and that fits me perfectly!) and I want to know when the next change in his schedule will come at what that change will be as far as his feedings go. I think I’m pretty clear on the naps, and at what point he drops them but I’m still unsure of his feedings. His current schedule looks like this:7am – wake, formula, cereal9-11 – nap11am – wake, formula, cereal1-3 – nap3pm – wake, formula, cereal5-5:30 – “cat nap”7pm – evening bottle then bath8pm – bedtimeEventually I will add fruits and veggies to his meals and his 3rd name will be dropped possibly at 6 months. Other than that, what’s the next step with his schedule and about what age comes the next change?

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  78. hi valerie,sorry to bother you again when you are pg and very busy and all!! i just have a follow up question (i asked earlier about whether to drop DF or go to 4 hr schedule first). i am confused if i have got this right and the book doesnt seem all that clear! as background, my 3 month old baby girl has been on a 3 hr routine since birth and STTN since 4.5wks. so im thinking as she sleeps so well its time to start changing routine…SO – i am starting to work on dropping the dreamfeed (am moving back in 15mins each night plus decreasing amount).*do i keep her on a 3hr schedule until DF is totally dropped and shes sleeping 12hrs? *do u have to wait till your on solids (or baby is, lol) before starting 4 hr schedule*as she is so much older now, should i start increasing her waketime but keep her on 3hr schedule? eg she has been up for 1hr down for 2. if she can handle it, could i increase waketime a bit to 1.5 hrs or something, still on 3 hr scehdule till DF is dropped? (i just assume she is ready to be awake a bit more, but if i drop the DF first she will still be on 3hr?)im just confused on the recomended order of things and how you know you are ready to do what? lol sorry this is confusing!! thanks, kate

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  79. LEM, since you are on the 4 hour schedule, you are pretty much going to remain the same for a long time. Be aware that few drop that nap at 6 months. For those who start, it is more of a decrease–so a shorter nap. Most drop around 8 months, though some later. I keep feedings 4 a day and 4 apart until 12 months. You have reached the point that things stay pretty consistent (finally). Not to say that he won’t throw you for loops, but there shouldn’t be any major changes until that 3rd nap is dropped.

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  80. Kate,Keep the 3 hour routine until DF is totally dropped. Many people wait a month before then trying for a 4 hour unless baby insists upon it. Note that you shouldn’t move to 10-1212 hours of sleep until baby is between 16 and 24 weeks. You don’t have to be on solids before moving to 4 hour schedule.I would be cautious about extending waketime-I definitely wouldn’t extend by 30 minutes. I increase in 5 minute increments, but only when baby is showing signs of needing it. Since she is sleeping well after being awake for 1 hour, I would stick to that. The way you know…it is hard to know the first time. It is easier the second time through, but I still held off with Kaitlyn longer than needed because I just wanted to be sure she was ready for things before we did it.

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  81. thanks so much valerie!! its becoming clearer (i find the schedule stuff in the book really hard to understand as its so general)… so basically i should stick with what im doing?! 🙂 and not try to drop the late night feed till 16wks at the earliest? is that cos of milk supply or cos they still need that amount of feeds? (just curious). then (for example) at 16wks i can drop dreamfeed, then a few weeks after try for the 4hr schedule? like previous poster, i like to know what im working towards!oh one more thing: yes i will try slowly extending wake time by 5 mins if she isnt showing tired signs and see how we go. your blog is such a blessing THANKS!! kate

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  82. Thanks for all your helpful advice! I hope you are feeling better by the way.I am again in need of some of your thoughts. As mentioned previously my5 month old schedule works great. The problem that I am having now is that he is not always hungry at the 4 hour mark. He eats his solids with no problem but not his formula. I have a hard time getting him to take 24 ounces in a day (which is what the doctor says he should have at least). It makes me think that he’s ready for aligning meals with the family but 1) I am not sure how to do that as far as tweaking the schedule and 2)I’m not sure if the is really what it is. But why else would he not want to eat after 4 hours? Or even after 12 hours for his 7am feeding? He does eat, just not as much. Like he’s not very hungry. And then, of course, if he doesn’t eat well at his 7am feeding for example then for his 11am feeding he is starving! And the cycle continues. Do you think he’s ready to space them out more? How would I do that if so?

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  83. I have a 7mo boy and am on 4 hour schedule. I noticed that your sample schedule above suggests to feed baby solids at the 7pm feeding. I have been giving him bottle only at 7pm and nursing and solids at 7, 11, and 3. He keeps waking up 1 hour to 1.5 hours early every morning. Sometimes it seems like it is teething, other times I can’t figure it out. Do I need to shorten naps? Any thoughts are appreciated.

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  84. My son is almost 7 weeks and he eats every three hours (6,9,12,3,6,9). I’m confused about the dreamfeed. He’s been doing really well at night, I’m just unsure about feeding times at night when it comes to sleeping through the night. Currently I feed him at 6pm, he goes down for bed around 7ish, then I feed him at 9:30, then again at 2:30am, then waketime at 6am. My question is according to babywise my late evening feeding should be 12am, but that wouldn’t leave 7 to 8 hours of sleep before I get him up at 6am. What time should my dream feed be? I don’t want to leave out any feedings. Would it be ok to feed him at 6 then at 10:30pm for the dreamfeed and then hope he sleeps through the night for 6am wake up. I hope this all makes sense. I guess I’m worried that I will be leaving out a feeding. Any advice would be great. Thank you.

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  85. OverThinker, I don’t necessarily think solids at 7 PM is BEST, it is just what I do (so I guess in a way that means I think it is best right…lol). The book suggests like you do it. My son was so active with such a high metabolism that he needed solisd at 7 PM. It didn’t affect my daughter negatively so that is what I did with her also. For some kids if they eat solids that late at night they don’t sleep well. See this post for more on waking early at that age:5-8 Month Sleep Disruptions : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/05/6-month-sleep-disruptions.html

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  86. jenjam, make things work for you. The sample schedules in the book are only samples–not one-size fits all. Since you wake at 6 AM, don’t do the DF (or late evening feeding) later than 10-11. But I think 9:30 is just fine also.I think I would do 10 so that 6 is 8 hours later. But know that he might take a while before he is ready to sleep those 7-8 hours straight. He could also be right around the corner 🙂 If it turns out he can do 7 but not 8 hours, try 11.

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  87. Hi – just found this site and have some questions on schedules for a newborn. My baby is 12 days old and we are just trying to establish a schedule! She’s been falling into a pretty good routine so far. I’ve been nursing every 3 hours during the day, she’s pretty alert and enjoys at least a small waketime after each feeding. My question: at night she’ll go a 5 hour stretch from her last feeding… and then she’ll either go 3 or 4 hours after that. How do I keep the same start time if she does this? Also, because of the 5 hour stretch this only means 7 feedings per day. Should I wake during the night twice to get the 8th in? I am pumping a little in the mornings. Schedule – 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 10pm, 3am – then she gets up anywhere from 6-7. Should I just play ‘catch up’ with the daytime feedings to get back to a 10pm last feeding if she gets up closer to 6am? Do I need to put another feeding in to make 8? We go to the dr to check progress tomorrow, but she’s pooping and peeing regularly.

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  88. I think I would let her sleep the 5 hours at night, but add a feeding during the day. That will mean you need to feed every 2.5 hours for part of the day. I just wouldn’t disrupt good sleep at night unless you had to (like waking at this age after 5 hours). Do this for at least another 3 weeks and see if she can go down to 7 feedings.See also this post:Early Morning Feedings Before Waketime: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/early-morning-feedings-before-waketime.html

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  89. Hello,I’ve been reading your blog for the past 7 months now and have found it so helpful. I decided it was time to post a question. My little boy is almost 7 months old and currently is on the following schedule:7AM Wake and Nurse7:30-9AM Wake Time9AM Nap10-11AM Wake (He won’t sleep longer than 45-1hr and I’ve let him be, but he won’t go back to sleep)11AM Bottle and Solids12/12:30PM Nap2/2:30PM Wake (He usually sleeps 2 hrs for this nap…sometimes 1 1/2 hrs)3:00 Bottle and Solids***Sometimes he will take a cat nap at 4:30, but as of late has been skipping it***6PM Bath and Cuddle time and Read6:30PM Bottle/Nurse7PM BedI don’t know if you have any suggestions as to getting him to take a better AM nap. Also, I’m trying to get him on the family schedule and saw that you did solids at 7pm instead of 3pm I thought that was a possible option for me? I’m not sure though. He seems to be doing ok and is happy, but I don’t know if you saw anything that could be preventing me from getting him on a schedule more. Thanks in advance for your help and THANK YOU for this blog…what a blessing.

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  90. Valerie,I’m really having a hard time right now…just frustrated and wondering if I’m making a bigger deal than I need to. Is it ok if my son, who just turned 16 weeks, can’t handle being on a 3 1/2 hour routine yet? I’ve tried for the last 3 days and it just doesn’t work because his naps aren’t long enough in the afternoon. His last two naps are usually only 45 minutes (unless I can get him back to sleep which I can sometimes), and so there’s just too long of a waketime. Then, it seems like he’s up for too long and way too tired for his next nap and he screams and screams! I noticed that your daughter was still eating every 3 hours when she was 4 months, so I thought maybe it’s ok. Please help me – I’m frustrated and trying to do what’s best for my son. I don’t know what else to do to make his two middle naps longer! I’ve tried many many things. Thank you!Amy

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  91. Morrisons, Have you tried a shorter waketime in the morning for him? 2 hours seems like it would be long for most 7 month olds.He is also young for being on the family’s schedule. If he sleeps well at night, I would keep the same solid schedule you have. If he has a rough time making it until the morning, you can try the solids at 6:30 and see how that goes.

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  92. I haven’t tried a shorter wake time. I guess I could. It just “scares” me I guess because he is such a chronic 45 min napper. He wakes at 7AM and I feel that if I put him down at 8am or 8:30 for his AM nap that he won’t make it until his 11AM feeding. Even when I do put him down at 9AM he still gets up at 10 or 9:50, but I still hold off and don’t feed him until 11AM. So I guess I’m not strictly following the wake feed sleep process. Do you think that’s what’s disrupting the routine?Also, he definitely makes it through the night with solids at 3 and just nursing at 6:30 before bed. However, I’ve tried the solids at 6 for the past few nights and it seems to be working ok, but he has gotten up screaming the last 2 nights after an hour or 2 of sleep. I think he might be teething, so I put ora jel on last night which seemed to help. I guess I need to do process of elimination maybe? When is a good age to get them on the family schedule? There are some things with BW that just aren’t clear and it can be so frusturating sometimes. Thanks so much for your help and suggestions. I’m going to try cutting his wake time down to an hour and a half tomorrow…I’ll let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

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  93. Thank you for your encouragement! After I wrote to you, I just decided to relax and see what happens. He can go 3.5 in the morning (takes a good 2 hour nap) but then needs 3 for the rest of the day because his naps are shorter. It’s going really well! I’ve learned that sometimes you just have to relax and just go with the flow!!

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  94. Morrisons, see this post:Easy Nap Fix: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/easy-nap-fix.htmlIf it were me, I wouldn’t have him on a 4 hour routine if you have to wait that long after he wakes before feeding him. You can wait up to about 30 minutes, but I wouldn’t push it more than that. See this post about the family schedule:Solids: Aligning Meals with the Family: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/solids-aligning-meals-with-family.html

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  95. Thank you so much!!! I’ve been putting him down for his morning nap at 8:30 instead of 9. He doesn’t fall asleep until 9, but boy does that half hour make a HUGE difference. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! His naps have turned from 45 minutes to 1hr 30min. Everything is going really really well now. Thank you again for your encouragment and advice!!!! Happy New Year!

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  96. I posted these two questions under “Newborn”, but I think it best fits under this posting now that I have come across it. Since it hasn’t been answered, I thought I should re-post it. Our 6 week old is on the following schedule: 
7am, 9:30am, 12:30pm, 3pm, 6pm, 8:30pm, 12am and (roughly) 4am. 
My concern is that he is waking early from his 3pm and 6pm feedings by 30-60 minutes so that sometimes he only sleeps for around 45 minutes. I have considered the 45 minute intruder and decreased his waketime significantly (now 50-60 minutes), but the problem persists. On top of that he is impossible to wake for the next two feedings 8:30pm and 12am. 
Is there something I am doing wrong?Here is the unfortunate update: It appears as though he is waking up from his nearly ALL his daytime naps within 45 minutes, making most cylces only 2 hours long, sometimes not even. When I go to feed him (as BW suggests as this might be a growth spurt) he doesn’t seem to want a full feeding and gets sleepy. My husband has started to take him out for walks in a carrier to stretch out the sleep time, which works (he’ll then take a full feeding), but could potentially become a very inconvenient habit. 
Also, today I want to try to get on your suggested schedule ending at 10pm at night because he is SO sleepy by 8:30. 
I feel like I am trying everything, but have no idea if I am troubleshooting the proper areas. 
Thanks very much and I hope you are enjoying the holidays with your family!

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  97. Hi! So I have an update: Today I fed my son when he woke up after an hour for 3 out of four daytime feeds (a la BW) instead of walking with him to prolong the nap. And he is eating WELL, so maybe it is just a growth spurt after all! So…. now my question for you is this: Once this GS is over, what do I do to get back on a schedule that has him sleep for longer? Today he did 6:15am, 8:15, 10:15, 2:00, 4:00, 7:30(mostly DF) 10:00pm(DF), middle of the night (DF)I’d like to get back to a combo of 2.5-3.5 hour stretches. Might you have any advice? Thanks so much, you are doing an amazing thing on this blog!

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  98. Morrisons, Thanks for sharing your success! It is always nice to hear how things turn out 🙂 Happy New Year to you also!

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  99. Devines, The first thing I would do is treat this as a growth spurt. If you are nrusing, 6 weeks is when a chemical that helps produce breastmilk decreases, so you often need to nurse more often for a few days to ensure milk supply. It is also a common growth spurt age. So first treat it as feeding problem and fee more often.Oh…now I read your second question :). See the blog lable “growth spurt” for info on what happens during and after a growth spurt and then let me know if you still have questions about that. (blog lables are on the left side of the page in alphabetical order).

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  100. Thank you so much for this! Posts on GS were very helpful. I am going to continue as you had recommended in a comment, that is to continue the day following a “pattern” rather than trying to get him back on “schedule”. He seems happy with that. And I guess I will ride it out and see how long it lasts. If it lasts longer than 2 weeks, I might hit you up for some solutions!And I just want to clarify two things though:1) My boy isn’t taking in more number of feedings in a day (still 8, including mid. of night) during this GS, just waking up earlier from 4 of his 8 feedings… so THIS is what is determining that this is a GS (aslo that he is 6wks)?2) Once his GS is over, HE will start to sleep longer again and pressumably resume his 2.5-3.5 hrs routine, and not ME who forces him back on it. Correct?Sorry to ask for so much clarification… I just want to be sure that I am addressing the proper problem. Thanks a million for your time!!! 🙂

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  101. I didn’t get an email notification that I posted my lasted comment, so I’m not sure if you got it either… Here’s to hoping it gets to you! Thanks 🙂

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  102. 1-You probably want to have an additional feeding, at least for a couple of days. Then your milk supply would increase and he shouldn’t need more feedings. 2-Once the GS is over, he should start to sleep longer, therefore being back on his normal schedule.You are welcome!

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  103. oh, another thought. Rather than having an additional feeding, you can let him nurse longer than usual if he will. This will also cause more nipple stimulation which will increase milk supply.

