Anyone else using BabyWise type philosophy?

raquelynn714 · September 2014

I know there are anti Babywise folk out there; this post is for those trying it. I'm starting a variation of the Babywise eat /awake / sleep schedule to hopefully lead to sleeping through the night. Preston's cord stump JUST fell out yesterday and he's 1 month today... We stopped tummy time bc of his cord stump, so I'm a little behind. Better late than never I suppose. I'm wondering how sleep / eat / awake routines are working for others. How old is LO and how have you implemented routines so far?

gahorseygal · September 2014

I try to do this but it doesnt always work. Sometimes she doesnt sleep very long so she eats and then falls asleep eating. Other times we have activity/eat/sleep. She usually sleeps one five hour stretch at night and another 4 maybe 5 after that so I'm not too worried about being strict on it. As long as she has a decent amount of nap time and awake time I'm happy.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Yeah, I don't think I'll be following a schedule too strictly either... We will see if the next few days go better than today did. Before today, Preston was taking 3+ hour naps during the day (probably too long if I want him to sleep through the night). After lengthening his awake time today, however, he struggled to even fall asleep. I'll give it a week or two.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Okay, so I'm guilty of not finishing the book... P also just started having more awake/alert time. It came on quickly! Yesterday was rough though bc LO had a hard time sleeping after a longer period of being awake, but THEN he was so tired that he slept from 11pm-6:15am! He napped more today, but I put a halt to those long naps. I'm sort of on a 3 hour schedule. I'm making sure awake time lasts at least an hour so that his naps are all shorter than 2 hours. I hope he sleeps through the night again... But I think It may have been beginners luck.

WhitEm14 · September 2014

We used it with DS1 and I'm using it with DS2 (who will be a month old next week). It has helped so much! We are getting 3-4 hour stretches at night and he's gotten himself a pretty consistent routine during the day, which I'm surprised by. We will see what happens when we hit the 6 week growth spurt though...

ungraceful13 · September 2014

We did EASY with DD and it works well when they get a little bit older (1-2 months if I remember right).

raquelynn714 · September 2014

@trawas01‌ lucky duck!

BeachM · September 2014

AmyG* said:

If you read up on the EASY plan, Baby whisperer and others advocate it, it's about the same as the routine parts of Babywise. So if you put that into your post title you'll get the info you want without the drama and FTT history that the word Babywise always brings with it into a discussion.
I disagree with Babywise as a whole that every mom I know who used it struggled with a low milk supply due to the scheduling and inaccurate breastfeeding info (the info is almost right, but doesn't take into account the variations between different mom's milk storage capacities and supplies). And that the guy who wrote Babywise has other child care booksin the series that show how little he really knows about what is developmentally appropriate for babies including harsh discipline techniques for young babies exploring their world.
Of course I read Babywise [before the changes that were made after the AAP policy statement against Babywise came out] and I did get some stuff out of it. I recommend to moms when they feel totally out of control, to write out what baby is doing all day long for 3 or 4 days and look for a pattern. then encourage the things that you like and discourage the things you don't like.
For these really really young babies that are breastfeeding, aim for nursing every 2-3 hours during the day. Feeding often during the day is usually the biggest thing you can do to get better night sleep. And don't let them stay awake too long at a stretch, or they get overtired. Sleep begets sleep.

I echo what @AmyG* says about the bolded and this is for BF and FF babies. Especially if you start doing this after 12 weeks when the morning nap starts to develop, you can get an idea of what your LO is doing during the day. It gives you a good idea of eating and napping patterns and where you might need to make changes. Short nap issues really start to crop up around 3-4 months and it's maddening, so I found with DS1 that logging when he ate and slept every day for about a week really helped me figure out what I needed to do to get longer naps, what his awake times needed to be to achieve better sleep, when he was eating in relation to sleep, etc.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Update: on Sat night, Preston slept 5 hours, was fed, and slept 4 more hours. Not bad. Then sat night he "slept" 6.5 hours... We had him in the crib for the 1st time but accidentally neglected him bc the baby monitor wasn't fully charged. Mommy fail.

Stellafriend · September 2014

Sleep deprived at 3 weeks, i decided to use Babywise with heavy emphasis on using judgement and breaking schedule when he needed if he seems hungry. At 8 weeks, he's sleeping from midnight to 7am-- basically through the night.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Yeah, I'm sold. I know that I'm not starving him bc I bottle feed my breast milk and know that he's getting 23-25 ounces per day. Last night (night 5), LO slept from 11:30-6:30... 7.5 hours of sleep for mommy. I'm not turning back.

mandyjimmy · September 2014

We are EFF and have been following baby wise all along. I will say, we use our best judgement and have fed him 'early' when needed. At 4 weeks, we are starting to get longer stretches at night with 4-4.5 hours in between. During the day we are still feeding every 3 hours.

krisleico · September 2014

Yep, we are keeping things flexible, but trying to get on a baby wise schedule. We are 4 weeks 1 day and are getting 3.5-4.5 hour stretches at night. During the day it is more variable. He seems to take a couple short naps in the morning... like 45-60 mins (and fights them all the way), then has a nice long nap around 2pm that lasts 2.5-3 hours. Would like to have more regular and consistent napping during the day, but at this age I'm still following his lead. I think focusing on the full feedings and the sleep, eat, wake cycle are our main goals right now.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Rather than thinking of it as interrupting his quiet sleep time, I just make sure he's awake for a mandatory amount of time. Since LO is on a 3 hour schedule, we just make sure to keep his awake time at least an hour which limits his naps to 2 hours. If we have trip ounce keeping him awake, we wash his face or change his onsie. He hates that.

raquelynn714 · September 2014

Trouble, not trip ounce

Anyone else using BabyWise type philosophy?

Re: Anyone else using BabyWise type philosophy?

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