Eat, play, sleep... Really?

kettlekitten · September 2015

anyone follow this routine with their baby? After following the 'total chaos because I don't know what I'm doing' method with my first, I am hoping for more routine with this one!

Does your LO follow the eat play sleep routine reasonably well or do you find it gets mucked up easily? My DS can do several rounds of the routine without much sleep (maybe 10 minutes maximum). So I'm never sure whether to persevere with getting him to sleep, or to get him up and repeat the 'play' part of it. Sometimes he will go off to sleep after a feed and then he's out to the count for three hours. Interested to hear how others manage it.

LSquared3960 · September 2015

I have kind of tried to stick to the routine, but there are several times in the day when it just doesn't happen. Almost every afternoon LO will wake to eat, and then go right back to sleep. He doesn't have his days and nights confused, so I don't really sweat it. He's also about to start going to daycare full time in two weeks so I won't have any control over the schedule then anyway.

Saratiff · September 2015

The big thing with the play is to teach them to sleep at night. If your little one is giving you good stretches at night I would let the play thing go. If they are up in the middle of the night I would encourage the day awake time kwim?

eebaby · September 2015

It has been working 80 percent of the time for my LO. She doesn't do the sleep in the late evening stretches and but does two feeds before sleeping for a good stretch. She did two five hour stretches the other night!! What I like about the routine is that it lets you start to figure out babies cues. A lot of times my LO would cry and we realized she was overstimulated and wanted to sleep so the routine has really helped figure out what she's asking for. She also rarely crys to eat because she gets it first thing when she wakes up. That being said last night she needed to eat non-stop! Growth spurt. As soon as the routine starts to work something like life throws it off

amorgan71313 · September 2015

Nope, Still just going with the flow... If I try to keep my LO up when he's sleepy I have one cranky baby on my hands. He doesn't have his days and nights mixed up and is starting to sleep longer stretches at night so I'm not worried. Sometimes he will eat and sleep for 2 hours, other times he will eat and be awake all the way until his next feeding. The only routine we have going is trying to put him down in his crib between 8-9pm. He's generally a pretty easy baby so it's working. Entertaining a 8 week old when he's awake for 3 hours can be tiring though!

J&D2007 · September 2015

We do the sleep, feed, play sequence mostly. Only time we don't is when people are over and they love to hold him and let him sleep after he eats and obviously we don't play at night. He would rather sleep after eating but we get him to play by changing his diaper, doing tummy time, going outside, etc. Usually works good. He's 5 weeks and BF for 40 mins, then awake for 30-60 mins, then naps for an hour or two. ..repeat...

Sonadora · September 2015

Lol.

No. Unless it's a stroller walk or a car ride, my LO needs another ounce or so of food to easily go to sleep. So I either give him a little bit more in a bottle right before a nap or nurse him a tiny bit to top him off if I'm trying to get him down in his crib or his rock n play.

deviduke412 · September 2015

Yes, we do the eat, wake, sleep routine. It is amazing! We started putting him on the schedule during week one and he has been sleeping at least 5-6 hours a night since he was two weeks old. Has slept all the way through the night a couple times as well. He will be seven weeks old tomorrow. We keep his awake time the same amount of time each cycle. We lay him down awake. His wake time is about 50 minutes right now. His feeding time is included in the wake time. If he would wake up in the middle of a nap, we let him cry it out. If the crying would go longer than 15 minutes, I go in and assess the situation to see if he needs a diaper change, if he is too hot or cold, if he needs to burp, etc. and then I leave the room and let him fall asleep. The first couple of weeks, naps were difficult and I just had to keep pushing through and sticking with it. Now naptime is wonderful. There were times that he wouldn't sleep and I would just have to put him in his swing and get him to sleep in there. There is a hierarchy to sleep training. The first goal is to get him to sleep when it's time to sleep. The second goal is to get him to sleep where you want him to sleep. I forget what the third step technically is called. We follow baby wise so you can find all of this information in that book or on the baby wise mom blog.

mrsb30 · September 2015

I tried, so far it doesn't work for us. She still sleeps a lot and if I try to keep her awake she is just fussy. She sleeps 5-6 hour stretches at night though so I don't think it's a big deal at this point.

kristigirl02 · September 2015

We don't follow it either. My lo had been sleepinglong stretches at night since two weeks old. We bf on demand and usually let her nurse to sleep. This article on kelly mom.com made me feel better about just going with the flow.
https://kellymom.com/bf/normal/comfortnursing/

kettlekitten · September 2015

Thanks all for the input... Mine sleeps pretty well at night - so far - but with an older child I need to know what is happening in my day and what the baby needs when he is crying, so that I don't waste time trying to put him to sleep if that's not what he wants, for example. Interested in trying a more structured approach than I did with my first baby, because that was hellish!! Might check out this baby wise thing.

nieldang · September 2015

I have been doing eat,wake,sleep and love it. Sometimes if she is tired she is only awake for 10 minutes or so, but all you want is to make sure your not using nursing to put her to sleep. If you have a hard time keeping her awake after feeding i would recommend changing her diaper and trying to keep her awake for 5 minutes. It will get longer and longer each time. I read Babywise and learned A LOT, if you are interested in creating a great schedule and sleep habits for your child, i would recommend it.

shaunnar053 · September 2015

kristigirl02 said:
We don't follow it either. My lo had been sleepinglong stretches at night since two weeks old. We bf on demand and usually let her nurse to sleep. This article on kelly mom.com made me feel better about just going with the flow.
https://kellymom.com/bf/normal/comfortnursing/

This ^^^^^

kettlekitten · September 2015

I don't have a problem with nursing to sleep. The problem is that he falls asleep after a play, but it only lasts a few minutes or half hour max. Then I end up in the middle of the cycle with a baby that's awake! If it's close to two hours I just start again. Otherwise I keep him up for a play if he seems alert and then try sleep again, or try and keep him asleep if he seems tired. We don't get these mythical two hour sleeps that the baby whisperers speak of

acciocoffee · September 2015

I tried to do the eat, play, sleep thing, but she is only 7 weeks so it didn't really work. The one thing we were able to do was put her feedings on a loose schedule. We are doing every 3 hours until we hit about 5 PM, then I just let her eat as much and as often as she wants so that she can sleep longer at night. It makes my life easier if I need to run errands because I know about when she will need to eat again.

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