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  104. Hi… I hope you are doing well! I have a question in regard to where to go from here. My son is 20 1/2 weeks (4 1/2 months) and is exclusively bottlefed. We began doing rice cereal 2-3 times a day about 2-3 weeks ago. He is still on a 3 hour schedule and having 4 naps and I think I need to transition down to three naps. I have read all posts but am still a little confused as to how and where to go from here. Do I try and get him onto a 3.5 or 4 hour schedule? He typically naps 1.25 or 1.5 hours– I wish I could get him to sleep for a full two hours but it usually doesn’t happen. He also doesn’t seem to be able to handle 2 hour waketimes. His schedule right now is:7am-wake happy/eat (cereal and bottle)8am- nap9:30- wake 10- eat/bottle11- nap12:30-wake 1- eat2- nap3:30- wake4- eat (cereal and bottle)5-nap6:30- wake7- eat (cereal bottle)8- TO BED10-Dream feedHow should I change his schedule to make a smooth transition? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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  105. Help!I am a new mom of a 3month old baby boy, Ilias.Since he was born we haven’t slept more than 3 hours at a time and we are exhausted.Ilias was diagnosed with reflux when he was 2 weeks old. He suffered with it till about 5 weeks ago. With the reflux the only way he would sleep was in a sling except at night we put him in his crib. We have him on a schedule of 5 feeds of 180ml. He eats every 4 hours. He eats wel just refuses to sleep. When he falls asleep for a nap he only sleeps about 20 to 45 minutes max. If we take him out of his crib then he is so cranky that all i can do is walk around with him. So we try to leave him in and calm him that way. This usually takes 20 min to an hour. He only sleeps on his stomach and has already learned to roll over. At night we have to go put him back on his tummy about 5-6 times. He wakes when he rolls over and screams. This is the schedule we have him on (give or take)7am feedplaytime8.30 naptime (takes about 15 to 30 minutes before he sleeps)11 am feedplaytime12.30 naptime (takes about 15 to 30 minutes before he sleeps)3pm feedplaytime 4.30 – 5.30max naptime6.30 bathtime7pm feed then bedtime then wakes around 2 or 3 for another feed.We tried to dreamfeed but he refused to eat. Even if we wake him completely he refuses then wakes up around 2 or 3 to eat. Any suggestions on what we an do to make the naps beter, the night time beter and how we can lose the night feeding. Because we need some sleep too.

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  106. Valerie,You answered some of my questions a while back, and I first want to say thank you! I have a 16 week old son, and am a first time mom/babywiser. I started him late on Babywise (about 5 weeks ago), but had to go on a two week trip two weeks into BW, which messed everything up. We have been back at it now for about one week. He has never slept through the night. Right now, I am following your sample schedule for Kaitlyn at three months, but one hour later. His schedule is supposed to be this:8:30 nurse9:30 nap11:30 nurse12:30 nap2:00 nurse3:00 nap5:00 nurse6:00 nap7:30 nurse8:30 bed10-11ish DreamfeedThen he usually wakes up twice in the night, but it doesn’t seem like it is always at the same times. (Last night he only woke once!!)1) One problem we are having is that he seems to be showing sleep signs after only about 30 min. I usually keep him up for about 45-50 minutes. It usually takes him anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to fall asleep. I have read though that normal wake time for his age is usually 60+. Since he is going to bed 15 minutes before his “scheduled” time, I just tack that time onto his nap. In other words, some of his naps are 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I usually have to wake him up.2) Another problem is that at this age he should probably be dropping a nap. But I didn’t think I should drop a nap until he is sleeping through the night?3) One other thing to throw into all of this is that since we have been back at his schedule this week, I have started letting him nap on his stomach. I never did before, and he usually woke up in the middle of his nap. I don’t know if it is coincidence that he is doing better now or not, but I’m not going to mess with a good thing! I don’t really guess you needed to know that, but it just seemed like I should tell you in case it makes a difference :)Thank you soo much for your help. I really, really appreciate it. Esther

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  107. Oh, I hope all is well with your son! Thanks again for any advice. It is so kind of you to take the time to help so many people out!

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  108. Lucie,If he isn’t ready to go to a 4 hour schedule, don’t move him. It sounds like he just isn’t ready for a longer schedule. What I would do (and did for both of mine becaue they weren’t ready for 4 hour schedule when they dropped the fourth nap) is just drop the nap at 5. He would then eat two times in a row without a nap in between. This is fine.It looks like right now he is taking a long nap at 5, so before you drop it, I would shorten it and see how he does. Work it down to a catnap (about 45 minutes).Once that is dropped, he might need to eat sooner than 7–maybe at 6:30. That is fine. If he will go 30 minutes longer in another part of the day, you can do that to compensate. Otherwise, he will adjust over time and be able to make it longer. Good luck!

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  109. Hi- I'm new to being a mom & to BW. We have a 2 week old son that consistently feeds every 2.5 to 3 hours. I'm trying to figure out a schedule for him and have a question about the nighttime feedings. Do you wake up the baby every 3 hours to ensure he feeds? Or once its bedtime, would you let him sleep until he wakes up to feed? I'm thinking of doing a 7:30 AM waketime & a 7PM bedtime with feedings at 10:30, 1, 4 & 7pm. That's only 5 feedings. How would I fit in the other 3? Would I do a dreamfeed at 9:30 or 10? Then would I let him sleep until he wakes? [Our son was born early, so the doctors were having us wake him up every 3 hours to eat. Now that he's regained his birth weight, they say it's not necessary to be that strict. ]Any help/advice would be much appreciated!

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  110. Inge, there are several posts I would recommend:Babywise and Reflux: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/11/bw-and-reflux.htmlSympathy for Reflux : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/11/sympathy-for-reflux.htmlNap Disruptions: Rolling, Standing, Crawling, etc: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/01/nap-disruptions-rolling-standing.htmlIt sounds like he needs to get used to sleeping in a bed since he has slept in a sling thus far. Give him time to get used to it. He seems to do well to go from 7-2or 3 without eating. Try to take advantage of that and get your sleep in. If he is sleeping that long and you haven’t slept longer than 3 hours since he was born, you might want to go to bed earlier to get some rest. You would be surprised what 4-5 hours straight can do for you. As he gets older and over these reflux symptoms, you will be able to go back to staying up later.

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  111. Esther, 1- Your first problem doesn’t really look like a problem. That sounds great :)2-You can certainly drop the nap before he is STTN. If you think he is ready, drop that 6 PM nap. But if he isn’t ready, there is no rush.It really sounds like he is doing quite well overall. It sounds like he is progressing nicely. Thanks about my son 🙂 He is good, though anxious to get his stitches out now.

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  112. Thanks for your reply! I have a couple clarification questions though. When he is acting sleepy (heavy, tired eyes) after 30 minutes, what would you do? Is 30 minutes of waketime acceptable for a 4 month old? When I keep him up 45-50 minutes sometimes he will fall right asleep, and then other times it takes 30+ minutes. Which brings me to my next question, how long is a good amount of time to take to fall asleep? How long would you guess it takes an average baby to get to sleep that is getting an appropriate amount of waketime? And finally, you don’t think he is getting too much sleep with four long naps (some 2hr 20min), and that making him not STTN? I’m sorry for so many questions. You are a blessing!Thank you!

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  113. Amanda,Until he is 5 weeks old, wake him after 5 hours at night if he hasn’t woken on his own. After that, you can let him go until he wakes naturally.You would definitely do a dreamfeed. Then you would expect another two feedings in the night. You could try a 2.5 hour schedule in the day to get more feedings in to hope for only one feeding in the night. You might have to cluster feed at night (feed every two hours) for a couple of feedings to work it in.

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  114. Esther, 30 minutes is probably too short of a wake time for a 4 month old. Does that include your feeding time?I would keep a log to find his optimal waketime length. See Optimal Waketime Lengths : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/07/optimal-waketime-lengths.htmlBW Tips and Tricks: Keep a Log: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/tips-and-tricks-keep-log.htmlI would say they should be asleep within 10 minutes if waketime was right.Four months is the age most go down to 3 naps a day rather than four. If he can handle a longer waketime, you can start shortening that fourth nap, working it down until you drop it.

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  115. Thanks for the answer. Yeah, that does include feeding time. It seems that he has heavy, tired eyes anywhere between 30 – 45 min. He is still waking twice a night. I have read that some mothers have less of a milk storage ability, and therefore their babies need to eat more often, because they are getting less at one feeding. I am wondering if this isn’t our issue. When he wakes at night, he is hungry. I don’t want to let him cry it out if he is hungry. Or is the idea that they will be hungry, but after a few nights their body will regulate, and his night hunger will go away? Do you think the problem could be with the milk storage thing? He wakes at different times each night, but always twice, plus a dreamfeed.Thank you!

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  116. Esther,Some women don’t have enough of a certain type of breast tissue to make as much milk as the child needs. This seems to become a problem around 4ish months. If you suspect this is the problem, I would definitely see a doctor about it so you know for sure.

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  117. My 4 week old breastfed baby is currently on a combo schedule:5:308:3011:302:004:307:0010:00She usually wakes around 2am to feed. I was trying a combo schedule in hopes of waking her more during the day so she would be more tired at night, but it doesn’t seem to be working. :)I’m wondering if I need to adjust to a 3 hour schedule during the day. I typically have to wake her for the 11:30 and 4:30 feeding. And she is fussy from 8-10pm. I’d like her first feeding to be at 5:30 so that when I go back to work I’ll be able to nurse before dropping her off at the sitter’s. Is this too early for a first feeding? Is this why she’s so fussy at night? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks so much!

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  118. Hello…and sorry for the novel,I found your blog a few months ago in an attempt to find answers for my questions (you have got to love google search). Since then I've come back from time to time and read various blogs and have always found the answers I'm looking for. Now, however, I need an answer that is more situational and would like your help in that.I have an almost 7 month old son who is on a 3-4 hour routine.What his routine should be:6:30 AM Wake up, Nurses, then plays8:00 AM Goes down for his nap10:00 AM Wake up, nurses, solids, then plays12:00 PM Goes down for his nap2:00 PM Wakes up, nurses, solids, then plays.3:30 PM Goes down for a nap5:00 PM Wakes up, nurses, eats solids, then plays7:00 PM Goes down for the night9:00 PM One final feedingOkay…so that's the tentative routine. I take him to work with me and work full time, sometimes putting him down later than I want first thing, and sometimes waiting later to feed him (until 5:30PM) because I get busy at work. Other days I do things earlier…it is really flexible, and fortunately so is my child. I'm unmarried and the father has visitation with him every Tuesday night, Thursday night, and Saturday afternoon for 2 hours (he starts his naps at his dad's and usually finishes them at home), so (especially on Saturdays) his routine is often either exact or early (1:00 PM feeding time on Saturday :/). My son is at that age where, according to BW (which I was introduced to before he was born…and LOVE) he should start dropping the 3rd nap. That's fine, I've been keeping him up later and putting him down just for some "quiet time" and he usually doesn't sleep (unless he's had a busy day and hasn't taken good naps prior to that one…like Sundays, where we wake up early so we can be at church BY 10:00 AM…his usual feeding time, but with a 30 minute or more stretch of waketime before…which wouldn't be a problem but he usually only takes an hour nap…he's a very visual child and gets stimulated very easily…his dad used to watch tv with him until I told him to stop when my son started experiencing just screaming and screaming when we got home until I fed him, which I did earlier than usual to help calm him down)<–rabbit trail. Throughout your blogs and from what some of the other people are saying, I've been noticing an even greater stretch between feedings and definitely during the night. Right now, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to do. He's been waking up an hour/hour and a half earlier than usual, which is why I've been cutting down on his third nap. But the biggest problem I have is transitioning when I have to keep it so that he is somewhat awake and alert during the 2 hours each visit with his dad. I nurse and feed him before he leaves and so he's been up for an hour usually by the time his dad gets him (his dad plays with him them puts him down for a nap…but sometimes it's over 2 hours). The 4 hour schedule that starts at 8 seems ideal…but I can't risk him waking up earlier on those days and his visit with dad ends at 8 (he has him from 6 – 8 on Tuesday and Thursday nights and from 2 – 4 on Saturdays), so that would be longer than 4 hours.I guess my biggest question as a nursing mother trying to maintain her supply is: Should I cut out that last feeding at 9? As a nursing mother, can I go from 7 PM to 6:30 AM and maintain my supply (the only reason I feed him at 9)? Will it be a problem if I keep his routine how it is? The only thing I don't like is that he goes from 2 to 5…which is usually when he takes a light nap…but I usually HAVE to make it that time because of his visit with his dad…but is that even a problem. He's been doing great on this schedule (except recently waking early each morning, which is why I shortened the 3rd nap…he didn't go down for his dad once and I was left with a hysterical baby…but it was a Saturday, so he was off anyways…Saturdays he always takes that nap, as well as Sundays because he doesn't nap in the nursery…which I mentioned already), so should I just let well enough alone? It's been somewhat stressful working out his schedule over the past few months, but God's been good about working things out so that I have had the time I needed to reschedule him (he's started the day anywhere from 6:45 to 7:30 at different monthly stages, depending on where I worked and when I needed to be at work). So I would appreciate your advice…I've read a LOT of your blogs and I haven't found a suitable answer because it's a somewhat solitary case. Thank you and I really enjoy your blog! I've even told other mothers about it. 😀 Sincerely, Christa

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  119. Lyn,5:30 is pretty early, but your reasoning for doing it is logical. I would feed her then put her right back down without waketime at that time.You can always try a three hour for a few days and see if it is better for you. It is really normal to be fussy at that time at that age. I might just put her in a swing or something at that time if you need to. She should get better in several weeks (though I read that 6 weeks is the peak for fussiness).

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  120. Hi there! I am new to this site and tried to post before, but I did not find it anywhere, so I am trying again. I am at the end of my rope trying to figure out a schedule for my almost 10 week old little girl. We are still on a 2 1/2-3 hour schedule with feedings at 630, 9, 12,3, 530 8, df at 1015 and she wakes usually at 330 to feed but only a little bit. She is also a chronic 45 min napper so when I can’t get her to sleep more, I just feed her at 2 1/2 hours. She will take it but sometimes is super sleepy or I feel she doesn’t take a full feed- the cycle continues of short naps and so-so feeds. 🙁 I don’t know if it’s because she needs to sleep more or if she can go longer without eating. I am not sure how to get in 7 feedings during the day while keeping a 3 hr schedule. Also, should I keep the 2 1/2 -3 hr combo until she drops the nght feeding? Can you help me figure out a schedule that I can try? I just can’t seem to figure it out on my own. Her wake time is anywhere between 615 and 7. I would like her to eat at 9 12 and 3 since that is when she will need to eat when she starts daycare, and her last feed to be at 10-1030 since that’s when i go to bed. Any help is greatly appreciated! I hope I can find this comment this time:)

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  121. Christa,Most moms can make it at least 12 hours between feeds at that point in your child’s life. A few do need a 5th feeding. If that is the case for you, you can always pump but not wake him to eat. You could then save that milk and send it with his Dad if you wanted so you could wake him later from naps those days.With the early waking, keep in mind the time change this Sunday (assuming you have it). You will move your clock forward, so his early waking could end up being right on time. I wouldn’t stress out about the schedule. It is a situation where he needs to have those disruptions in order to see his Dad. Since there isn’t anything that can be done about it, just relax. It sounds like he is flexible. It sounds like you are doing well for your situation 🙂

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  122. Thanks for your advice! I have gone to a 3 hour schedule for my almost 6 week old breastfed baby:5:30am8:30am11:30am2:30pm5:30pm8:30pmI do a wake time after all feedings except the 8:30pm. I put her to bed after that, she has been sleeping until her 5:30am feeding too!Now my question is: is it ok that she wakes up about 30min-1 hour early for her next feeding. Meaning if I feed at 5:30am, have wake time until 6:30am…she wakes up around 7:30-8:00am for her 8:30am feeding. She’ll do this all day. I try to leave her to fall back asleep, but she usually doesn’t. I’ve also tried to add wake time before. She’ll stay up, although she might be a bit fussy. She’ll also take a full feeding, and then stay up for an hour afterward. Is this too much wake time? Thanks again for your help!

