On Becoming Babywise: 3 to 6 Weeks

Josh and I decided early on before our first baby was born that we would be following the schedule outlined in On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the GIFT of Nighttime Sleep.

I blogged about our Babywise experience with Caden and several weeks ago shared how our experience was going the third time using the Babywise with Jesse. While I am no expert on sleeping babies, we have used Babywise twice before and had great success. If you are curious about Babywise or are using Babywise in your own home I hope you find this post and those that follow equally as helpful.

Oh, and if there are typos or run on sentences in this post, please forgive me. It has taken me over a week to type this up. #momlife #momof3 #daddywentbacktowork

Schedule

This is a rough outline of what our routine is during the day. Some feedings are adjusted by 30 minutes if the baby needs to be fed sooner because he is hungry.

Week 3-4

• 7am: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 8am: Nap
• 9:30am: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 10:30am Nap
• 12pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 1:00pm: Nap
• 2:30pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 4pm: Nap
• 5pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 6pm: Nap
• 8pm: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib
• 11pm: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib
• 2am: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib
• 4am: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib

Week 5-6

• 7am: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 8:30am: Nap
• 9:30am: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 10:30am Nap
• 12pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 1:00pm: Nap
• 2:30pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 4pm: Nap
• 5pm: Eat/Waketime, Diapering
• 6:30pm: Nap
• 7:30pm: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib
• 11pm: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib
• 3am: Eat, Diaper, Back to Crib

Jesse’s 2am and 4am feeding merged together to become a 3am feeding. Yay! More on this below.

Nursing

Jesse is nursing every 2 1/2 to 3 hours during the day and is going 4 hour stretches at night. I am not sure why this time around I having so many issues with nursing but between mastitis and a plugged duct I am overly paranoid about anything that feels somewhat off in my boobs. Now that I got that off my chest…haha…did you catch what I did there? That pun was intended.

Anyway…because I was nursing and pumping and massaging while I had mastitis I created an oversupply of milk which I am still trying to correct. I feel like I might be finally on the verge of getting my supply somewhat adjusted but I know that Jesse will be dropping a feeding soon and I will begin the entire process over. Ice packs have helped as has not pumping or hand expressing to the point of emptying only to the point to relieve engorgement.

My letdown is also super fast and I have to take him off within a minute of latching on and catch the milk into a towel. If I don’t do this it causes Jesse to gag and get sick because it is too much milk coming at him. I am hoping that over the next few weeks this corrects itself as well.

Merge One

During weeks three and four Jesse was nursing 9 times in 24 hours and has since went to 8 feedings during weeks five and six. Babywise helps parents to adapt successfully from one growth stage to the next using the merge principal. In total there are seven merges that happen over the course of the first year. Jesse has successfully completed Merge One by combining his two nighttime feedings into one. YAY!

Most babies start out nursing twice during the night and sometime between weeks three and six they begin to stretch their nighttime sleep from 3 hours up to 4 hours. If you look back at Jesse’s schedule you can see that he was nursing at 2am and 4am and during week five he merged these two feedings together for a 3am feeding.

The most important thing I want to stress is to understand the difference between your infants capacity and ability. I can’t just decide that I am going to drop or change Jesse’s schedule unless he has the physical capacity and ability to make that adjustment. This is something that is stated over and over in the book.

Waketime

Jesse’s waketime is his feeding time and he is starting to extend his waketime slightly after his feedings. I am trying to make sure that I notice his sleepy cues like yawning and becoming agitated. With two other kids to watch I sometimes miss these cues. The majority of the time he is back in his crib within an hour and fifteen minutes after his feeding.

During his waketime when he isn’t eating or getting a diaper change he is on his playmat smiling at the overhead toys or the ceiling fan, doing tummy time, or sitting in his bouncer.

Naps & Night Sleep

Jesse’s naps last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. If he wakes early he is usually fussy. Sometimes he will make noises for several minutes and fall back asleep. If he continues to cry of the cry escalates to a scream the nap is over and he comes out of his crib until his next feeding.

Night sleep is actually going really well. Since he has merged his two feedings to one I have my alarm set for 3am. If he is not awake when my alarm goes off I hit the snooze button once or twice if I am lucky before he is awake and ready to eat. Most of the time he is already awake and ready to eat at 3am. Once he is fed, changed, and burped he is swaddled and is able to be laid back down in his crib. He is back to sleep within 10 minutes of being laid down.

With his feedings dropping down to twice a night and then to once at 3am I have been able to handle the feedings, diapering, and re-swaddling on my own which has allowed Josh to get the much needed sleep he needs for his job. After being off work for over a month he went back on shift three weeks ago. Which leads me to my last topic for this post…

Family Life

It was amazing having Josh home for so much time. I truly felt like it was needed. This was the most time he had taken off work after any of our babies came home. He was home for two weeks after Caden and Maisie were born. With your first baby you are still able to have some time to yourself during the day when they are napping, with your second you might be lucky to sneak a nap in for yourself during the day if your two kids are sleeping at the same time, and with your third you find yourself at the end of day in the same clothes you woke up and can’t remember when the last time it was that you washed your hair. Basically, I live in pajamas, all day, everyday.

But in all seriousness bringing a new member into your family while amazing is a huge adjustment. For everyone. Parenting is so rewarding and requires an extraordinary amount of selflessness. Marriage and parenting take effort and giving yourself intentionally to each other. Jesse has given us another chance to love more sacrificially and enjoy the miracle of new life. I am not really sure where I am going with this paragraph just to say that I am so thankful that Jesse is part of our family. I can’t imagine him not with us.