Babies: 0 - 3 Months

If you follow eat, wake, sleep..

how long do you keep LO awake?

We are on a three hour (usually, sometimes 2.5 sometimes 3.5) schedule.  It takes her about 30 minutes to eat.  I try and keep her up another 30-45 minutes.  Is this long enough?

The schedule ends up looking like this:

12- 12:30- eat

12:30- 1:15- wake

1:15- 3- nap

3- 3:30- eat

so on and so forth.   Does this look about right for a 3 (almost 4!) week old?

 

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Re: If you follow eat, wake, sleep..

  • ::lurking from 3rd Tri::

    Hi! Sorry I don't have the answer to your question, but I'm going to stalk this thread, because this is what I want to do, and I'm curious about how well it works in the real world. I've been having this same question, because I swear Babywise never says how long to keep them awake.

    I keep getting discouraged by my friends who say that it's impossible to keep a baby that young awake, so I've been nervous, but it sounds like it's working for you. Would you mind sharing a few more details about how it's going? Thanks!

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  • imageMrs.Lucan:

    ::lurking from 3rd Tri::

    Hi! Sorry I don't have the answer to your question, but I'm going to stalk this thread, because this is what I want to do, and I'm curious about how well it works in the real world. I've been having this same question, because I swear Babywise never says how long to keep them awake.

    I keep getting discouraged by my friends who say that it's impossible to keep a baby that young awake, so I've been nervous, but it sounds like it's working for you. Would you mind sharing a few more details about how it's going? Thanks!

    YGPM!

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  • Your schedule seems fine. It's going to vary day to day, hour by hour, baby to baby. What I do is try to keep eating times consistent. Wake times vary depending on LO. Sometimes she can only handle 5 min of activity before she starts getting fussy and needs to go back down for a nap. Other times/days, she's alert and happy under her play pen for 20-25 min.

     

    The important thing is your putting your LO down for a nap when he/she is awake but starting to show signs of sleepiness--yawning, eyes getting heavy or if he/she's staring in the distance for long, fussiness, etc. Then put LO down, and wake him/her up again for your next scheduled feeding. 

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  • We follow this routine but not a schedule. Usually DS is up for about an hour and 15-30 minutes (including eating time) before he's ready for a nap. He'll start whining and fussing about 30-40 minutes after eating and that's when I swaddle him and get him quieted. He doesn't fall asleep on his own at this point, I soothe him to sleep, but it usually takes only a few minutes and he'll nap either in his PnP or his swing. And his nap might be 30 minutes or it might be 3 hours. But he usually wakes up in the morning about 7/7:30ish and goes to sleep b/w 8-9pm and is down for the night. Since he's such a good night sleeper, I just follow his cues during the day.
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  • imagemkanderson85:
    imageMrs.Lucan:

    ::lurking from 3rd Tri::

    Hi! Sorry I don't have the answer to your question, but I'm going to stalk this thread, because this is what I want to do, and I'm curious about how well it works in the real world. I've been having this same question, because I swear Babywise never says how long to keep them awake.

    I keep getting discouraged by my friends who say that it's impossible to keep a baby that young awake, so I've been nervous, but it sounds like it's working for you. Would you mind sharing a few more details about how it's going? Thanks!

    YGPM!

    YGPM back :)

  • I follow Madelyn's lead. Sometimes she wants to go to sleep immediately after eating, so I let her.  Other times she wakes completely up during burping, so I interact with her then.  
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  • It's my understanding that at this age it's not so much the schedule that is important as the flow.  Like pp's said I follow LO's cues.  For me the most important part is giving his day a structure so he begins to know what to expect next.  And to not get him in the habit of always nursing himself to sleep. 

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  • I am trying to follow this too, but my big problem is the awake time. My LO gets very drowsy while finishing her bottles and tends to fall asleep then. Do I need to try and wake to her have the awake time? Or do I just wait until she is ready to start on her own? Just don't want her to use eating as a crutch to fall asleep and feel like I can't follow Babywise since she doesnt stay awake after eating now. Thank you!
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