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  123. Hi! Just a follow up on the post I am waiting for a reply on. She is now waking at 7-730 due to the time change. Her feeding times don’t matter since she will not be starting daycare for 1 1/2 months. My question is also the same as the above post. Because she is waking so much earlier than her feed times, what should I do? I am very frustrated trying to get her on a schedule.

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  124. Kayas Mom,I would first start by keeping a log of the times that she feeds. Do this for several days. I would probably do a week. Just write down the times that she eats and naps. Then you can see if there is a pattern (see the blog label “logs” at the right). You can then see patterns. Perhaps between the first and second feeds she can go about 3 hours. So that would be 7:30 and 10:30. Then you see that between the next two, she can only go 2.5 hours. So it would be 1:00. These would be your projected feeding times.Then you figure out how long her optimal waketime is. Optimal Waketime Lengths : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/07/optimal-waketime-lengths.htmlSo you figure she can stay up for an hour. She feeds at 7:30, that means nap needs to start by 8:30. Do this pattern through the day.Then be ready to change things if you see something just isn’t quite working. Maybe you thought she could go 3 hours in the morning, but it turns out she really needs 2.5 hours. Change it.See this post about her waking before a feed:Eat/Wake/Sleep Cycle: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/03/eatwakesleep-cycle.html

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  125. Hi there! Thanks for the info. I didn’t see an answer to one of my questions. I think she is happy with 6 daytime feedings (including dream feed) and wakes one time at night. Should I be trying to get in a 7th feeding before the dream feed so that she will sleep through the night or will she eventually just drop the nightime feeding? She is ready to sleep at 7 or 730. We were trying the 530 and 8 feeds, but I usually have to wake her for the 800 feed. I also looked at the suggested post but did not find an answer to her early waking from naps. She wakes after 45 minutes from every nap.

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  126. Hello,Thank you for your help earlier. I have started the new routine, and things have been going somewhat well, although we were travelling and it was hard to tell. I do have a question about the last feeding. In BW it says that they will go down to 2 naps, so does that mean his bedtime will be at 8 PM and he won’t have a nap (unless he needs one) until then? If I give him a nap will he go to bed and sleep for the allotted time, or should I experiment some? I realize that you did yours one way…but I don’t have that luxury, but you are great at helping everyone within their specific situation 🙂 Thanks for the GREAT advice and help. christa

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  127. I need help. My 21 week old is suddenly not napping at all. Her schedule is 7:30Eat, 8:30Nap, 10:30E, 11:30N, 1:30E, 2:30N, 4:30E, stay up until 6:30 E then Nap, then 9:30DF. For some reason, she no longer falls asleep for the 8:30 and 2:30 nap. When I put her down, she will fuss a little and then just lay awake for another 1-1.5 hours. Sometimes it is because she has a dirty diaper, and I will put her down right after a change with no stimulation, but she does not fall asleep. I’m at a loss.

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  128. Hi, I need some advise in regards to switching to a 4-hour schedule/family schedule. I know you recommend waiting until the baby puts himself on a 4-hour schedule, but I've been waiting for a long time now and my guy doesn't seem to be doing it on his own. He doesn't seem to be too hungry, at least for the liquid (I bf sometimes, and bottle-feed ebm other times), on his current schedule, though he's always enthusiastic about his solids. He is now 8 months and I just want to put him on the 4 hour schedule.Right now his schedule is as follows, with some give or take:7:00-nurse & solids8:30-nap10:30-ebm in bottle & solids12:00-nap2:00-ebm in bottle3:30-nap5:00-nurse & solids(no nap)7:30-ebm in bottle8:00-bedtimeI am looking to the future where after he gets set on the 4-hr schedule, I know he will move to the family schedule. We obviously don't eat dinner at 3, which is when his "dinner" would be on a 4 hr schedule (7-11-3-7). So I'm considering going to 7:30-11:30-3:30-7:30 for now, then it won't be such a big jump to wait for dinner until 5ish, when we eat, when he goes on the family cycle. Should I make this change now along with going to the 4-hr schedule, or do the 7-11-3-7 for a couple weeks, then push it back half an hour?Also, what about his last nap? Right now he has no nap between the last 2 feedings (5 & 7:30), which works great for spending family time when Daddy gets home and running errands, etc. I don't want to lose this awake time! How would you recommend doing naps in the 4-hr schedule? By the way, he always does GREAT with nighttime sleep. Thanks, and sorry this was so long!

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  129. Christa,Yes, when you drop the third nap that means after the second nap you don’t have sleep until bed. You might have to move bedtime up by 30 minutes or so at that point.I am a bit confused by your second question. Do you mean to ask if you give him a third nap will he sleep as long as he should? If so, ideally yes. But at his age, as long as he should could be a mere 30 minutes. He could also not need the nap at all, which means he wouldn’t sleep. If you mean something else by that second question, please let me know 🙂

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  130. Thanks for the advice:) Now my lo is waking 2-3 times at night and staying up for an hour or more at a time. She is not sleeping well during the day or at night. I can’t always tell when she is hungry. If I offer breast feeding, she will eat but sometimes not a full feed and still stays awake after. I am not sure what to do with the frequency/number of feedings. I am still df at 8 and 1030

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  131. jencwu,I usually like to change just one thing at a time. That way if things don’t go well, it requires less troubleshooting. If he eats at 7, sleeps 1.5 hours later (8:30), then he would need to sleep 2.5 hours to make it to 11. There is nap one.Then he would go to sleep at 12:30 for nap two. Sleep 2.5 hours to make it to 3. He would then sleep at 4:30. This can be a short nap. You will have to try things out to see how short he can do right now. Good luck!

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  132. Thanks for your reply. The only thing is, there is no way he will nap for 2.5 hours. He has never been a big napper, and at most he will sleep 2 hours, but usually 1.5. When will he be able to drop the 3rd nap? BW says at 6 mos most can drop it or go down to a catnap. Since he’s a little behind the game here, what would you suggest?

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  133. Kaya’s Mama,Since she isn’t sleeping well day or night, I would look into the reason for that. Does she sleep with a pacifier? If so, that might be the culprit. Is there something waking her? This post can help you go through common reasons for trouble with naps:Naps: Troubleshooting: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/naps-troubleshooting.htmlAt 8 PM, it isn’t a dreamfeed. That would be your last feeding of the day and she can have some waketime afterward if she needs it. The 10:30 feeding would be your only DF. From what you have said, it sounds like the lack of sleeping is a self-soothing issue.

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  134. jencwu,One wise book says 6 months, the rest say 8 months for dropping the third nap. And that number is an average, meaning some drop it earlier and some drop it later. Both of mine were later (Kaitlyn not until 11 months). So drop it when he is ready to and don’t worry about it before then.

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  135. Hey Val, its me again! :0)I have some troubleshooting question, so if you have time, but its not a big worry.My little Scooter, 11 months on April 1st has all of a sudden decided he likes to stay up. He use to only be able to do an hour at a time of waketime.Now he does 2 hours and 45mins and a lot of times 3 hours between wake up and 1st nap. And 3 hours sometimes 3 1/2 between 1st nap and second. But because of this, the second nap is running into nighttime waketime.Schedule:6:30am nurse 7am solids9:30 Down for a Nap11:30am Nurse12 noon Solids3pm Down for a Nap5pm Nurse6pm Solids7:30 Bottle of Breastmilk IF he wants it + Bedtime So right now, my problem is that he is taking good naps!! heheheheThe second nap going for about 2 hours runs into awake time in order for him to be ready for bed. I just feel like 8-8:30 is late for a little guy who really likes getting up at 6:30 happy, clapping and talking.I’ve tried shortening the wake time to 2.5 from wake up to 1st nap, but then he just plays in bed. And the same for 1st nap to second. And I’m hesitant on dropping a nap since both are still very good. Anyone have any ideas?

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  136. Congratulations on baby McKenna! I enjoyed reading about y’all’s first week. It makes me excited about more children to come in our lives! I have a question about the feeding right before bedtime. Our baby boy is almost 8 months old, and I was wondering when we go to 3 meals a day only? And how do you know when it’s time? We’re still sometimes taking the 3rd nap (only naturally lasts 45 minutes to one hour) and I’m attempting to make his meals match up with our schedule. He’s still eating dinner around 4 p.m. and then we feed him before bed time, between 7 and 7:30 p.m. Anyway, just had that question about going to 3 meals a day. Thanks for all you do on this blog!

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  137. Lorri,I would just work to get that second nap earlier. I don’t think it should start any later than 2 PM. Kaitlyn’s second nap started at 2 PM and she woke in the morning at 7:30. It is possible that you are missing his first window for optimal nap, he is getting a second wind, and then you are catching him the second time around. See also this post:Dropping the Morning Nap (from 2 to 1 naps): Transition Time : http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2008/10/dropping-morning-nap-from-2-to-1-naps.html

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  138. Hi, I love your blog! I'm a little confused on the middle of the night feedings and stuff. My son, 9 weeks old, bottle-fed, is on a 3-hr schedule (7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 9:30, 12, then we let him wake naturally which is usually 3:30ish). 2 weeks ago we tried just letting him wake up naturally after 8pm (his bedtime), & he woke 11pm & 3am. But then I was worried he would never drop that 3am feeding because he was already down to 7 feedings, so we decided to "cluster feed". Also he was waking at 5 or 6am, but he is still doing that on this schedule, so I'm letting him CIO (he's down to 5 mins). So, I guess my question is should I stick with what I've got & eventually he'll drop that 3am feeding? or should I go back to letting him wake naturally & he'll still drop that 3am feeding? thanks!

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  139. My lo is 4 months old and I am not sure if she should be extending her schedule. It seems like she can still only do 1 1/2 hours waketime, but still has difficulty with naps. She can sleep 1 1/2-2 hours but with resettling at the 45 minute mark(sometimes takes 15 minutes and I can’t do CIO). She also still wakes at least 1 time at night and has a very early wake (530 or 600). I heard that extending her schedule might help with these things, but she is very sensitive to being overtired and I am not sure how much to push her. She is on a 3 hour schedule with feeds at 630 (if we’re lucky), 10 if she takes a long nap, 1, 4 and 630, in bed at 730. She takes 3 naps and needs help to get through them, and lately she has been hard to get down for her catnap which has shortened from 45 minutes to 30 minutes if she takes one at all. I am just wondering 1. Should she be moving to a 4 hour when her awake time and sleep time won’t add up to that? 2. If she drops the catnap, that is a really long time for her to be awake and I think she will overtired and wake even earlier in the morning. 3. Any ideas on how to extend it a little bit, and then what would it look like with/without the catnap. Our days are pretty good, but then things get a little uncertain as we head toward the evening. Thanks for the help!

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  140. hey, I'm so at a loss of what to do. I change my mind about the nighttime schedule almost every week! He's 11 weeks old tomorrow, weighs 12lbs. & is formula fed 5oz each time (7 & 12 he eats 6oz.). He's on a 3-hour schedule during the day (that has been consistent for months now). His schedule is 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, 12 & I've been letting him cry it out trying to drop the 4am feeding. (When he was eating at 4 he hardly ate anything & if i forced him to he wouldn't be hungry at 7). *Should I keep with it? We've been doing this for 4 days & I know it says it takes 3-5 days sometimes longer. I know babywise said they should be getting 7 feedings after they sttn 7-8 hours, but he doesnt seem to need that 4am feeding. *or should I move the dreamfeed (from 12) to 10pm & let him wake naturally & feed him? Even though that means I'll have the middle of the night feeding & he'll just drop it later than babywise says? 2 more things.*He is waking at 5:30ish (like the book talks about), BUT he isn't talking to himself, he is crying. He has been doing this for few weeks (even with a different schedule). Is this okay too? He cries for about 10mins. sometimes more. *He is still being swaddled, but he breaks free from it & cries until I reswaddle him. His arm movements are more controlled, but I think they are waking him up. Do you think I should stop swaddling him or keep reswaddling him until he has better control of his arms? I guess I can try not using it & see how it goes. His naps are going great btw. 2hours (sometimes a little less or more depending on waketime).

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  141. Shipe’s, first, whatever you decide to do, I would stick with it for a couple of weeks at least to see some result. It definitely takes more than a couple of days to change things usually, and changing it up will only hurt progress.12 isn’t actually a dreamfeed time. That would be a middle of the night feeding. A dreamfeed should happen somewhere between 10-11–11:30 at the latest. If it were me, I would move the dreamfeed to 10 PM and then see what happens from there. If he is waking at 5:30 and not in need of anything, there is no problem with him crying for 10 minutes. You can certainly try not swaddling him, BUT do not stop the swaddle until you get your new schedule down and consistent. You don’t want to change too much at a time because you then won’t know what is causing any possible problems. Move the dreamfeed to 10 PM, wait a week or two, then try stopping the swaddle if you want to.

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  142. Kaya’s Mama,1. it depends on how stressed out you want to be 🙂 How will you react? If it is going to drive you crazy if she is awake really early before a feeding, wait until she can make it closer. If she wakes 30 minutes before, you can wait to feed her (if she will), but just don’t cause stress for yourself uncessarily. There is no need to rush to a four hour schedule.2. I would keep working to have the catnap. Will she sleep somewhere like a swing or something? You could try that for the catnap.3. In my experience, you can’t force the schedule. Some moms do find that moving to a four hour schedule helps fix napping problems. It does happen. You can always try it and see how it goes. If it doesn’t work out, you can defiitely go back.

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  143. thank you so much, I really needed some direction! I'll definitely let you know how it goes. By the way, we got a new swaddle blanket that has velcro, it's a miracle blanket. It's similar to the one you reccomend.So, last night we had decided to go back to the 10pm dreamfeed, he woke at 2:20am & then woke at 5:50 for a few minutes. I was so worried he'd wake up more often, yaye!Okay, so this might be a stupid question, but I'll ask it. I know it'll probably take him longer to sleep through the night (7-8 hours) naturally, because I changed it up so much, Do you have any idea how long I should expect? (I should just relax & go with the flow, I know, I'm a little neurotic, lol). Thanks again!

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  144. I am so relieved to have found this blog. There are so many differing philosophies on how to manage a newborn or young infant in terms of schedule and feeding. By far, BW and info posted on this blog make the most sense to me and are most aligned with what I believe to be the best for our newborn son. I did have a question regarding when is the appropriate time to drop the very late night feeding and allow baby to sleep an extended period (beyond the 3 hour schedule on which our baby boy is on now). He is just turning 4 weeks old and has slept through the night on three occasions but somehow I think it is still too early. Help!

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  145. I wanted to repost my question since my username was displayed strangely. My original post was on 5/23/09 @ 11:58am. I am so relieved to have found this blog. There are so many differing philosophies on how to manage a newborn or young infant in terms of schedule and feeding. By far, BW and info posted on this blog make the most sense to me and are most aligned with what I believe to be the best for our newborn son. I did have a question regarding when is the appropriate time to drop the very late night feeding and allow baby to sleep an extended period (beyond the 3 hour schedule on which our baby boy is on now). He is just turning 4 weeks old and has slept through the night on three occasions but somehow I think it is still too early. Help! One additional point is that he is formula fed and not nursed. Currently, he is taking anywhere between 3.5 to 4.5 (on occasion) oz per feeding.

