McKenna Baby Summary: Week 23

Schedule and routine for a 22-23 week old newborn baby. Get info on this baby’s daily schedule and routine for each day and know how to structure your day.

McKenna and Brayden playing

Once again, another great week. This is just a great time period in a baby’s life for me. The schedule isn’t changing every week and baby is typically content and stays put 🙂

NURSING

Nursing continued on as usual with nothing new to report. Everything is good.

WAKETIME LENGTH

Waketime length pretty much stayed the same.

DROPPING NAPS

I would now officially consider the last nap dropped. She now takes three naps a day.

NIGHTTIME SLEEP

Last week, I had decided our 30 minute window would be 7:15-7:45. Well, I have been waking her every day this week at 8:00! So our waketime is apparently 8:00 AM. No complaints on my end. I don’t know for sure if she will make it that long once the dreamfeed is dropped, but if she wakes even an hour earlier, it will still be acceptable to me.

SOLIDS

This week, I introduced McKenna to oatmeal and prunes. She is not a huge fan of cereal at all. Brayden and Kaitlyn both really like oatmeal, and Brayden even loved rice. But McKenna is just not thrilled. My thought is that it is a texture thing. She likes her food pretty runny. She enjoys prunes just fine. She doesn’t devour them like her bananas, but she eats them well.

McKenna likes her food warm. Not cold. And not even just room temperature. Warm.

This week, I made 3 months worth of bananas for McKenna since they were so cheap. This is a great time of year (at least where I live) to be making lots of baby food to store. The harvest is on!

Baby schedule pinnable image

SWADDLING

I was delaying dropping the swaddle. But I know that McKenna is really ready to drop the dreamfeed and is or will soon be ready to move to a four hour schedule. Since I want her to have dropped the swaddle before those things happen, I knew I needed to just drop the swaddle.

So one night I left her unswaddled. She took a little longer to go to sleep (about 10 minutes), but had no fussing. The next day, I left her unswaddled for naps. She slept well. For her first nap, she took a 2 hour nap instead of a 2.5 hour nap, but a 2 hour nap is still great 🙂 Since then, she has gone to her normal napping schedule.

Instead of her swaddle, I am using a Carter’s sleeper that zips and has sleeves. It looks just like this Kiddopotamus Sleeper. I use one for nights and naps. McKenna likes to be warm so much that I knew she needed to be covered up. I think being a little cold was the reason she woke from that first nap a little early; I had her unswaddled and no blanket.

ROLLING

We still haven’t had rolling issues. She is very adept at rolling front to back and back to front. When she is playing, she will do it over and over (and is sure to look at me for lots of praise 🙂 ). I haven’t ever noticed her doing it in her bed. If she does, she doesn’t tell me about it. I am hoping it stays that way.

Brayden never had rolling issues, but Kaitlyn did. Kaitlyn never had standing in bed issues, but Brayden did. It will be interesting to see what McKenna does.

LOOKING AHEAD

Our next big step will be to drop the dreamfeed. I am still undecided if I should move it before or after we move. I have decided to start moving it back bit by bit. We will see what my thoughts are once I am back as far as I want to go before dropping it.

OUR SCHEDULE

This week, we started every day at 8 AM

8:00 AM–wake her up, nurse, eat 2 T oatmeal and 2 T fruit (she doesn’t always finish this much)
9:00 AM–nap
11:30 AM–wake her up, nurse, eat 2 T veggie and 2 T fruit
12:30 PM–nap
3:00 PM–wake her up (sometimes she wakes on her own), nurse
4:30 PM–nap
5:30 PM–wake her up or she wakes up, nurse, 2 T fruit, 2-4 T veggie, 2 T oatmeal
7:30 PM–nurse then bed
10:20 PM–dreamfeed

You can see that the end of the day is crammed in there. I would like to be able to drop the dreamfeed so we can extend the schedule so it isn’t so smashed together at the end of the day. The other night, I said our 7:30 PM nursing is basically just a formality.

