Brinley Newborn Summary: Week Two

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Newborn schedule for baby’s second week. Baby newborn schedule and routine for the 2nd week of life. 1-2 week old newborn routine.

2 week old Brinley

Well, you might get tired of hearing things like this, but I can’t believe she is two weeks old already! I am fully enjoying the newborn time right now and time is just flying by. I am constantly thinking, “This is my last time holding a 9 day old…” (you know–of my own) and such things.

I must also point out that while we have our hiccups here and there, I have a very rose-colored view of what life is like right now.

I am very happy with how things are going, very optimistic, and can easily describe something as perfect when it isn’t necessarily perfect.

I am content. You won’t find much complaining from me. Like I said before, I find the entire presence of Brinley to be quite the miracle and am reveling in the wonder of it all. Life is in perspective and I have very little that I worry about. So don’t be discouraged by my cheery viewpoint of everything 🙂

NEWBORN GAS

You might be interested to know that Brinley has gas pains just like McKenna did. I give her gas drops and they help to have no issues with gas.

There have been a couple of nights she has not slept after her 7:30 PM feeding. We have a video monitor and watched her silently squirm around for half an hour, dozing in and out, before finally squawking.

At that point, we got her up and just held her while she slept. She seemed to be having tummy pain. This isn’t something I worry about doing–she doesn’t need it for every nap, or even every night. Plus we enjoy just holding her 🙂 I figure these nights she has some sort of tummy trouble going on. That is what it seems like.

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

NURSING a NEWBORN

Brinley is still eating well. She eats from both sides at each feeding.

I have to share a great tip I got from an OB. My OB had the day off after Brinley was born, so a different OB “made the rounds” that morning.

As she visited, she said something about mastitis and I told her I always get mastitis and so I just plan on it happening again. She told me to try Newman’s Nipple Cream after each feeding to help prevent bacteria from entering the nipple in the early days while I would be cracked and building callouses. So I did.

And so far, no mastitis. I always get it around 2-3 weeks I think, so I am at that time and have no signs of it. I am hopeful it worked. If it did, I will dedicate a post to it! It requires a prescription, but so fabulous.

I think every breastfeeding mother should have that stuff on hand. Even just for the discomfort of the early days of breastfeeding–it is fabulous.

Newborn Brinley laying on a white blanket sleeping

DREAMFEED

The hardest feeding of the day for us is the dreamfeed. Most of the time, she is quite sleepy at the dreamfeed.

I am currently trying different times for the dreamfeed to see if there is a perfect time for her. I am not so sure a specific time is as important as just getting her to be fully awake to take a full feeding.

I could just put her down after the 7:30 feeding and let her wake on her own, but I think the dreamfeed is well worth the effort it takes to get it going. 

>>>Read: The Basics of a Dreamfeed

NEWBORN WAKETIME LENGTH

I still aim to have her down by 50 minutes. It is often 60 and she does fine with that, but my goal is 50 minute wake window. 

>>>Read: How Long Should a Newborn Be Awake Between Naps

NEWBORN NAPS

Naps have continued to be great. She goes to sleep peacefully (we still do the first three of the 4 S’s). She sleeps until I wake her. Every so often she wakes precisely at three hours, but for the most part, I wake her exclusively.

>>>Read: Gentle Sleep Training: The Four S’s

NEWBORN NIGHT SLEEP

Brinley has continued on with waking once a night. She woke at 6:30 twice this week instead of making it to me waking her at 7:30 AM.

She does this when her dreamfeed was not eaten well the night before (then an earlier night waking, which leads to an earlier morning waking). This is why I am trying to figure out the perfect time for the dreamfeed (if there is one yet).

On days she wakes early, I just adjust the schedule throughout the day to get back on track (meaning I let her go a little longer between feedings until we get to the normal time).

SWADDLE

I thought I would point out that we swaddle her. I use a SwaddleMe blanket just like I did with McKenna.

>>>Read: How to Help Your Baby Sleep Better With Swaddling

MAMA BEAR

I took Brinley to her two week appointment. As I was driving down the highway, I noticed that I was literally glaring at every vehicle on the road. I actually was annoyed that people could have the audacity to drive on the road while I was driving with my baby!

When I realized this, I laughed at myself. It isn’t like my logical self thinks no one else should be on the road, but apparently, my protective side just crept up. I think it is funny how protective we get over little babies.

DOCTOR VISIT

Everything was great at the doctor! She appears to be in perfect health. Everything looks good. We won’t need to go back until she is two months old. 

OUTING FOR ME

In the middle of this week, we decided to keep our yearly tradition of going to the county fair. We love the fair and I didn’t want the older kids to miss it.

My mom decided she would come stay with the baby while we took the kids. This was great because I didn’t necessarily want my less than two-week-old baby out in the heat and among all of the stuff. I am sure she would have been fine, but like I said…mama bear. 

I fed her and put her down and we left for a fast visit to the fair. While we were gone, Brinley woke and my mom ended up holding her the whole time, which she didn’t mind at all :).

There have since been a couple of times I have left (for shopping for back to school, a PTO meeting, and for a Mommy/Kaitlyn date) and she has been totally fine. At first I worried she would never sleep with me gone, but she can.