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  146. As many have said before…thank you, thank you, thank you for this post! I have read and read and know the answer/advice is there but have not found the answer. I have an almost 8 month old who is on a 4 hour feeding schedule with two naps. Originally he was 7, 11, 3, and 7 for feedings with 7 a.m. waketime and 7 p.m. bedtime. The last three weeks, however, he has been consistently waking at 5:30. It starts out by him talking to himself for about 15 minutes and then quickly escalates to discontent and screaming. He is fine waking up at this time and not eating until 7:00 (and keeping with the same routine) but the 5:30 wake up time does not work well with our family. We’ve tried going longer at night, but he is so exhausted that by 7:00 he is done after his bottle. He doesn’t have a third nap…should we try to build one in, moving back the bedtime and hopefully increasing the waketime? Also…by the time we feed him at 7:00 he is almost so agitated by that point that he won’t eat his solids and just prefers his bottle. If we feed him, though, when he wakes up do we stretch him out 5 hours then to the next feeding? Any help would be GREAT!

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  147. My daughter is about to turn 5 months this week and we are on a 3.5 hr schedule:7:30 – nurse9:15 – nap11:00 – nurse1:00 – nap2:30 – nurse4:30 – nap6:00 – nurse8:00 – nap/bed9:30 – dreamfeedSo my questions – 1. Should I be trying to cut back one of the naps? She technically takes 4 naps, even though I consider the last nap bedtime since the 9:30 feed she goes right back to sleep. I think she still needs to nurse 5 times but I feel like she is having to take so many naps because we are trying to keep the feed/wake/sleep cycle. 2. Is 2 hours too much waketime at a time?

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  148. Shipes, lol, I think most BW moms are neurotic :)Just go with the flow. Be happy for improvement. So long as you see improvement, I would be happy with it 🙂

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  149. Help! I have an almost 7 month old and we've had sleep issues from day 1. He's only ever taken 45 minutes naps, thus rendering it impossible to stick to the babywise routine. He doesn't cry or have troubles falling asleep, he just has trouble staying asleep. Here is what his typical day looks like…5:15 wake up6:00 bottle 7:00 solids7:15 nap8:00 wake up10:00 bottle10:15 nap11:00 wake up11:30 solids1:00 nap1:45 wake up2:00 bottle3:45 nap4:30 wake up5:00 solids6:15 bathtime6:35 bottle/bedtime routine7:00 in bed (asleep maybe 15 minutes later)He's constantly acting tired, rubbing his eyes & yawning. I've tried everything – moving around his wake time, changing bedtime and nothing works. He used to sleep until about 5:45, but now he's given that up for 5:15. He's also started waking up crying in the middle of the night a couple times, which he hasn't done for months. I thought maybe he was teething, but now that its been going on for more than a week, I'm starting to doubt that. Plus, like I said, his naps have always been short. He has on a couple of occasions recently taken an hour or hour and a half nap. I just really need help! What am I doing wrong? Why won't he sleep longer than 45 minutes? (Sometimes he sleeps even less). I'm having a really hard time getting things done outside of the house because he takes 4 naps a day. Please, any help or insight or suggestions you can give me would be much appreciated! Thanks!Heather

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  150. Hi! Thank you so much for your sample schedules. It really helps to see Babywise in action. I have a 3 month old with acid reflux on prevacid so she is slow to progress through the routine as well. Currently here is her routine:7:00 nurse8:15 nap10:00 nurse11:15 nap1:00 nurse2:15 nap4:00 nurse5:15 nap (this nap is becoming very short, she sleeps for about 30 minutes)7:00 nurse8:00 bedShe will no longer wake for the dreamfeed but wakes around 3:00-4:00 am for a feeding then back to sleep. As I said the last nap of the day is becoming very short as well.1. Should I try and force the dreamfeed?2. Should I drop or wean the last nap?3. Did Kaitlyn go straight from a 3 to 4 hour schedule?4. When is a good time to try and drop the middle of the night feeding?Thank you so much for all of your advice. We're lucky to have you!God bless,Melissa

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  151. I have a question… I have a 7 month old son, who is showing signs of being ready to move to a 4 hour schedule. Recently, he's been waking up early in the morning- today he tried to get up at 5:30. I don't understand why he is all of a sudden waking up early, when his normal waketime is 7 am. Is he getting too much sleep during the day, thus being ready for the 4 hour schedule and dropping the third nap? Or should I keep the 3rd nap and make his bedtime later? I'm super confused because he started doing this very recently. He's not hungry, because he just wakes up and talks to himself. If I leave him alone, he'll usually go back to sleep, but it can take 45 minutes to an hour! Should I let him do this until 7, and then go and get him if he seems content? Thanks for your help!!

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  152. Johanna,You will want to click on the Babywise Milestones blog label for more specific ages. You drop the late evening feeding (referred to by me often as the dreamfeed) after your baby has consistently slept through the night from that feeding (typically 10-11 PM) until your desired morning waketime. I always say give it at least two weeks. I always wait a month. That way, you will definitely make it past a growth spurt.Once you have dropped the dreamfeed, your next step is to extend the schedule. When you do this, you want to be waking baby up for every meal. It is also a good idea to wait at least two weeks after you have dropped the dreamfeed before considering this step.

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  153. mgdnight, later bedtimes seldom create later waketimes.It might be the sun (I posted on this a few days ago). There are also common sleep disruptions for ages5-8 months old. If you go to the index under Sleep (or sleep problems) you will see the post 5-8 month disruptions.I am not suer what you mean by the last question. Do you mean he is agitated by 7 AM and doesn't eat well? And then you are wondering if you should feed him at 5:30 AM instead? I definitely would not feed at 5:30 AM. I would go in and try to soothe to sleep before I would feed. Feeding will only create a metobolic reason to wake.

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  154. Hi: Still having trouble with schedules. My daughter is on a three hour schedule and was sleeping at night from 8:00pm to 3:00am but now is waking around 1:00am and then again at 5:00am to eat? I thought maybe it was a growth spurt but it has lasted about a week. She is 4 months old so really I want to get her to sleep through the night. My questions are:1) Can growth spurts last more than a week?2) Should I just not feed her at 1:00am and try to get her back to sleep? 3) Should I let her cry it out at night?Thank you,Melissa

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  155. Hi – thank you so much for your response. I think I perhaps used the wrong term. The very late night feeding is the middle of the night feeding – this is what I meant. Our baby boy is now 2 months old. I have him on a 3 hour schedule and his last scheduled feeding is the dreamfeed typically occuring between 10:30 and 11:00. However, he is still waking up within 3.5 to 4 hours at night. On rare occasions, he has gone 5 or 6 hours between dreamfeed and next feed. I guess I am trying to understand whether I should expect that he should be sleeping at least 4 to 5 hours after the dreamfeed. I am also utterly exhausted and sometimes cannot function during the day because he has not started to sleep longer at night. If he should be sleeping longer, what can I do to extend that time? To Jessica, I know in both the BabyWise and Baby Whisperer books, it is normal for babies your son's age to wake at 5:30am and talk to themselves. THe book recommends allowing them to do this and then go in and feed them at your normal time. I am certainly no expert – just sharing what the book communicates.

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  156. Sara,1. No. That last nap is bedtime. She is taking three naps. Now that she is almost six months, she might be ready to start shortening the third nap, but only do so if she needs it.2. Only if she doesn't sleep well 🙂 See the label "optimal waketime" for more.

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  157. Heather, I would wonder how long you have stuck to each thing you have tried. You should give a chanage at least three days before deciding that isn't it. So as you try waketime lengths, give it more than a day to see if it is right.Also, I would do solids at the same time you do the bottle. He might be snacking since he is eating every two hours sometimes.Since he is taking short naps, I would try out shorter waketime lengths.

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  158. Melissa,1. yes, try to force the dreamfeed. None of my kids ever woke up for the dreamfeed. McKenna never wakes up for the dreamfeed.2. If you haven't yet, you can try dropping that nap at around 53. No. She started extending to some 3.5 hour intervals first. McKenna is now doing the same thing (though three months earlier than Kaitlyn did!)4. That is your call. You have to be sure she is ready. I didn't ever try to force it out of Kaitlyn with the reflux issue at play. She dropped it some time between 3-4 months. McKenna is currently eating from one side in the early morning hours every other night. I am not considering forcing it out of her yet, either.

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  159. Jessica,if he is waking up and talking to himself, this is a normal thing to happen. Just leave him and he should start to sleep through again.You can also go to the index under sleep problems. There is a post titled 5-8 month disruptions.

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  160. Melissa,1-It is impossible to say for sure. I once asked my pedi and he said you can't really put a timeline on it. I think that if you are feeding more in the day, a growth spurt can last anywhere from 3-7 days–but that doesn't mean it definitely won't last beyond that. However, they often get in the habit of waking early after a growth spurt and just need to get used to sleeping through the nap again.2-You can certainly try that and see how it goes.3-That is up to you to decide. I haven't ever used CIO at night, but I know many moms who have done it with success. Good luck!

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  161. Johanna, at that age, McKenna still often only slept that long in the night also. He should extend over time. Babywise says some babies don't sleep 7-8 hours until 12 weeks old, so I always suggest you don't worry about it at all until then. In the meantime, try to go to bed earlier and take naps in the day.

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  162. Thank you so much for the reponse. I did see that in the BW book but I think I assumed at his weight he should be able to go longer. To your point, he turns 12 weeks this upcoming Monday. I will not worry unless it goes much longer beyong that timeframe. I should be getting more rest during the day but I have never been able to nap. Thank you again – it is encouraging that I should not be worried about a pattern with him yet.

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  163. Hi! I have a napping question. My daughter is a big sleeper like your Kaitlyn. She is 5 months old. I noticed that Kaitlyn dropped her nap between the 4:30 and 6:30 feedings. I was wondering if she dropped this nap on her own or if you helped her. Thanks.

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  164. Hello! My baby boy is 6 weeks old and is doing well on a 2.5-3 hr combo schedule. Sometimes he will sleep longer so it turns into a 3.5 hr schedule, and sometimes I think that I keep him up too long (90 min), since he doesn't always show tired cues and seems happily alert until he gets fussy (then I put him down). His wake-up time is 7:45-8:15am, and he wakes once at night to eat. Questions:1. His naps are shortening – used to be 2 hrs, now some are 45min-1hr. Sometimes he will go back to sleep w/ pacifier. I think that I just need to shorten waketime?2. Due to his 8:00am wake-up time, his last feedings of the day are around 8pm and 11pm. I am worried that starting his bedtime routine (feed on side, bath, feed other side, sleep) after the 8pm feeding will be too early – it results in him sleeping around 9pm. But trying to bathe him after the 11pm feeding seems much too late. It would work best for our family to start the last feeding around 9pm and have him in bed by 10pm. Still too late? Not sure how to adjust the schedule. One way would be to let him sleep longer after the 5pm feeding, but I don't want him to sleep too long before bedtime…confused….Any ideas would be great – thanks so much for all of your caring insights!

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  165. Just wanted to add another question – if I do the bath at 9 or 10, do you think that I will have trouble eventually moving the bath earlier? Seems like I will eventually want him to go to bed around 8 (not sure what age?)? Also, I wanted to add that the fact that my son is doing well on the 3-hour schedule has a lot to do with the advice I found on your blog – thank you!

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  166. Kelly,What happened is that we ran errands at that time of day. She didn't sleep while we were out and about, so she always just stayed up. I remembered that at that age, Brayden also stopped sleeping for that nap (he did it on his own), so I stopped giving it to her when we were home. McKenna is still taking that nap, though, and she is one week past four months.

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  167. Laura, 1. it is possible he needs a shorter waketime. It is also highly likely that it is a growth spurt. If he continues to wake early, try feeding him as soon as he wakes up for several days.2. Yes, 10 is too late of a bedtime. I would either bathe him at another point in the day (earlier) or get him up earlier than 8 PM to start the bathing prochess. You could do the bath before you start feeding at all.3. see number 2 :)You are welcome!

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  168. Thanks for your reply! Since I last wrote, I started thinking that a 10:30/11pm bedtime was too late, so I have been bathing him after his 8 pm feeding and putting him to sleep (usually nursing a little around 9pm). Now he is waking up twice per night. I tried to do a dreamfeed around 11 or 12, but either he wouldn't wake up for it, or he would still wake twice per night. I would love to go back to waking once per night, but can't figure out how to get there! He is on a pretty good 3 hr eat/awake/sleep schedule during the day. Previously, I was bathing him between 9:30-10:30pm, then feeding him and putting him to sleep. He would wake once per night to eat. He's 8 weeks old and doesn't really cluster feed – if I feed him any less than 2.5hrs apart, he'll eat poorly. Any advice?

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  169. Laura, give it time. If he won't cluster feed and the dreamfeed doesn't help, just give it time. As he gets older, he will get there (if he isn't already).

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  170. I cannot tell you how excited I have been reading your blog! It has encouraged me so much and answered a ton of questions. I followed BW loosely with my 3.5 year old and she is an amazing sleeper. My son will be 3 weeks on Tuesday and I am so struggling! He does NOT wake up after feeds (breastfed) and if he does, will absolutely will not sleep until the next feed. I have tried only keeping him up 5-15 min. so he is not overtired but it does not work. He does not begin to yawn during these awake times until about 1.5 hour of awake time. That just seems too long to me?? I also have been rocking him until drowsy and then putting him down. He is super gassy and wakes out of deep sleep several times during his nap and nightime sleep with a high pitched scream. Not sure what to do about that either. I have been using gas drops every feed, using a wedge, nursing upright and burping well. I am trying him on his stomach right now for nap and he has sleep uninterrupted but I am scared to do that at night. Any help would be so appreciated!Stephanie

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  171. Our son is 8 months old. I have a few questions about his schedule. As of today, this is it:6:30-7am- wake nurse and breakfast9-9:30am- nap11-11:30am- wake nurse and lunch1-1:30pm- nap3-3:30pm- wake nurse and dinner5-5:30pm- 45-60 minute nap7:30-8pm- nurse and bed. Here are my questions:1. Is 3pm too early for supper? Should this be a nurse only time and wait to give dinner at 7pm? He rarely gets fussy for a meal and has easily stretched for 5 hours in between. When can his mealtimes line up with ours (7 am, 11-12pm, 5-6pm) and how will this fit in with his naps?2. He rarely sleeps straight through a nap anymore. He usually wakes after 45-60 minutes. Sometimes he is dirty, other times he is simply awake. I comfort him and put him back down. He cries for 30 minutes or so. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes he doesn't. Is this normal? What can we do to help him nap better?Thank you for any advice you can give. We appreciate it!

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  172. Stephanie,Yawning is not a reliable sleep cue for most babies. Since he doesn't yawn until 1.5 hours, I would forget about it for him. For a 3 week old (now 4 or 5 week old), shoot for 30-60 minutes. He will likely be around 45.As he gets older, he will be able to stay up longer and more often. See "waketime" or "newborn" blog labels for more on that. You might try gripe water for the gas. Also, have you considered reflux?

