7 week old newborn routine and daily life. See how this Babywise baby spent her days and helpful resources for parenting newborns.

This is a summary for McKenna ages 6-7 weeks old (the seventh week). This was a really nice, smooth week and was my favorite week so far. McKenna became much more interactive and initiated smiles. She became far more alert during waketime. Things all went smoothly and she dropped a nighttime feeding. All was splendid!

GRIPE WATER

I wanted to give a gripe water note. McKenna gets hiccups all the time. Up until a week ago, she got them during every waketime. She got them after every middle of the night feeding. Happily, I can just lay her in bed with her hiccups and she goes to sleep, but I still hated to see her with them. You read in baby books that hiccups don’t bother a baby. Really? How do they know? Anyway, each time McKenna gets the hiccups she groans for the first few. No matter what the books say, I can tell they bother my baby.

So this week I tried giving her a small dosage of gripe water when she got the hiccups. It was magic! They went away immediately every time. You might think it was due to drinking something, but that is not so. She sometimes gets the hiccups in the middle of a feeding, and continues hiccuping while she eats. Drinking does not make them go away for her. It is the gripe water!

The recommended dosage on the gripe water for her age is 1 teaspoon. I just give her 1/4 teaspoon and that cures it.

Read: Stopping Baby Hiccups

NURSING

Nursing is the same. Nothing new to report.

WAKETIME

Waketime was also the same. We didn’t do anything new…except I guess that she smiled at me spontaneously a lot, so that is always fun!

NAPS

Naps continued on as normal and she continued needing to be woken for most feedings. I totally stopped the “sitting” part of the four S’s (see: Sleep Training: The Four S’s) and she did just fine.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP

As I said in the opening paragraph, she dropped a night feeding! It was exciting. She started waking more around 3 AM and then around 6-6:30 AM. This isn’t my ultimate 7-7:45 goal (I will be happy with any time in that range), but it is late enough I am happy with it.

Babywise says there are several ways you can address this waking early issue. For me, anything before 6 AM is a night feeding. Anything after I will take as a day feeding. I am willing to have a 6:15 waketime for a while until she can sleep longer. I can move it back later when I need to using my time change strategies ( see Shifting Your Schedule). You do have to be careful with this, however. You might start a habit that is hard to break. See this post for more on these early morning feedings 5-6 AM Night Wakings.

OUTINGS/EVENTS

We didn’t have any new, big events this week. I did have McKenna take a nap in her bassinet one nap this week just to monitor her willingness and ability to sleep in a new bed and place. (see Sleeping Tip: Vary Sleeping Locations )

There is something strange we noticed this week. McKenna seems to be able to sense when I am not home. I know it sounds crazy, but it is true! When I am not home, she wakes early OR she won’t go to sleep. Kaitlyn was the same way when she was a young baby. Am I crazy? Did this happen to anyone else? I honestly don’t think I ever left Brayden when he was a young baby, so I never noticed that with him.

EMOTIONS

Emotions were a non-issue for me. I don’t anticipate them becoming an issue again, but if they do, I will fill you in.

YEAST INFECTIONS – AKA THRUSH

My yeast infection seems to have gone away. I am not holding my breath, but for now it is gone and there are no problems from it. Read about breastfeeding with a yeast infection here.