It is so great to have the help of my parents to watch keep her home while I have to go places. One of my worries in having her was the many disruptions she would face because of the older kids having activities. My mom is very helpful to help out. Thanks Mom!

NEWBORN BABY SCHEDULE

We are still starting the day at 7:30 AM, going about every three hours, ending with a dreamfeed around 10-10:30 PM, and her waking once a night.

HELPFUL BOOKS/WEBSITES

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14 thoughts on “Brinley Newborn Summary: Week Two”

  2. I have a 7 week old and have been trying to figure out a schedule, but I have a question. Since you start your day @ 7:30 and are on a 3 hour schedule with 1 middle of the night feeding, that would mean that you are only doing 7 feedings right? I guess she is just satisfied with 7? I ask the question because we have been on a 3 hours schedule but I was under the impression that there needed to be a minimum of 8 feedings with babies this young.Also, you said you are trying to establish the dreamfeed; you try your best to wake her up for this feeding right? We start our day @ 6:30 so that would put our 6th feeding (dream feed) at 9:30 to 10 ish, but I have been doing an additional feed @ 12:30 and then he gets up again in the middle of the night. I'm thinking he is old enough to possibly stop the 12:30 feeding.Thanks for your help!

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  3. Nicole, With my other babies, I woke twice in the night like you to get that 8th feeding in. With Brinley, I have let her wake on her own in the night and so we are doing one night feeding and 7 feedings a day. She is growing weight wise right on track and length wise faster than normal, so she is getting enough at this point. I do anticipate likely needing to do cluster feeding in a few weeks, but right now she won't eat sooner than 3 hours. At 7 weeks, you can do 7 feedings in a day for sure if your baby is okay with that.

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  5. I have an almost 2 week old and am having trouble with wake times through the day. When you say Brinley's waketimes are 50-60 min, are you counting from the start of the feeding or from after the feeding? I have a hard time waking my little guy, but 3 times in the last week he has wanted to be very awake after his first night feeding at 12:30. I have ended up having to feed him again by 2:30am, and even then he sometimes won't go right back to sleep. Any suggestions?

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    • I am right there with you, I had my second baby August 7th. I am pretty sure Val means 50-60 minutes including feeding, so from the time she wakes up from nap til the time she goes back down!

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  6. This was another great post! I think that there is a really good chance that MIlo is my last baby (toddler, sniff, sniff), and so I tend to be much less worried than I was with Olive. It is not that I'm not as "on-top" of things as I was with her, more just that I don't sweat things that aren't perfect as much as I used to. I swear I think some babies pick up on this from us-that if we're just content they're here and a little more relaxed, they get more relaxed, too. I was such a basket-case with my first and I think she really picked up on it. Congratulations to you again and I am sincerely so happy that you get to have Brinley in your life-it is very evident you absolutely love her!

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  7. My second son is just a week old, and your one and two week summaries have been really good to read! He still seems to have his nights/days mixed up, (he was up every hour the first few nights we were home from the hospital and though he did one 4 hour stretch last night, he was up every hour before and after that.) We've really been striving to get full feedings in every 2.5-3 hours now that my milk has come in and suffice it say that my husband and I are exhausted. (We've also been trying to make sure that he doesn't go straight to sleep after feedings, and though he has a few waketimes of 45 minutes, some are shorter.)Do you have any suggestions/encouragement? We've only been home from the hospital for 3 days, and we're adjusting to life with a newborn and a toddler and finding it to be pretty difficult so far. Things will get better, right??

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  8. Laura, wake time includes feeding, yes. For night issues–I have posts on that. But one way to help is to keep baby awake during waketimes in the day. Another trick I do for babies who want to stay awake in the night is to turn the lights up for a night or two while they are awake. They will close their eyes. I have also read to take baby out around noon every day for a few minutes. It is supposed to help set the "circadian rhythm"

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  9. Natalie I think you are right. I think they easily pick up on how we are feeling. As the saying goes, "if Mama ain't happy, no one is happy"

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  11. It's been wonderful reading your updates on Brinley! I'm happy for you that things are going so well. She sounds like such a wonderful baby!

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  12. Thank you for this blog! I just had my third baby (a girl who's a sister to two boys!), and I'm so blessed to have found your blog this time around. For some reason, I have more questions this time around. My baby is almost 3 weeks old. She is an amazing sleeper at night. I can put her down at 9/10pm, and I have to wake her at 2/3AM and then again at 7pm. I saw that you put your newborns to bed for the night at 7/7:30pm. Does this mean that you don't give them any waketime after this feeding? I thought Babywise said to put to bed with no waketime between 10/11. My baby seems tired at 7, but I always give her waktetime so I'm following the Babywise plan. Then I wake her again at 10 and put her right to bed. Can I ask your advice? Should I put her to bed after the 7pm feed? Did you have success with your babies putting them to bed so early? I always read that newborns don't go to sleep until late at night. I would really appreciate your feedback as I've been struggling with what to do. And I have another question. My baby isn't taking good naps. I've been trying to find optimal length for waketime, and try not to put her down too late, but she'll sleep for about an hour and wake up. I use the swing to extend her naps, but I'm wondering why she won't nap well. Is it because she sleeps so much at night and just needs short naps during the day? Again I would greatly appreciate your feedback. Thank you so much!

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