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  173. Hi Valerie-Thanks for getting back to me about my 8 week old. I did use the swing to help during her 4th nap (5pmish). Now Madeleine is almost 4 months and is really putting on weight and napping well into the day. Two questions: She is not yet sleeping through the night. Around 3 months, I dropped the dreamfeed because I could hardly get her to eat, she just wanted to sleep. I also noticed that regardless of the dreamfeed, she was waking around 3-4am. It didn't seem worth it to me to wake her up at 10 when she was going to wake at 3-4am without the dreamfeed. So now I feed her around 7:15-7:40 and keep her up until 8ish then she goes to bed. She is waking at 1-2am now and then I have to wake her to feed her at 7am. What do you suggest to get her to sleep from 8pm-5am? Do you suggest I go back to the dreamfeed? My goal is to put her to bed at 8 and have her sleep until 7am. If I need to reinstate the dreamfeed, then that is what I will do.My second question is regarding dropping the fourth nap. I read your post about babies dropping it near her age, but how does that affect her ability to sleep through the night? Thanks- still hoping to get her sleeping longer during night hours.-Lauren

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  174. There is a good chance the dreamfeed will help her STTN…but she is almost at the age to drop it. If it were me, I would try out the dreamfeed for a week or so to see if it helped.If she is ready for three naps instead of four, it shouldn't have any negative effect on her night sleep. It should only help–or do nothing 🙂

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  175. Hi There, glad to see you are still around. I wrote to you a couple times with my first and now my second is 3 weeks old – I'm back! I have a question/need advice about his routine please. I'm currently feeding on a 2.5 – 3 hourly routine, all going very well he feeds at, 7am, 9.30am, 12noon, 3pm, 5.30pm, 8, 10.30. He then wakes at 1am for a feed (taking it up to 8 feeds) then again around 4am before we start the day again at 7am. Last night I let him sleep from 8pm and he woke at 11.30, then again at 3am and again 5.45am! I just can't seem to get him sleeping past 3.5hours at night and wondering how I can try to get him to do a 4 or even a 4.5 hour stint… am I dreaming? Is he too young for this at 3 weeks of age. Ultimately I would like to give him a dream feed at 10.30 then have him sleep till 2am then up at 6.30am! Am I asking too much of him?

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  176. Hi val,I wrote the post above about 10 days ago… Don't bother replying to it… My now 4.2 week old son is going all over the place. I think he may have his days and nights confused… yesterday I had to wake him for nearly all his feeds and struggled to get any awake time from him, then last night he woke every two hours for a feed (to the minute) and was up from 4am for 3 hours! AARRGGHH!! He also cluster feeds from around the 4am mark… any advice an swapping his days and nights around or will it just happen naturally (I really struggle keeping him awake during the day – I also have an 19 mth old who screams and tries to play with him.. that still doesn't do the job!)… I was trying to find a thread that spoke about new borns confusion between days and nights – can you point me in the right direction!!!!???? Thanks Rach

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  177. Rach, I hope it is worked out by now. Following the EWS cycle is supposed to fix day/night confusion–but you need wake time. See "adding waketim to your newborn's day" for tips on that.

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  178. I can't tell you enough how happy I am that my husband found your blog!! I have been addicted to it for days now, trying to get through the mounds of helpful information. I have been following BW since my daughter (4.5 mos) was born. It has been a struggle to say the least and it continues to be.I won't go through it all but will try to give you a quick run down and I would love to hear any advice you might have for me.It took a while, but Baby had finally gotten to a point where she was napping well. She would wake up through a transition, but then whimper herself back to sleep. GREAT…I thought. However, a couple weeks ago she went through a growth spurt…I could tell because she was waking early from naps and eating so much…I added feedings for almost 2 weeks….since then she has had less than a handful of naps that she has slept well. She usually wakes up through the transition and now just cries instead of going back to sleep. I have tries consoling her, but that just wakes her up more and she wants to laugh and play. If I let her cry, she cries until I go in to get her to nurse. Then her naps are shot and it is SO hard for me to let her cry and not go in there. The only nap that goes well (usually) is her morning nap. I nurse her at 8:00 and she is usually down by 9 or earlier and sleeps until I wake her at 11 to nurse. She sleeps in her swing for this nap and has for about 2 months because of her reflux. Since she nurses and goes right back to sleep, I would rather her not be completely flat because it tends to bother her too much. How do I get her to sleep well at nap time?? I am very diligent about watching for her sleepy signs and putting her down when she appears tired. She either doesn't cry at all or cries just a little when I put her down then falls asleep. I am at a loss as to how to get her over the transition phase now. She does the same thing at night too…when she transitions she wakes up fully and then cries. She has NEVER STTN. Right now she is sleeping 6-7 hours at best…usually closer to 6 sometimes 5.5 Our routine is:8:00- nurse9:00- nap (in swing)11:00- nurse12:15- nap (in crib)2:00- nurse3:15- nap (in crib)5:00- nurse7:30- bottle with Daddy then straight to bedTypically she will wake up anywhere from 1:30-3:00 to nurse and then again 4:30-6:00 depending (after the middle of the night nursing she goes back to the 3 hr.)I am at a loss as to 1) how to get her through that transition in her sleep so she can get quality naps again and 2) how do I get her to sleep longer durations at night? I can't believe the amount of people who have said their babies are sleeping through…Sorry to have written so much….I am really trying not to give up and appreciate your help.

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  179. Hi! Thanks for your sample schedules. I feel so new at all of this! (I guess cause I am! 🙂 Anyways, my son is almost 8 months old, and isn't a great day-sleeper. I was looking at your schedules for this month and notices how long your babies slept. . . when you say that they nap at 8:45 and then nurse at 11:00 does that mean that they slept clear until that time? Just wondering if the reason my son is so cranky these past few weeks is because he's not getting enough sleep.

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  180. T, C, and Little C,I think that unfortunately there are circumstances that are going to make things take longer for you. But hopefully that will give you comfort and patience to hang in there.First, around 19-22 weeks (gestational age) is a really hard time for babies. See label "wonder weeks" for more on that.Second, reflux babies take longer to reach milestones. See the blog label "reflux" for lots on that (my first daughter had that).The good news is that at some point, the reflux will become less of an issue and she will start to reach those milestones you are hoping for. I know it is hard to have them not STTN or not napping well. But if you compare her to what other non-BW reflux babies are doing, you will feel really good about things. You have a good sign:: She goes down well for naps. Once her pain is better, she should be able to make it through the nap. I would start her in her bed then move her to the swing at transitions. Be sure to read the posts under "reflux" and hang in there!

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  181. AnnDee, yes, I fed them right when they woke up. BUT you can wait 20-30 minutes to feed if needed. See the post "Eat/Wake/Sleep cycle" for more on that topic.

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  182. in the early weeks of your girls it looks like they napped at 5:40 and then fed at 7 and went right back to bed? So does that mean you didnt try to keep them awake after 7 so in reality, they really went to sleep at 5:40 for the nigth since all they did after that was eat? I having trouble getting my son to stay awake after his evening feed, but maybe he doesn't need to at 9 weeks (6 weeks adjusted for early deliver)

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  183. Jennifer, waketime can be short at that time. I wouldn't consider it going to bed at 5:40 because they ate then I changed them into their pjs. In the early weeks, they could only handle 45-60 minutes waketime, and after eating and changing, prayers, etc. it was pretty close to that amount of time.

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  184. Hi Val, this is the first time I've posted, but I've used your blog as a research tool since my boys were born. I have twin boys who are almost 11 months old. They have never been great nappers and I feel like it is because I am not good at reading their cues and understanding what changes are going on. That being said, they are GREAT nighttime sleepers and always have been. I think I have let that fact allow me to just say "oh well" to the daytime nap routine. People are always telling me that they are just ready to drop a nap or drop a bottle or something, but I know that is not true. I have two questions for you.1. Do you always nurse or give milk before solids or meals? I'm confused as I feel like I have read some things about saving the milk for afterwards.2. Neither of my boys ever sleep a consistent (2)1.5-2 hour naps two days in a row. They either won't sleep one of the naps or will only sleep 45 minutes. Then, the other one will either be really, really long or just an hour. I am so confused and just don't know what to do.Here is there ideal schedule:7:00 – wake, bottle, breakfast8:45 – nap11:00 – bottle, lunch*1:45 – nap3:30-4 – bottle, dinner5:30 – sometimes a small snack and water6:45-7 – bottle, bath, pj's7:15 – bed*Morning is a tough time, because one or both of them is almost always awake when it should be nap time and I feel like it is throwing everything off. They are great with independent play, sibling play, meals, and nights. I do love babywise, your blog, and really want this to work.

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  185. Tracy,1. Yes, during the first year, I give milk before the meal. I did things differently with my two older children after one year. With my oldest, I still did take a full milk feeding before the meal. That was really the only way he would drink what he needed, plus I would hold him and it was the only time of day he would hold still 🙂 With my daughter, I gave her milk with her meal and she drank it all. I am not sure what I will do with McKenna…we will see what her personality is like.If they don't drink milk during the meal, I give them a sippy of water to have with them so they can have something ot drink.2-Do your boys nap together in the same room? If so, that could be part of the overall problem. I think most kids sleep best in the day alone. But, I do have a neighbor wtih twins who has her twins still napping together at 18 months old. She puts a fan in there for white noise.You might try a bit longer of waketime in the morning. Most kids that age can handle 2 hours waketime. If yours can't and you know it, ignore me 🙂 Go with what you know, but most can do 2 hours. Then your afternoon is long…so waketime length might be the problem here. I think I will post your sleeping question as a help a reader out question. Is that okay? There are lots of moms with twins specifically who might be able to offer some help.

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  186. Thanks for the response Val and yes, please use my sleep question as a help a reader out question.Since posting this a couple of weeks ago, I started having trouble with the boys taking a really long time (over an hour) to fall asleep in the afternoon and resorted to the yahoo groups page for any thoughts. I took some of the responses and have tried to extend waketime and shorten the morning nap. I borrowed a pack-n-play from my mom and have them nap in separate rooms (which seems to help). I also made the afternoon just a bottle and snack and moved dinner later to eat with us. It seems like the naps are starting to get better (2 good days in a row, at least), but both boys started waking early in the morning (5:15-6:!5 instead of 7:00). I've stuck to the new plan though and it seems like they are starting to do better (6:40 this morning). Below is closer to what we have been doing.(~6:30 wake)*7:00 – bottle, breakfast9:00 – nap (wake after 1:15 if needed)11:30 – bottle, lunch1:30/2 – napbottle/snack when wake5:30 – dinner (I'm kind of moving this back closer to 5:00 to try and help with the bedtime bottle and early morning waking)6:30 – bath, pjs, bottle7:00 – bedtime**The things that are happening now are taking a long time to fall asleep at night and waking early in the morning. I am also a little unsure on the exact nap times as I sometimes have to adjust based on what time they wake in the morning. I would love for the boys to go back to sleeping 11.5-12 predictable hours at night.

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  187. Hello – I am new to this blog and so glad I found it. My little guy just turned 7 months and he just finished a growth spurt and things are starting to swing in the right direction again, so I too have just put him on a 4 hour schedule. I do have some questions though – and I'm so thrilled you posted your schedules also as I found it really helpful. My little one sleeps for approx. an hour and a half per nap, and I thought he might be ready to lose the 3rd nap and tried to today to see if he might stretch to an earilerr bed time, but I don't think he's ready yet… He usually only gets 10 hours at night (with one late night feed that he wakes for at around 12:30-1am), then through till 7:30. I'd like to have him down for the night sooner, but if he takes a third nap, I feel as though he may not be ready to right down to bed again after a feed – but I haven't tried it, so that's the next step. As AnnDee asked above, how long did your babies sleep at each nap? I'm really looking forward to reading through all the great info! Thanks!

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  188. Hello – I am new to this blog and so glad I found it. My little guy just turned 7 months and he just finished a growth spurt and things are starting to swing in the right direction again, so I too have just put him on a 4 hour schedule. I do have some questions though – and I'm so thrilled you posted your schedules also as I found it really helpful. My little one sleeps for approx. an hour and a half per nap, and I thought he might be ready to lose the 3rd nap and tried to today to see if he might stretch to an earilerr bed time, but I don't think he's ready yet… He usually only gets 10 hours at night (with one late night feed that he wakes for at around 12:30-1am), then through till 7:30. I'd like to have him down for the night sooner, but if he takes a third nap, I feel as though he may not be ready to right down to bed again after a feed – but I haven't tried it, so that's the next step. As AnnDee asked above, how long did your babies sleep at each nap? I'm really looking forward to reading through all the great info! Thanks!

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  189. Jennifer R. Maxwell,At 7 months:Brayden slept for 2 hours per napKaitlyn was about 2.5 hours per napMcKenna was also about 2.5 hours per nap1.5 hours is a good nap, though, so I wouldn't worry about it.I would definitely try an earlier bedtime.

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  190. Hi, I am new to this blog, but I need help with my 2 week old I used the book for my first child (who is now 2). It worked great. I am now attempting to use it with my 2 week old. He does well with the 2 1/2 to 3 hr feeding schedule and I can keep him awake after the feedings easily, however when I lay him down (awake) for his naps he is not cooperating. I know the book says to let them cry and expect them to cry for 15 to 30 min. My son however will cry until he is due to feed again. I check on him, try to comfort him, etc but nothing is working. When I give him his next feeding he is so tired from being up 3 hours that he falls asleep after eating. So i have really just fed him to sleep. Any suggestions????

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  191. Danielle, until Valerie can get to your comment, I would go to the blog index under "Cry It Out". There are a few posts there where she explains how with her daughter after an hour or so of baby crying, she would put baby in the swing or rock baby to sleep so that she got some sleep before the next feeding to avoid nursing to sleep at the next feeding. There are lots of other excellent suggestions too. Good luck@

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  192. My 6 month old son is still not sleeping through the night! We have followed most of the BW book with both of our sons and our second, is just not cooperating! It does make it hard that I am a working mom this time around and I wasn't the first time. He does put himself to sleep for all of his naps. Here is his schedule, we will take all the help we can get!:)6:00 Nurse and back to bed (Typically he is not ready to start his day now)9:30/10:00 Bottle of breastmilk and cereal11:30/12:00 Nap1:00/1:30 Formula Bottle and solids3:00 Nap4:00/4:30 Nurse6:00 Nap7:00/7:30 Nurse9:00 Nurse and cereal, and the bedHe is waking up around 2:30am and then again around 5:45/6:00am

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  193. Hi Working Mommy,I wanted to share my thoughts until Val is able to reply. While I am not sure what your working schedule is, if there is no need for your son to be awake at 6, I would wait to get him until at least 7 or later. It seems like the naps are occurring pretty late which may be affecting his nighttime sleep. In Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby, the author talks about how earlier bedtimes are best especially with infants. For example, if he starts his day at 7 or 7:30 then his nap would be appr. 2 hours after that. The afternoon nap would them be around 1:30 or 2 if he is on a 4 hour schedule. A 9pm bedtime seems pretty late unless perhaps it is a necessity and then it is understandable if there is no other alternative. For the nighttime waking, you could do one of two things. Wait until the weekend, and do not go to your son when he wakes. You may find he goes back to sleep on his own and there is no hunger need. Or go to him, check if he is wet or soiled but do not feed him. Perhaps temporarily comfort him back to sleep. I have experienced both with my almost 10 month son when he was about 5 months old. For the morning, we would let him play and talk to himself. And he would fall back asleep until 7:30. In fact, we are going through that now again. I think it's pretty normal. We also did away with the middle of the night feeding by also not going to him. It only took two nights for him to get the hint that it was sleeptime. I would never withhold food from a hungry baby, the key is to determine whether it is really hunger or just habit. I truly hope this helps.

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  194. Danielle,I hope you checked out the CIO index like Jennifer suggested. I suggest you also see the 4 S's blog label. Good luck!

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  195. Working Mommy,It looks like his naps aren't great in the day and that is likely contributing to him not sleeping well at night.Do you do daycare, nanny…? It seems like in most cases, the nanny is easiest on the baby so far as keeping consitent schedule goes.

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  196. Thanks for the sample schedules. They are helpful! I am running into a problem with my 3 1/2 month old son recently. If I skip the dreamfeed and give him his last feeding between 8 and 9 PM, he will sleep until about 5 AM. However, if I do the dreamfeed, he will wake around 3 AND 5 or 6 AM, which of course messes up our wake up time (somewhere between 7 and 8). I am trying really hard to get him on a routine, but so far have not had luck. I stayed home with him for 2 weeks to establish it, and everything went haywire! He started waking up extra times at night and waking 40 minutes early from every nap. I am ready to give up on the whole idea of a schedule.