23 week old Babywise Schedule Pinnable Image

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12 thoughts on “McKenna Baby Summary: Week 23”

  1. When is enough enough? So, I left a comment about what I thought were sleep issues a few weeks ago, and it turns out, I don't think that was it! We were on a beautiful schedule from 8 weeks to 3.5 months of eating 6 times a day, at the same time. It then seemed like my little one was not getting enough to eat, so we introduced rice cereal and this helped for a while. Then, we thought he was having sleep problems for about a week so he did a lot of crying while we were letting him CIO. Finally, I added a 7th feeding and (plus 3 meals of solid food) have been doing this for the last 12 days (2 days he got 8 feedings). He is now 1 week shy of 5 months…and I feel like we should be able to extend our schedule…not shorten it. There are some feedings where I have to feed 1.5 hours after the last one, but we never go more than 3.5, usually 3. We are back to no schedule, I have no idea how to plan things, I don't know when he needs to nap, I'm totally confused! I have been pumping after every feeding for the last week, and it seems I have gotten a little more milk, but still not enough. I really hate to switch to formula now that we have made it this far…but I'm not sure what else to do…or how long it should take to get back to a reasonable routine. What are your thoughts? How can I get back to 'Normal'? I know you have done a lot of research! PS. Thanks so much for this blog! I have told so many people about it and they love it!

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  2. Wow! McKenna is a good little eater! So, I am once again wondering if my DD is eating enough!! She is 7.5 months old. I started her on solids around 4.5 months old, and she really didn't start eating them regularly until around 6 months old. She still eats nowhere near the amount of solids McKenna does!!!! So, do you think I need to decrease her formula intake. I always make her 8 oz bottles, 4 times a day, and she drinks 6-7 oz before eating her solids. She usually never drinks the whole 8 oz. I notice that if I am busy and don't have time to give her solids at a meal, she totally doesn't care!

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  3. Val I am glad to see you still have the dreamfeed going. We are totally off schedule (like Ivy) due to who know's what, and since i haven't started solids yet I delayed dropping the DF until he was getting a bit more than just breast milk.

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  4. Hi – How did you preserve the bananas? I read you should't freeze them cause they don't freeze well. I've made sweet potatoes, carrots and apples so far. Any tips on the bananas?

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  5. Ivy, have you seen the recent post on milk supply? I think you might want to talk to a doctor to be sure you aren't one of the 5-10% of women who diminish supply around 4 months of age. If so, there might be things to do to boost it, but you also might need to supplement with formula.

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  6. Redheads, If she is growing well, I wouldn't worry about it. Brayden ate way more than McKenna and Kaitlyn ate way less, and somehow they have all basically been the same weight so far. Actually, Kaitlyn has always weighed more than McKenna at each age and she ate significantly less.It is worth bringing up to your pedi and getting an opinion. There are those that say at that age most calories should come from fluid. Others would say it is important to get the calories from solids. So get the opinions, but trust your own intuition and tailor your actions to her as an individual 🙂

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  7. Linds…yep…still going even now 🙂 Last night I got her "up" for the dreamfeed. She won't wake up at all anymore. But I held her while she slept for a while before she ate. I know our dreamfeeding days are numbered and I want to enjoy it!

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  8. Michele, you can freeze them. I smash them up and put them in ice cube trays and then transfer to plastic bags after frozen. They will last three months that way.You can also peel them, cut them up, freeze them on a tray, and then put them in freezer bags. I am not sure how long they last that way.You can also put the whole banana in a freezer bag. You will have to mash it up when you thaw it, but they last at least 6 months that way.

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  9. How long were you able to use the kiddopotamus dreamsie sleeper? I've been looking online and can't find one for babies older than 6 months! My daughter is 5 months and I would like to drop the swaddle but she sleeps so good with it and doesn't fight it or try to break out of it. I would like to try something similar to what you used so her arms don't get cold, even though its getting warmer I worry that she'll get chilly, her hands are often cold when she is awake! thanks, Britni

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  10. I used the same thing but by Carter's brand. That size goes up to 9 months. After that, I used footed pajamas a size larger than she was wearing with a onsie and socks underneath. That is what she sleeps in still.

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  11. I just recently posted a comment on an article about discipline, but I feel I am in a bigger pickle and need some advice on my current situation. My daughter is 23 weeks old and we have followed babywise from the beginning, but have struggled with consistency in CIO. Anyway, right now, she is still on a 2 1/2-3 hour schedule! I don't know what I am doing wrong. Sometimes she will go 4 hours between feedings, but usually her naps are no longer that 1 1/2 hours. She gets sleepy after being awake for only 1 1/2 hours, so I put her to bed then and she only sleeps for 1 1/2 hours usually. We started solids only recently because she was not showing much interest before, and only eats a tiny amount of rice cereal. I feel like everyday, I am flying by the seat of my pants with little to no routine and schedule. It was not this way before. Any suggestions would be so appreciated. Thanks.

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  12. So far as her 2.5-3 hour…it sounds like that is what she needs, so there isn't anything to do but wait. That is okay. Brayden was on that schedule until he was 6.5 months old.So far as getting consistency, see the post "Getting a Consistent Schedule"Good luck!

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