It’s here! Reader week! During this week, you readers help contribute to help make this blog an even better resource for parents out there!
Let me start by first offering a thank you to all of you readers. I really enjoy writing this blog. I love hearing from you readers. Thank you for reading and sharing. If you all weren’t reading, I would just be writing without an audience and I don’t think that would be quite as much fun :).
Here is our schedule for the week:
TUESDAY: READER SAMPLE SCHEDULES DAY
The Readers Sample Schedules posts are some of the most popular and most-visited posts on this blog. I know you love them! So be sure to drop by Tuesday and add your most recent (or any!) schedules. I will have a post up linking you to all of the reader sample schedule posts so you can easily get to your pertinent post.
WEDNESDAY: POLL RESULTS DAY
Poll results can be very helpful to people. It helps someone come see what is “normal” and also see that even though there is a range of “normal” there are also people who fall in a range outside of normal. I have really enjoyed the new format we have started this past year of making them discussions. I think it is helping make the results more meaningful and suiting the purpose of the polls better. If you haven’t voted on the current poll, click here to do so: https://www.babywisemom.com/2013/06/poll-discussion-2-1-nap-transitions.html
THURSDAY: READER BLOGS DAY
I will put a post up Thursday that will take you to the various posts where you can share your blog. I have a post for various categories, everything from business blogs to “just-for-fun” blogs. This is fun because it helps keep the Babywise community close.
FRIDAY: READER FAVORITES DAY
I will put up a post Friday to posts where you can comment and share your favorite things. These will include baby products, toys, books, etc.
Hi! Thank you so much for this resource. I am a new mom and am struggling with transitioning my child to a different nap schedule now that I feel that I have finally gotten the current schedule down! She is 16 weeks old and after she wakes up, I've been putting her down for naps nearly every 1.5 to 2 hrs. I've read that at this stage children will need fewer naps and that they will nap for a longer duration, but I'm not sure how to accomplish this and which nap(s) to drop. I'm also concerned that if I drop a nap, she will become overtired by the next naptime and the nap as a result will be a difficult one for her to settle into (i.e. lots of crying) and possibly shorter due to her being overstimulated. Also, for the past 2 weeks, my daughter has been much more distracted during feedings (has anyone ever dealt with this?) where this never used to be a problem. She is ending the feedings early and I have tried everything to redirect her, and as a result she is hungry before the next scheduled feeding. Thanks for any advice you can provide.
Hi Anne J! How many naps is your little one taking right now? And how long are her wake times between naps? That will help in deciding which nap to drop. With our son, I dropped the evening nap first… I dropped it by shortening it (and lengthening his wake time) as necessary until he had about 15-20 min naps in the evening… after that I just dropped it. Val has some posts on dropping naps.
I'm excited to see everyone's schedules. I'm new to BW. I was given as a gift and started reading but then had put down. My daughter has been an Angel baby. She put herself on a schedule and started sleeping thru the night at 8 weeks. 10 hours by 12 weeks. I never did a dream feed. I did a 2 hour cluster after wake up and before bed but that was me trying to get in 6 feeds. She has pretty much been leading the schedule though. Im looking to be a little more structured. She started not having as good of a feed in evening and after reading im moving to 3/3.5 hour sched. Shes totally capable i was just worried about her food intake. As with Anne my daughter also. pretty much takes a 45 min nap ever three hour cycle (except the first is longer) . So I too am looking to expand. After reading about 45 min intruder I was able to wait her out during 1 o'clock nap and she went back to sleep. So I know I'm starting late (16 weeks) but I think she can transition well. It's not that different then what she was doing but with a consistent wake up time. I've loved reading all the posts a helpful advice. My biggest obstacle now is the bottle. My daughter is bf but at three weeks we introduced a bottle. I would pump and hubby wold always give her last meal of day. As a teacher I went back to work at 7 weeks to finish the year. In which she had three bottles a day. Well since I've been home she's had more mommy time and is now rejecting bottle. It's causing her evening feed to go on longer than usual sometimes an hour where she is so tired and not finishing bottle. Should I dream feed her the rest? If not she now wakes up at 4:30 hungry. Is it bad to introduce a dream feed when she never really had one. I know it's a lot going on at one time. I feel the scheduled wake up and naps will transition well with Mom running less errands and staying home for consistency but this bottle rejection is throwing a monkey wrench in. Sorry this post rambled a bit. Not used to be up so early with so much on mind. lol