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  197. Mary,If he sleeps better with out the dreamfeed, then don't do it. Some babies do better without it. If yours is one of them, then don't do the dreamfeed. Good luck!

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  198. Hi, i just discovered BW and your blog and love them both! My son is 7 weeks old and is on a 3 hr. schedule, even in the middle of the night. He's drinking 3-4 ounces 7-8 times a day, which seems to be a lot. He's 10 lbs. Anyway, I'm having issues with him getting past the 45 minute mark with naps. I will put him down awake and sometimes, but usually not, he'll fuss/cry for 5-10 minutes. But, right after 45 minutes, he's up. I try to let him cry, but he screams until I go in and pick him up. I've let him cry 20 minutes the most. I'm wondering if he's not learning to self-soothe, even though he's going down awake. Also, after I get him up after crying, should I just feed him?Night time – BW says at his age, he should be sleeping 5-7 hours, and I get 3 hours, 3.5 hours at the most! I really want to get him to sleep longer. This is his schedule:6:10am – wakes up crying and will only go back to sleep in my arms.7:00 – My goal wake up time for the day. First bottle of the day8:00 – nap, only 45 mins if in cradle and 2 hours if in car seat in the car running errands10:00 – 2nd bottle (4 ozs)11:00 – nap1:00pm – 3rd bottle2:00 – nap (usually at him 45 mins)4:00 – 4th bottle5:00 – nap6:30/45 – 5th bottle8:00 – bedtime routine (bath, pjs, lights out, swaddle, song)9:30 – wake him to eat 4 ozs.12:30/1am – first nighttime waking – takes 3 ozs.3:30/4 – 2nd nighttime waking – takes 3ozs. Should I not wake him at 9:30? I go to bed for the night at this time, or else I'd hold off to 10:30 for this dreamfeed. Should I stop waking him and see if he does better just going to bed at 8pm and see how long he goes? One time a few weeks ago I did this and he was up at 11pm, which then created 3 nighttime wakings.Thanks for your help!

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  199. Oh and we live in a 2BR condo, and have a 3 year old. Right now the baby is in our room in a cradle, but we have no idea what to do about sleep training him eventually (to get rid of night feedings) when he goes into his crib in my daughter's room. Should we have her sleep at my inlaws for a few nights until we gte him to STTN? I'm sure not everyone has the luxury of having separate bedrooms for their kids right, especially us Manhattanites? How long do they usually cry in the middle of the night when trying to use CIO to get rid of night feedings? With my toddler, I did CIO at 4 months old, and she slept 12 hours/night ever since. It only took 2 nights, and we were done. I hope it's that easy this time, but I'd like to start earlier, since I have to go back to work and I'm exhausted now.

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  200. Tina,It is very normal for the baby to wake up after 45 minutes when they are first learning to sleep on their own.You also need to watch for growth spurts often during the first 4 months.I suggest you see the blog label "45 minute intruder" for lots of help as well as "naps: troubleshooting–revised and updated"You can also see "waking early from naps/won't fall asleep for naps"It is also normal for him to not be up to BW milestones if you started later than someone who started at birth. See the post "starting BW late" for more on that.As for the 9:30 feeding questions, see the blog label "dreamfeed" for lots of info on that. If he does better with the 9:30 feed than without it, I would hold on to it.

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  201. Hi! THANK GOD FOR YOUR POST! It is amazing. I have a slight problem on my hands.My 15 week old son, has followed babywise pretty much by the book (with the help of your blog) since day one. I am in Australia, so it is currently winter at the moment.The problem I have is, he has been changing his last feeding back every night, as it stands we are at 6.30pm. His wake time is 6.30pm – 7.00am so this is fine. The problem however is that he was doing great on a combo 3 -3 1/2 hour schedule, but now is feeding 2 – 3 hourly through the day. His schedule looks a little like this:6.30 -am – nurse, 50 mins wake time (he could do more at this time but I leave him in his crib with the mobile on – he seems very alert and wants to play though7.30- nap 8.45am – nurse, waketime10am – nap11.45am – nurse & waketime12.30pm – nap1.45pm – nurse2.45pm – nap4.00pm – feed5.30pm – nap6.30pm – nurse & straight to bed.Then he will sleep until 6.00am and wake happy until his feed at 6.30. I have tried shortening his wake time, but he is happy to go down at 1.5 hours? But will not stay asleep!The above schedule is todays, and as you can see its all over the place! Prior to sleeping through the night, he would work really well on 7, 10.30, 1.00, 4.00 & 7.00! His naps used to be more consistant also – 1 1/2 to 2 hours- but now are only 1hour?As he is consistantly (2 weeks now) able to sleep 10 – 12 hours at night, and sleeping 5 hours through the day – shouldn't I be moving to a 3 – 4 hour combo> however it seems we have gone backwards and as I am breastfeeding he is trying to compensate during the day for the big sleep at night. It seems he loves his late afternoon sleep, as I have to wake him for the 6.30pm feed? I feel as though he should be sleeping longer in the mornings and less in the afternoons – i.e having no waketime for the last nap – but that is his favorite. He is gaining weight well, but is still quite small – should I try and force a 7th feed?? I.e reinstate the dream feed – though as he sleeps so contently does he need it? I thought sleeping through the night was meant to be a blesssing – it is causing me more stress now, as his daytime routine is all messed up. Is it possible he is going through another growth spurt and once my milk supply levels out it will get more consistant through the day? I have just started expressing before I go to bed – do you think that will help?Again, thank-you so much for your blog – it is such a blessing!

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  202. Sorry – just so you know he has waketime all day, excluding the 6.30pm feed – where I put him straight down. Thanks again 🙂

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  203. kellypatriciatodd,No, him STTN consistently does not mean you will be moving to a 4 hour soon. He is on the younger end for the 10-12 hours of sleeping at night, so he will most likely have many weeks before he is ready to move to a 4 hour. I definitely think it is a good chance he is having a growth spurt or perhaps a wonder week issue (see wonder weeks blog label). I think you expressing before you go to bed is an excellent idea to help keep supply up.

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  204. Thanks for the sample schedules! They were helpful, however I still have a question regarding how to know when to drop feedings and how to drop naps. How did you know when to shorten a nap and eventually eliminate it? My baby is almost 11 weeks old. She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 3 weeks old (she was born a big baby). The following is the schedule we have been on since she was about 3 weeks old (only exception is her naps are 1/5 hours instead of 2 hrs like they were when she was a newborn):8:00 AM: Nurse8:00-9:30: Wake time9:30-11:00: Nap11:00: Wake her to nurse11:00-12:30: Wake time12:30-2:00: Nap2:00: Wake her to nurse2:00-3:30: Wake time3:30-5:00: Nap5:00: Wake her to nurse (Every now and then she wants this feeding at 4:45)5:00-6:30or7:00: Wake time6:30 or 7:00-8:00: Wake her to nurse8:00-9:15: Wake time (this is the only my husband sees her, so thats why I keep this wake time)9:15: Bedtime10:30: Bottle of expressed milk. She used to take 5 oz, now we can barely get 4. I suppose this is a dreamfeed. BUT We have to get her out of bed to get her to eat at all. As soon as she finishes, she goes back to sleep with no problem. This used to be at 11 PM but we have moved it up to prepare to drop it.I have always had trouble with her falling asleep while eating but I always ensure she gets a full feeding. I also have to wake her for nearly all her feedings—always have had to since she was born.So my questions:-How do I know when its the right time to extend her 3 hour schedule?-When you do drop the DF, do you stretch the schedule for the rest of the day out?-Is she sleeping TOO much?-When you eliminate a feeding do you just stretch out the previous wake time? I have read babywise like 12 times and I still dont understand how to drop feedings/naps. I do not understand how dropping the feeding/nap effects the other naps/waketimes/feeding times.Sorry for all the questions!

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  205. Kelly Grant,See these posts:When to move to a four hour scheduleDropping the dreamfeedand see the Dropping Naps blog label.When you drop the dreamfeed, the rest of the day should stay as it is. You just don't feed at 10:30.She is not sleping too much.Feedings are naturally dropped as you extend the schedule. So the first feeding most BW moms drop is the dreamfeed. You just stop feeding for that. Then you move to a 4 hour schedule. Keeping the EWS cycle, you naturally drop a feeding at that point. One comment, I would move her bedtime to be no later than 8 PM.Hope that helps!

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  206. Please help me fix my schedule. Things are changing and I am not sure if where to go with it. My LO is almost 12 weeks. Here is what I am currently doing:6:30am -wake/eat7:10 – nap9:30 – wake/eat10:10 – nap12:30 – wake/eat1:10 – nap3:30 – wake/eat4:10 – nap6:30 -eat7pm – bath7:30 – bedShe just dropped the dreamfeed so she sleeps till 6:30 am. Although she sometimes still wakes between 4-5 am and needs her paci to help her go back to sleep. Not sure if I should CIO for this instead? I don't want her to always need it in the early morning hours.Naps get worse as the day progress. She usually goes down for all of them without a fuss and goes to sleep right away. The first nap I usually have to wake her. The second, sometimes I do sometimes I don't. The third nap, she almost always wakes early, and the last is just a short cat nap. When she wakes she is quiet and calm and sometimes I don't even realize she's awake. She will wake very early messing up the whole schedule because then she has to go down for her next nap early. I can't feed her as soon as she wakes because she is NOT hungry. In fact she is NEVER hungry at the 3 hour mark. I really have to push her to eat. She eats fine for her first feeding but could really go longer in between for her other feedings. I'm just not sure if I should move to a 4 hour schedule being that she just dropped the dreamfeed 3 days ago. A 3.5 hour schedule does not work for our family since I am by myself in the evening with 2 kids and I can't mess with my toddlers bedtime right now. I am also wondering if I should cut out the 4th nap altogether. Looking forward to your suggestions!

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  207. LEM,The fourth catnap drops at 4 months old, so you are close but not there yet. What I would do right now is tweak waketime lengths. Since she sleeps well for the first nap, leave that alone. and it sounds like the second nap is good, too, so I would leave that alone. For the third, I would add five minutes to your waketime for a couple of days and see how that goes.I wouldn't move to a 4 hour yet. She is young to be doing the two so close together, plus she is still waking in the night even if she isn't eating. Review the "optimal waketime" posts for help in getting that down right.

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  208. Thanks so much for your advice. Things have gotten much better and I kept that 4th catnap. She is now almost 15 weeks and I feel we need a change again. I still have to wake her at the 3 hour mark and she is still not hungry. Her catnap is really now gone. I still put her down but she will lie there for 15-20 min and then begin to cry. She doesn't sleep. Her nighttime sleep is fabulous now and she doesn't wake in the AM anymore.I tried today to move her to a 4 hour schedule. She has 1.5 hours of waketime right now. I woke her at 7am and put her down for a nap at 830. She woke at 1030 (not my ideal 11) and was content. I left her there in hopes she would fall back asleep but she didn't. I fed her at 11 and she ate well. I put her down early for her second nap because she woke early but she has been waking off and on the entire nap. She is not crying. The only way I know is because of the video monitor. She puts herself back to sleep but then wakes again. There is about 40 min left until her next feeding and she is currently asleep and I am hoping she will stay there until her next feeding.What does this all mean? Do they need sometime to adjust to the new schedule? Or should I go back to 3 hours? I really hated having to wake her especially when she wasn't hungry. Sometimes she would even cry when I woke her as if she was a grumpy teenager! I am not sure if she could handle more waketime either.

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  209. I CANT SAY THANK YOU ENOUGH.. I HAVE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR SAMPLE SCHEDULE U HAVE POSTED FOR YOUR DAUGHTER AT 7 Months:7:30–nurse + solids8:50–nap11:30–nurse + solids1:00–nap3:30–nurse5:00–nap ( HOW LONG DID SHE SLEEP HERE ?) 7:00–nurse + solids then bed (I woke her up earlier than 4 hours because I wanted her in bed for the night to get 12 hours of sleep) (WHAT DOES THIS MEAN YOU WOKE HER UP AT THE FOUR HOUR MARK?) WHAT TIME WAS SHE IN BED BY ?IM TRYING TO TRANSITION MY LITTLE BOY 21 WEEKS NOW TO A FOUR HOUR SCHEDULE AND I THINK WE ARE PRETTY CLOSE BUT I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS. THIS IS OUR SCHEDULE AS FOLLOWED.7:00 WAKE EAT 8:45 NAP 10:30 WAKES ( I HOLD FEEDING AND WAIT 30 MIN SO HE CAN GET TO 4 HOUR MARK)SOMETIMES HE CAN MAKE IT TO 10:4511:00 EAT12:15 NAP2:30 WAKES ( AGIAN I WAIT 30 MIN HERE SO HE CAN GET TO 4 HOUR MARK ) SOMETIMES HE CAN MAKE IT TO 2:453:00 EAT4:15 I PUT HIM DOWN BUT HE SEEMS TO PLAY FOR 30 MIN BEFORE HE FALLS TO SLEEP SO HIS WAKE TIME EXTENDS TO ABOUT 2 HOURS .15 MINUTES4:45 NAP 5:30 -5:45 WAKE HERE IS ANOTHER QUESTION SHOULD I FEED HIM RIGHT AFTER HE WAKES FROM 3RD NAP ? OR SHOULD I HOLD OFF TILL HIS LAST FEEDING OF 7:OOPM? DOES IT MEAN HE IS NOT READY FOR 4 HOUR SCHEDULE IF HE IS NOT SLEEPING ON THIS 3RD NAP TO HIS LAST FEEDING? I NEVER HAVE TO WAKE HIM HE WAKES AROUND THIS TIME ALL THE TIME 5:30 -5:45 ALSO HOW CAN I GET HIM TO SLEEP TILL 7:30 AM ?THANK YOU AGIAN YOU'RE A LIFE SAVER !!!

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  210. Val- My little boy is 8months and he sounds a lot like Brayden as far as the sleeping goes. What did you do when you said you dropped the 3rd nap and he was sleeping 10.5 hrs. You said you kept his waketime 2hrs., naptime hrs. Did you let him just be awake the rest of the day until bedtime? That doesn't seem to be working very well for us. So I have the first wake time at 2hrs, and the second at 3hrs. That doesn't seem to be working great either. He only naps 1-1.5hrs. Our start time is 6a and I am having a hard time finding the right schedule…any ideas??

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  211. Hi! Love your blog. It has been very helpful! My son is 6 1/2 months old (but he was 5 weeks early) and he is finally sleeping through the night! I thought it would never happen 🙂 Anyway, he is on a combo 3-3.5 hour schedule and has dropped the 4th nap but he is so cranky after his last feeding until bedtime. He is not ready for a 4 hour schedule yet. He can barely stay awake for 1.75 hours Here is his schedule:7:30/8:00 wake solids and formula9:30 nap11:00 feed solids and formula12:45 nap2:30 feed formula4:00 nap5:30 feed solids and formula8:00 formula and bed by 8:15After his 5:30 feeding he stays awake until bedtime (we have tried a small cat nap but he won't go down) We play with him, read with him, go for a walk, give him a bath etc.) He is just soooooo crabby by the time it is bedtime because he has been up since 5:00-5:30. By 7:00 he is crying and needs to be held. Do I put him down earlier? If I feed and put him down at 7:30, it will only be 1 1/2-2 hours. He is really having trouble with the last stretch of the night.Thank you,Karly

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  212. Yolly,She slept for two hours for that third nap, but she was a major sleeper. When I woke her at 7, that was a 3.5 hour interval since her last feeding, not 4. She was in bed by 7:30 so she could get 12 hours of sleep.A third nap can range from 30 minutes to 2 hours–some even longer. That is normal and shouldn't impact a four hour schedule. However, he isn't making it for any of his feedings–not even the first. So I would say he isn't fully ready for a four hour schedule yet. You are right, he is close, but not quite there.Sleeping until 7:30 is tricky. My oldest has never been a late sleeper. Some just naturally wake earlier in the morning. It is frustrating as a baby, but the positive side is that you probably won't have major issues with waking in the morning when school starts 🙂 If you want to try, see the "time change" blog label for methods on how to move the child's clock.

