Eat, awake, sleep

Eat, awake, sleep refers to the pattern I have followed since Katie was a couple weeks old when referring to her daytime routine. It has helped make her day predictable and helped me fit in time to focus on my other kids and have some "me" time. I did NOT come up with this at all. Two books that I used as reference for this pattern are "On Becoming Babywise" by Gary Ezzo and "Secrets of the Baby Whisperer" by Tracy Hogg. I will be happy to share my thoughts on this subject but you can refer to the above books for much more detail and explanation.

Basically it is recommended that you implement this pattern when your baby is one week old. Before then, feed on demand focusing on keeping your baby awake during feedings. This is VERY important. At one week of age, begin by making sure your baby has a full feeding, also very important. If you have trouble keeping your baby awake during the feeding, I found that it helped to change Katie's diaper mid feed. The next step after eating is wake time. This can encompass any number of activities such as: bath time, floor time, tummy time, bouncy seat, swing, really anything. When Katie was young, her wake time was only 45 minutes. This time gradually increased as she got older and is now 2 1/2 hours at 11 months.

The last step in the pattern is sleep. Like Erika mentioned in her post about swaddling, setting a routine to let your baby know that it is time to sleep is very helpful. When Katie was 5 months old and younger our routine consisted of swaddling, picking her up and rocking her side to side to sing a song, and then I would lay her down, say goodnight and leave the room. Now I follow the same pattern minus the swaddling. The next part was hard to begin with and is not really an issue now. Jake and I chose to let Katie cry it out(CIO). In the beginning it was very difficult, but I knew it was best for our family that I teach Katie to sooth herself to sleep. I would cry right along with her most times in the beginning. I questioned our decision many many times. I'm glad I did not give up though. For the most part, Katie wouldn't cry longer than 15 minutes before falling asleep. For a while though, she would wake a few times during her nap and CIO all over again. The key was that I knew when I fed her and when to begin the pattern all over again.

Until 5 months of age, Katie's pattern would restart itself every 3 hours. If she ate at 7, I knew to get her up from her nap at 10. Even if she was sound asleep, I would wake her up to feed her. Then she would have her wake time and then I would lay her down at the appropriate time to finish out the pattern. Soon, she came to expect this pattern and even looked happy when I laid her down for her nap. Being swaddled and in her bed was a happy safe place for her. There are still times that she cries when I lay her down, but I know that if her belly is full and her diaper is clean when I lay her down that I am doing what she needs by letting her blow off some steam before she sleeps. I mentioned above that Katie was in a 3 hour pattern until she was 5 months old. At that time, I transitioned her to a 4 hour pattern and she still follows it now at 11 months.

Final thought. If you are not comfortable with CIO, the baby whisperer book has some great techniques to teach your baby to sooth itself to sleep without using CIO.

Stuff We Like

I am planning to frequently post info about baby/kids items that we like.  I know it's hard to navigate the world of "junk" that babies and kids can accumulate.  Obviously, everyone is different, but sometimes it helps to hear opinions on some of the options.  Shannon already mentioned Medela pumps and bottles and I agree. But today I wanted to feature swaddlers.  Eli has at times loved/hated being swaddled, but it has always helped him sleep.  He went from "both arms in" to "one arm in" to now, "no arms in", with the swaddler just being used for warmth on his lower body.  I've used two kinds of swaddlers.  One was "The First Years" swaddlers, seen here. Now we are using the Extra Large Kiddopotamus swaddler, like this one. Basically, when it's time to sleep, I take Eli in, get the room ready (turn off lights, turn on his fan, etc), put him in his "swaddles" (as we call it), give him his paci, and then start putting him down. The swaddler is a great signal that it's time to sleep.  He feels safe and snuggled, and warm.  There are a lot of good swaddlers out there. I know a lot of kids fight them, and that's ok.  I still think swaddling's the way to go until they just get out of it all the time.  That's my opinion, of course.