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  213. Kristen,I would definitely do a "two up, two down" schedule. If he won't stay awake happily after nap two until bed, then you likely still need a 3rd nap–even just a short 30 minute nap. But soon after we dropped the 3rd nap, we moved bedtime up so he was sleeping 11 hours at night. So another option is to have an earlier bedtime, which is quite common when you are dropping a nap.

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  214. Karly, tough call. You can try feeding him and putting him to bed and see what happens. McKenna has been a longer sleeper of about 13 hours, so it is possible to go longer. Chances are he won't eat well later anyway since he is tired. I would probably feed at 7 and have in bed by 7:30.

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  215. Hey Valerie,I was looking at your 7 month schedule for McKenna. I was wondering why you feed McKenna solids 4 times a day. And since you did feed her solids 4 times a day, what were her potions and meals like? Just curious. I am trying to figure out feeding the twins solids right now and I feel like they could eat 4 solid meals, but I did not do that with my son so I am just trying to think this one through.

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  216. Good question. I didn't actually do that! That is a typo. I fed solids at her first three meals and just breastfed her last meal.

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  217. Hello! I have a couple of questions for you! Thanks for taking the time to answer – I value your opinion. :)1. I'm still nursing my 10-month old daughter and plan to until she is 18 months. Right now we are nursing 4 times/day. At what age should I go down to 3 times/day? 2. Sometimes it seems like my baby would eat forever if I didn't say "enough." Most people say babies stop when they are full, but do parents ever need to limit how much their baby eats? My daughter is in the 70th percentile for height and weight, so I know she is getting enough. I don't want to be restrictive, but it just seems like whenever the spoon is in front of her mouth, she opens it!3. Kind of unrelated, but one last question about waking early. 🙂 My daughter's bedtime is 7pm; she will wake at 5 or 5:15 most days. I've been nursing her at that time, and then she sleeps until 7 or 7:30, but she is too old to be nursing "in the middle of the night." A friend recommended I just leave her there until 7, but when I do, she doesn't fall back asleep. I am certain she is not waking out of hunger. She's a good napper – she's just stuck at that dreaded 5 o'clock hour! I've been troubleshooting for awhile now and can come up with nothing. Should I leave her until 7am in hopes she gets the hint, or will that just teach her to cry until someone gets her?Thanks so much!

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  218. Hello! I have a couple of questions for you! Thanks for taking the time to answer – I value your opinion. :)1. I'm still nursing my 10-month old daughter and plan to until she is 18 months. Right now we are nursing 4 times/day. At what age should I go down to 3 times/day? 2. Sometimes it seems like my baby would eat forever if I didn't say "enough." Most people say babies stop when they are full, but do parents ever need to limit how much their baby eats? My daughter is in the 70th percentile for height and weight, so I know she is getting enough. I don't want to be restrictive, but it just seems like whenever the spoon is in front of her mouth, she opens it!3. Kind of unrelated, but one last question about waking early. 🙂 My daughter's bedtime is 7pm; she will wake at 5 or 5:15 most days. I've been nursing her at that time, and then she sleeps until 7 or 7:30, but she is too old to be nursing "in the middle of the night." A friend recommended I just leave her there until 7, but when I do, she doesn't fall back asleep. I am certain she is not waking out of hunger. She's a good napper – she's just stuck at that dreaded 5 o'clock hour! I've been troubleshooting for awhile now and can come up with nothing. Should I leave her until 7am in hopes she gets the hint, or will that just teach her to cry until someone gets her?Thanks so much!

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  219. I have a 9 month old who is showing signs of needing more waketime but I feel she is too young. Here's where she at. This was working great until recently:700 wake, bottle, breakfast930-1130 nap1130- wake, bottle , solids200-400 nap400- bottles530- solids645- bedtime bottle, bath730- bedRecently she takes 15-30 min to fall asleep for both naps and wakes around her normal time. If shedoes fall asleep right away she will wake early. Her naps still seem to be an appropriate length though- about 1.5 hours. But I never know if she will fall asleep later or wake earlier. Which makes the beginning of her second nap at different times different days. I also have a 2.75 year old who is napping less and less and need their nap times to overlap. My gut feeling is that she needs more waktime but isn't 2.5 hours enough? My son never had less that 2.5 hours of waktime until we started shortening the am nap. So it makes me think I should start shortening it. But isn't she too young? How should her nap times look like if I did?On another note my 2.75 year old falls asleep right away at his naptime at 1pm. Then only sleeps 1.5 hours when he used to sleep 3. Is this normal for his age?Or does this mean I need to put him down for nap later?

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  220. my lo is 20 wks old and on a 3 hr schedule. feeding schedule is 7:30a, 10:30a, 1:30p, 4:30p & 7:30p. i just started her on rice cereal at her 1:30p feeding. naps are usually 9a, 12p, 3p, however, the past few days she hasn't taken the 3p nap. first 2 naps are usually between 1-2 hrs., although some days she wakes up w/ the 45 min intruder & won't go back to sleep. awake time is at least 1.5 hrs during day and 3+ hrs in evening. i'm at a loss right now as to what to do w/ her schedule! i read in bw2 that some 5-6mo old take 2 naps daily w/ catnap in evenings. she's on her 2nd day of no evening nap. today i tried a 3.5 hr schedule – 7:30a, 11a, 2:30p, 5:30p & 7:30p b/c it seems she hasn't been as hungry on the 3 hr schedule either, but today was ready to eat at 5:30. have any suggestions? i'm so thankful for babywise and scheduling. my lo is breastfed w/ supplement as needed. she sleeps thru the night, 8p-7:30a almost daily. every once in awhile she'll wake up early, around 7 or so. i appreciate any suggestions!

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  221. Kiley,1. That is up to you. I do have a post on dropping the fourth liquid feeding. Some people have done it as early as 9 months. I don't do it until I am done nursing, though. 2. Sometimes with McKenna, I had to "call a meal." She just ate and ate. But for the most part, I fed her until she was done. 3. I would work on stopping that nursing. I would slowly cut back the amount of time she nurses. Work to no nursing and you just rocking or something, and work to just leaving her there. Hopefully she will get so she doesn't wake.Try to figure out why she is waking and address that. I would wonder if she is cold at that point in the night. Good luck!

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  222. LEM,I do think 2.5 hours is long enough. Has she previously fallen alseep quickly after being awake 2.5? Most babies that age are up two, down two, so if she hasn't fallen asleep quickly at 2.5, I might try something closer to that.She is old enough you can have a set start time for the afternoon nap. So even if she woke early, you would start the nap at 2 unless she really needs to go down earlier.For the 2 year old, you might try moving his nap a bit later. I would go in 15 minute increments. That might be an okay length for some, but most will be taking longer naps.

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  223. Yes, she previously did fall asleep quickly for her naps. After I wrote that post she began crying before her naps and waking early form her afternoon nap. Turns out I think she might be butting her first tooth – still not sure though. The crying has stopped but her afternoon nap is still not to my liking!I was trying to calculate waketime based on the time she woke instead of a set nap times. I really like the idea of a set nap time. So if she wakes around 11 from her AM nap (which she often does) I would keep her 2pnm naptime if she is content? And if she wakes, or I wake her at 11:30, I still put her down at 2? Just want to be sure I'm doing this correctly!

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  224. Hi again!AS you know things change so often with these little ones. I think what was happening was nap disruptions since she was learning to crawl, but we are somewhat back to normal yet this is her new normal and I need your advice again!Nap 1 – 930(falls asleep quickly) – 11am (I wake her)Nap 2- 130 (takes 15-30 min to fall asleep, happily) – 3pm (she wakes on her own)I'd like her PM nap to be longer, really, to have her transition to the 1 nap when appropriate more easily. What's your advice? Shorten the AM nap a bit more? Put her down later for her PM nap? Or maybe earlier? Thanks for your help!

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  225. Jenn,It might be the 20 week wonder week causing problems. If so, you should be at the end of it. But keep in mind you can do a combo schedule, so if she can go longer in the mornings but needs to be closer in the evenings, that is totally fine.

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  226. LEM, I would leave the morning nap alone. You have a long time before one nap happens, so I wouldn't be setting a schedule now to accommodate it then. Work with what is now. I might even let her sleep an extra 30 minutes in the morning if she will.

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  227. Well, the schedule above was short lived. Since I have begun posting on here about her naps I really can't get a grip on this whole thing. I think she did the previous schedule like that for a day and then things went poor again. Sometimes she takes 60 min to fall asleep, sometimes she goes right away and in reading my log, I can't find a patter for the life of me! No matter what though she never gives me any difficulty at night regardless of how much she sleeps during the day.She is now 10 months and I know its WAY early for 1 nap. But she did go down to 2 naps at 4-5ish months (she just would not sleep for her last nap no matter what I tried!) Do you think she may be showing signs of going down to 1 nap? I can't think of what else it could be! I thought it was teeting but no signs of tooth yet.

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  228. LEM, there is a wonder week happening around 10 months and there are a handful of moms that say baby doesn't sleep well at that time.At most, if you really think you need one nap, I would shorten the AM and then have a longer PM, but even 14 month olds have a hard time going to just one nap a day every day (they do better with one nap some days, two others), so I would highly suggest you don't do that yet.

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  229. My 11 week old is still nursing every 3 hours (6,9,12,3,6, & 9) with a night time feeding anywhere from 3-4am. He just started to stretch the middle of the night feeding the past few weeks, but hasnt STTN yet. We give him a bath before His last feeding at 9pm, which we usually have to wake him for.My question is should we let him sleep until 10pm and give him his last feeding then, hoping it helps him STTN? Also, do we extend the schedule to 3.5-4 hours once he is STTN or before?

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  230. hello thanks for all the sample schedules…i found them to be very helpful. I do have a couple of questions that you might be able to help with..my son is 7 weeks old and has been on a 3 hour schedule and is doing very well with the wake eat play sleep…he eats at 8,1030,130,430,730 and down for 8. dream feed about 11/1130….then wakes up at 2 or so and then at 5am and start our day around 8…is this normal? he is still eating every three hours…and was wondering how long before he does more of a stretch between feeds? we started late about 5.5 weeks..second..he is on reflux meds but it is preventative d/t a surgery he had when he was 3 days old…he is healthy and is on a combo of breast and bottle? also and phase two…extending the night….is this something the baby will do on his own….or is there something i should be doing to help extend these nights…ie not feeding? likewise is phase 1..will he eventually sleep longer without me implementing anything else other than the wake eat play sleep routine?.WE are working towards the goal of longer sleep! just wanting to make sure we are on the right track..

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  231. [email protected] would for sure stop the bath around 9 PM. Do the bath before he goes down around 7ish or so. That should be his "bedtime." 9 PM is a dreamfeed, so look at the posts on that–but I do think 10 would be better. In most cases, extend schedule after he is STTN. There are some exceptions, but those are for much older babies.

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  232. Rebecca,There is a wide range of "normal" for this age group. Some are going as much as 8 hours between feedings, but some are waking up a couple of times in the night. Since you started late, I would say this is in the realm of normal. Extending night is most often something baby does on their own. Something you might try is an earlier dreamfeed. It is a little late, which can disrupt normal sleep patterns. If it were me, I would try 10:30 instead. Maybe even 10 PM.

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  233. God bless you! It is so awesome that you take the time to help others. My question is about my 8 week old son. He is on a 3 hour schedule. I wake him at 7:00am for his first feeding (I breastfeed him). While I am at work, he gets my breastmilk in a bottle at 10, 1, and 4. The nanny is very good about keeping the three hour routine (sleep, feed, wake). I breastfeed him again at 7pm and then I put him to bed. I pick him up and do his dreamfeed at 10pm. He wakes up twice a night (usually around 1:00am and 4:00am; give or take an hour). When he does this, I change his diaper, nurse him, and put him back down. He has no problem going right back down to sleep. I have never had him cry when putting him down to sleep. Am on the right schedule? I am so tired of waking up twice a night. How can I drop one or both of those feedings? Is it in my control, or will he just magically sleep through one or both feedings if I continue on my schedule? I have a 1 1/2 year old and I used babywise with her. She slept through the night early on. I can't remember the exact age, but I feel like she was already doing it by now. I found your sample schedules, but it doesn't exactly address this. Please tell me what to do.Thanks for your help! 🙂

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  234. It's been so long since someone posted a question that I am wondering if this will get answered! A little background: My 6mo daughter was a preemie, had SEVERE colic for the first 4 months, so we are just now starting to get some predictability. She is a terrible napper, and has only slept all night a few times. She can only stay awake for about an hour to an hour and a half before she gets pretty fussy. I try to start the day at 7ish, feeding her then, 10:30, 2, 5, 7bed. She has trouble making it from 5 to 7 with fussiness, but then she also never makes it until 7am at night. I feel like I can't put her to bed later because she is so ready to go to bed, but she doesn't sleep long enough to make it til morning. Any advice?

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  235. Sarah Noelle, he will most likely be at one feeding a night by now. With my kids, they just started sleeping through, but it wasn't a "do it once and never look back" thing. It was sleep through some nights, not others, etc. The thing to watch for is if he starts not eating well for his first feeding in the morning (at 7 AM). If that happens and he is still eating in the night, see my post "Early Morning Feedings Before waketime"

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  236. Thank you so much for your feedback. He's actually doing so great now! He goes down around 7 or 8 at night. I do a dreamfeed around 10ish and he doesn't wake up until about 5 am. I feed him and then put him right back down until 8 am. It's awesome. I think he was going through a growth spurt the week I wrote to you. Again, thank you so much! Your blog is awesome and I have referred several people to it. 🙂

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  237. SarahB, you could always try a dreamfeed and see if that helps. Since she had a rough first four months, she might just be running behind. I would review the "nighttime sleep issues revised and updated" post to see if something stands out to you.

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  238. Hi I have a few questions about my 7 month olds schedule. 1. His morning wake time is anywhere from 530-615, I would love for him to sleep later. He goes to bed around 6pm and STTN. Should I just leave him in bed to talk or cry until he falls back asleep?2. He is still on a 3 hour schedule (6,9,12,3,6), taking 3-4 naps, depending on whether or not he sleeps longer than an hour. When he wakes early from a nap should I wait to nurse him until his scheduled feeding? His wake time is 1.5hours. When extending to a 4 hour schedule, what do you do when naps are shorter than 1.5hrs? Extend the wake time?Thanks for the help!

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  239. 1.See the post "early morning feedings before waketime"2. You could wait 30 minutes before feed.ing him. That would put you at 3.5 hour schedules.

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  240. Your blog has been so helpful for the past 5 months. Thank you for that. Would like your opinion on where to go with our schedule.Baby Neil is 21 weeks.I knew he needed to extend his feeding times around 4 months. I wanted 3.5 hr. We tried it but he wanted 4 hr. So I went with it. I don't want him to go to bed at 7PM since he will not see his dad since my husband leaves at 6AM and comes home after 7PM sometimes. We haven't started solids yet but will very soon. His 2nd, 3rd and 4th are erratic. I am not doing well with figuring them out!Here is our schedule:8:30AM: wake and nurse9:30AM straight back to bed12:00 I wake him and nurse2:15-2:45 I put him in bed will nap for 30min-1hr4:00 nurse6:00-6:30 I put him in bed will nap for 30min-2hr8:00 nurse (no nap most of the time)10:30 nurse then straight to bedWhat I struggle with is since he's on a 4 hr schedule he should be going to bed at 8, but I don't feel he would be eating enough. (AND now that I'm thinking about it and looking at my notes, he probably needs to go down for naps earlier. I'm going to start that today!!! I just feel that its sooo long in-between feedings and if I put him down after 75/90 mins, should he be sleeping through to the next feeding?What do you think about the feedings and where should I go from here?I should add that he's a SUPER happy and mellow baby. Hardly cries all day at all, except for around 9:30-10:30 on some nights. (guessing he's very tired by then with so little naps?)thank you!!!Jess

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  241. Argh, wanted to add that he doesn't seem hungry when he wakes early. use wants to be back in the action. He will chill as long as I'm holding him, he's in his swing, etc. Just not in his bed.

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  242. Jess, I would try a shorter waketime for those other naps. Also, I would put him to bed after the 8 PM feeding and then do a dreamfeed instead of keeping him up that late.

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  243. Hello, My son is 23 weeks. He has been on a 3/3.5 hour E/P/S schedule since day one. His schedule is as follows:6:30/7 – Eat (Sometimes waking at 6)8:30 – Nap10 – Eat + solids1130 – Nap1:00 – Eat230 – Nap4:00 – Eat6:00 – Nap7:30 – Eat + solids, then straight to bed. 10- dream feedHe started daycare when i went back to work. They keep him on his schedule. When he is there, he maybe only sleeps for an hour during his naps. Soemtimes it takes him a long time to fall asleep, but most of the time he will wake up on his next feeding or a little early. But when he is at home, he takes his full naps and I usually have to wake him up. That is a total of 4 naps a day.is that too much? I would like to transition to a 4 hour schedule but I am not sure how since when he is home it seems like he needs all of his naps.I would like to drop his 230 nap. He really benefits from having a small cat nap at 6pm, so I dont want to drop that one either. I work 830-5. I take him to daycare at 8 and pick him up at 515-530. Any suggestions would be great. Should I try a 3.5 hr for a little while or go straight to a 4 hr schedule. I was thinking this would be my new schedule:7-Wake, eat830/9 – Nap1030- Eat, Solids1200 – Nap200-EAT500-Eat615/630- Nap730-Eat, Solids – Bed10 – Dream Feed (If needed)Thank you so much in advance

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  244. Hi again, I also should ad…. My husband works 12 hour shifts so in order for him to be able to see our son, I keep him up till 8-815.

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  245. Hi Val, thanks in advance for any help. My 5mo girl is still not STTN, she wakes 2-3 times and cries, usually after 10-15 min of crying she will sleep again but there is usually one time that goes on for 15+ min and I end up feeding her. She is EBF. I have tried to start cereal but she doesnt seem to care for it. She is still on a 3 hr schedule. Her naps have gotten a little better, but for the most part she tends to be a chronic 45 min napper, with the exception of the first nap which I still allow her to do in her swing since it is the only time of the day I can get a shower. My first question is should I let her CIO at night, and my second question is should I eliminate the swing for the morning nap. I am hesitant to get rid of the swing since it is her only consitenly good nap of the day. What are your thoughts?

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  246. Ok so…i've been doing babywise since my LO was born. It has been great. She has been STTN since 9 weeks old with no turning back. When i need more insight i always come to this blog. Thanks for your expertise! So…for my question. 3 weeks ago my LO (10.5 months) started waking at 5:30a which is quite early for her. She used to wake at 7/7:30. Her naps have been fine and her eatting has been the same. I thought she may be ready for a later bedtime since she started waking early but her naps were still 2-2.5 hrs each. She is currently on 2 naps per day. Since extending her bedtime, nothing has changed. Do you have any recommendations on how to fix this? She is where she stays up for 2hr45min between naps. She goes down happy and wakes happy 2 hrs later. Not sure what to do because her morning nap is earlier than i would like due to her early wake time.Nothing has changed in her room as far as temp or lighting, etc. She started waking early 1 week before daylight savings. It just hit me…should i try to go back to her previous bedtime of 6:45 or 7p? Currently i moved it to 7:30 or 8p thinking that would correct the problem but it hasnt. Plz help! 🙂

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  247. Hi! ThAnk you for your blog. What did Braydon's 4 hour schedule look like? My son will not sleep longer than 10 hours at night. Did he sleep from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am? What did u do from last feeding 6:00pm to 8:00pm?Also, having trouble with him in the early mornings. He will wake around 3:00 am and then every hour after wanting to be rocked back to sleep. I tried feeding him but he is not hungry. Maybe just have to cry it out?Thank you!Melissa

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  248. Hello! First of all, I want to thank you for your blog that has helped me to go through situations I didn't know how to solve! My daughter is 5 months old, and still exclusively breastfeeding. I started babywise early with her and she was doing wonderful until a few weeks ago. She falls asleep great by herself and at only a few weeks old she was already STTN (but not consistently). However a few weeks ago she started to get totally out of control, and she is now waking up sometimes until 3 times a night! Her schedule is a 3 hour schedule but sometimes she doesn't seem too interested in breastfeeding. So I was wondering that, even if it's not what is recommended, I should try to wait longer between feedings and go from 4 to 3 naps a day, because she is no longer doing well any of them! Or should start her in solids! I am a little confused, especially when I thought I was doing well this time! Thank you so much for taking time to answer me!

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  249. This blog is so helpful! I am getting a little overwhelmed with all the info and trying to go one step at a time. My son just turned 3 months old, and according to BW we are behind Bc we haven't done CIO through the night yet. His schedule is still a bit inconsistent (definitely deal with the 45 min intruder), and he wakes once at night, usually around 4:45A. In looking at your sample schedules and other readers schedules, I see that many only do an hour of wake time. My son usually goes down easy at naps if he has an hr and 15 min to an hour and half of wake time. Is this too long? (Thus causing the 45 min intruder?) I have him CIO and he usually goes back to sleep, but there are times that he cries for 30 min and I get him up, but of course then we are off schedule. Do I let him cry until it has been an hour and a half and nap would be over? Do most BW babies drop the early AM feeds themselves or should I implement CIO?Here is his schedule "loosely"7A: wake feed8A: nap (lately he pushes to 8:15-8:30)10A:wake feed11:30a: nap1:00p wake (this nap is inconsistent– sometimes he only sleeps an hr and others he will go for 2)2:30P: nap4:00P: wake5:30P: catnap– never goes past 40 min6:30p: wake, bath7:00P: eat, straight to bed10:30p: dream feed 4:45-5A: wake to eatI'm not sure when to only allow him to nap for 1.5 hrs, and when to let him go for 2. I want to get this schedule consistent for him. I appreciate the advice!

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  250. Do you notice that BW babies sleep longer than non-BW babies? My little girl is two days shy of 4 months and is sleeping 18-19 hours a day. This is the only way she will go down without crying and sleep the longest. Everywhere I read says babies this age are usually only sleeping 14-15 hours, but it seems like Kaitlin was the same way as my daughter. Just wondering if you think this is normal for her to be sleeping so long…thank you! I love your blog!Erica

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  251. Hi Erica, you are probably right. All of my girls have slept a lot, so I definitely wouldn't worry about it. Looking at averages is hard beicse you don't know what the stories are behind the babies in the average. Do they sleep through the night? Can they fall asleep on their own? I think people in the US do not value sleep in general, and people of all ages (again in general) get less sleep than is ideal.

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  252. My son is 8 months old, and recently started waking more at night. Our schedule is a little bit different, because we have such an early wake time. My husband and I have early schedules, so we are up at 5:30am. Which means bed time has been adjusted to 5:30pm. So we are up at 5:30/5:45- nurse, nap by 8; 9:30 nurse + solids, 11:45/12 (depending on how he's doing) – nap1:30 – nurse + solids4:45 – solids, bath, nurse, bed by 5:30pm. He still gets up for his own dream feed usually between 9:30 and 10, and then lately he has added another night waking. He was doing so well without it until recently…He just cut his first two teeth, and his top gums are sore now too. It doesn't seem like he needs to eat at night, but that's how he's calming down. Should I stick with his schedule and just push through this tough time, or does his schedule need adjustment? I could use some advice- thanks in advance!

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  253. If the schedule you have was worki before and isn't since the teeth started coming in, I would keep that schedule and focus on alleviating the teething. If not, I would consider a shorter morning waketime before the fist nap.

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  254. So long as you are nursing you will want to nirse with the meal. Once you wean, you will then do milk or whatever "dairy" item you choose to introduce with that.

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  255. Hi. I have an almost 8 month old who has been following BW since birth. She moved herself to a 4 hour schedule at 4 months & has been following this routine up until about a month ago. My problem is w/ her 1st nap. She wakes between 6:30/7am (sometimes stirs around 5/5:30am, but will usually go back to sleep). We nurse & then do solids. She normally doesn't eat very much in the mornings & is extremely tired during breakfast. We try to push her waketime but she normally doesn't last too long. We end up only getting maybe an hour and 15 min nap from her which make her waketime maybe another hour and a half before her 11am nurse. She'll eat lunch around 11:30/12 & then she wants to go to sleep right away again. We get 2 good afternoon naps from her & a bedtime around 6:45-7:15pm. Is it ok for her to have the waketime after her morning nap & before her 11am nurse? Or is there something I can do to have her morning nap go until the 11am nurse? Thank you!

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  256. Hi Jessica, If she is super tired in the morning, then a shorter morning waketime length might be your answer to getting s longer nap. Otherwise, I would stick with what is happening. It seems to be working. I would keep tweaking your waketime length in the morning and see if you can find something that gets a longer morning nap. Until then, don't let it be a source of major stress for you.

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  257. Hi! I have a question about our schedule. My little girl is 12.5 weeks- 3 months exactly next week. This is our current nursing schedule- 6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30- bedtime, 10:30/11:00 (dream feed). She has a waketime right now of right at an hour and it takes maybe 10-15 minutes to fall asleep so she's napping right under 2 hours. Unfortunately our day has to start at 6:30am with other kids to take to school and this is the only way I can fit in all our feedings in for the day. But I feel like our evenings are too cramped and I'm wondering if I can somehow rearrange things by cutting out a feeding. I'm just not sure if 6 feedings is okay at this age? She hasn't had a MOTN feeding since 8/9 weeks. She still seems to eat good at 6 and 8:30 but she has such a short nap in between those two that it is harder to wake her at 8:30 and she usually goes right back down with a waketime of closer to 45 minutes at this point instead of the hour. Should I try to change things somehow or just wait until she drops the dream feed and see what happens?

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  258. Hi there,Thanks for your great pointers. Just wondering how long you would typically nurse a baby who is 7 weeks old? I am trying to give my son 20 minutes on each side (if I don't cut it at 20 minutes each side, he often goes for 25 or even 30 on each side.). By time I burp him and do a nappy change I have used up about 50/ 55 minutes of his awake time. He is capable of being very alert, and doesn't show clear tired signs (even after being up for an hour and a half), so I am trying to put him down after an hour and 15 minutes, even without seeing tired signs, so that I don't miss the window and he becomes over tired, resulting in cat napping. The reason I am interested in nursing times is that if I can get a full feeding in, in less than 40 minutes (20 minutes each side), I would have more time to burp him and do a nappy change and then he would have more time to be awake and play (which he loves). Hopefully he would then be tired sooner (i.e. at least by 1 hour and 15 minutes). Also, just to clarify, I am assuming you, like me, burp throughout nursing on each side, I have not included burping time in the 40 minutes of each nursing. For example, I might do 10 minutes feeding on the left (burp for 3 minutes), continue feeding on the left for 5 minutes (burp for 2 minutes), finish feeding on the left for 5 minutes (burp for 3 minutes), so when I say I nursed for 20 minutes on the left side, it has actually been 10+3+5+2+5+3 minutes/ 28 minutes before I get to the right side. (It takes my son quite a while to get a burp up, but they are there!)Thanks so much for your help 🙂

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  259. Hi again, Also, I have noticed in the book it refers to babies sleeping between 2.5 – 3 hours on pages 51, 114 and 123, however, on page 113 it says you can vary between 2.5 and 3.5 hours when your child is 5 to 8 weeks old. I have been allowing my son to sleep to the end of a 3.5 hour cycle, if he only had a short sleep or cat nap in the previous cycle or it took him a long time to get to sleep. He is nearly 7 weeks old. When have you deemed it appropriate to allow a 3.5 hour cycle for your children between 5 to 8 weeks. (FYI he feeds at 9pm at night and sleeps until between 2 – 3am). Also, I noticed that you said in your 3 month routines, at 7.00pm you would nurse and then put your child straight to bed. Would you nurse them to sleep at this feed? I have been doing a night routine where we bath bub, then I nurse him and he falls asleep off this feed (which is the last predictable feed of the night). This feed has been around 9pm. However, I am thinking that I should bath him around 6pm and feed him at 6.30 so that he can be in bed by 7pm. I will then do a dream feed at 9pm because after this my husband and I go to bed. Is it best to feed and then bath for the last predictable feed or to bath and then feed? Thanks again. Suz 🙂

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  260. Okay, so I am in desperate need of some advice. My LO is 7 weeks and I've been following Babywise from the start. I did it with my first child, and it went so well. He was sleeping through the night by 9 weeks. However, things have been so different with my current baby. She naps perfectly during the day, but at night, she's all over the place. I had her on a three hour schedule, the whole day, and at night, she'd feed at 8:30, 11:30 and then wake in the middle of the night at like 2 and then again at 5. But, I'd do her first feed of the day at 6:30, and then get her back on the three hour schedule starting at 8:30. Then, one night, I was unable to feed her at 8:30, and pushed her out to 9:30. She then slept until 3 am, and then woke to eat, but was back down to 7 am. I was ecstatic! I got more sleep. Because of unforeseen circumstances, I did this again the next night and same thing! Oh happy day! I was finally getting more sleep. However, I realized she eliminated the middle of the night feed and not the last feed of the day. I've tried to revert to the old schedule to see if maybe she'd be better, but if I do her last feed at 11:30, she's up again multiple times in the night. Is it okay for me to have her skip out on the 11:30 feed, and then keep the middle of the night feed, or will it take longer to get her sleeping through the night completely? I know it should be the middle of the night eliminated first, and then the late night feed, but it seems like that's not going to work with this LO. Thoughts?

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  261. Hi there!! So my 3.5 month old's schedule is currently on a 3-3.5 hour combo schedule. Usually in the morning he does 3.5 hours. The dreamfeed did not work for us, so we are doing 5 feedings during the day and the occasional early morning feeding (530-6 am usually). Sometimes he wakes up at 430, other times at 715! Each morning different. I am recently doing a set waketime (7 am- his bed time is 8pm) and hoping he will be sleeping through to that time. I am currently weaning him from that feeding- for example- I now give him only 6 minutes on one breast and he goes right back to sleep. But then his waketime comes and he doesn't eat as long as he normally does (compared to nights he's slept all the way through). For a while he was sleeping through until 630 or so, now we seem to be stuck with this early morning feedings.I am assuming it's food related, since he goes right back to sleep after he eats only 6 minutes. But I am also feeling like he doesn't even need t since he is 1. Eating so little and 2. Not eating as good in the morning Where do you suggest I go from here? Do I continue to wean him (down to how many minutes?) and just ride it out. Or at what point do I let him CIO?

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  262. Hi- my daughter just turned 9 months old. She used to great with BW. Now her schedule during the day is all over the place. She sleeps from 7-6:30 or 7 at night, which is wonderful! But I'm at a loss for the daytime. Introducing solids has really thrown us off schedule. I need more structure to my day. I started BW so I could be in control of the schedule but now there isn't a schedule. Help!

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