Sleep Patterns 7 Wk Old

Hi W.,
I have 2 sons (2 1/2 and 1) and I recommend to all my friends and family with newborns to get the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" by Dr. Marc Weissbluth. It has been my SALVATION with getting both my boys to sleep well, through the night and figuring out how much sleep they need at each stage. It's great because you can flip directly to the chapter that is age appropriate for your baby and find out the answers to all your questions about sleep. It's a life saver!

I am a nurse (labor and delivery) and a mom, so I think I have a little bit of experience with this topic, and it sounds like your baby is doing exactly what he should be doing with sleep patterns. Usually between 6 - 12 weeks newborns start to get into their sleep patterns by consolidating night sleep into 1- 4 hour and 1- 5 hour sleep span. They also begin to develop a morning nap, lasting about 45 - 90 min, then an afternoon nap, lasting about 1 - 3 hours, then an early evening nap, lasting about 30 - 60 min. As the mommy, you'll need to help him "schedule" these naps and fall into his sleep / wake patterns. It takes some time and energy, but the benefit is astounding! When he first wakes up from the night or a nap, get him into the bright sun or open the shades and let him see the light. Play with him and stimulate him. Then as he gets closer to drowsy, start to quiet things down, darken the room you are in and create a soothe to sleep routine that will help him realize it's time for bed.

Regarding the feedings, try to keep him on a schedule of 3 hours between feedings (from the start of one feeding to the start of the next) with the 1-4 hour and 1- 5 hour stretch at night. Once a baby is over 10 lbs, they don't need to eat every 2 hours anymore and should be able to sleep through the night, or only wake up for 1 feeding. He has enough body fat to sustain him for a slightly longer period.

Most importantly, watch his cues for hunger and need for sleep . . . aim to help him find his schedule, but don't get too caught up in timing / scheduling right now. Between now and 3-4 months old is the stage where he is just starting to develop his schedule. Help him mould it because at 3-4 months both of you will be so happy to have a scheduled day in which you can know what to expect at any given time. Then you'll know when you can get a shower in without the worry of the baby waking up, bawling!!!

Good luck and enjoy this sweet time with you newborn!

Best wishes,
D.

Hi W.

I'm a mom to 2 kids and a 3rd on the way so have some expeience in this area , I'm from the UK and the one thing I have noticed is that we have very different parenting strategies but on saying that my 2 were both sleeping through the night by the time they were 11 weeks old.

Your baby is still rather young and won't be in a set routine yet but it isn't to early to start introducing a night time routine so that you are getting bigger chunks of sleep , myself and my husband always made sure they were bathed by 7pm every night and then gave them there last early evening feed , after this we would put them down in there crib awake as they need to learn to fall to sleep by themseleves. The next feed was around 11pm sometimes midnight and we would feed and put straight back down , no eye contact or talking and keeping lights down as low as possible , if they would wake during the night for another feed I would offer cooled boiled water , after a week they no longer woke as they realised there was nothing worth waking up for and they would then go from around midnight to about 5 in the morning.

My advice is based on bottle fed babies and you may be feeding yourself which I know they can take longer to get into a routine , if your ready then you could try offering a bottle of formula for the feed around midnight as this makes them more full and they will go for longer in between , but I would definitely stop the playing/talking in the night as he will come to rely on this and he needs to know that it is the night and he should be sleeping not playing.

Good luck and congratulations.

K. H.

Dear W.,

I had the same issues you described with my newborn. I was not sure whether she was sleeping too much or if I needed to wake her to eat. I am a first-time mom so I felt really confused and nervous about this.

Around 2 months, I began to see patterns in her sleeping/eating but she was not yet on a schedule. For about a week, I wrote down when she slept/ate. I think thenestbaby.com has a schedule you can print out and then just fill in the times. This helped me see patterns. Also, around this time, my pediatrician recommended to me that I not wake her up to eat. I think this was determined by her height/weight (95th percentile). If she was small for her age, probably I would have had to continue waking her. Check with your pediatrician on what he/she would recommend, but my guess is that if your son is a normal size that you definately don't have to wake him after an hour or so if he is sleeping.

By about 9 or 10 weeks, she began sleeping through the night and I began to better read her cues for when she was tired/hungry. By now (3 months) she is on a predictable schedule of eating and sleeping, but it took me weeks to figure out. As you observe your son's patterns, you will soon be able to figure out what he needs and when. Hang in there! It gets easier soon!

Sounds very normal to me from my three kids. Remember that most pediatricians say 4-5 hours is considered "sleeping through", which is hard when, as you said, he is sleeping when you are awake. I used to wake my little ones up when I went to bed at 11 to nurse them and move their long stretch to 11-4. Also, I'd guess that at 7 weeks, he'll get up when he's hungry, so you can feel free to let him let you know when he's hungry. I found that worked really well for us, so sometimes we were nursing two hours apart, and other times they were too occupied by whatever toy they had to want to eat for three or four hours. By now, if you are nursing, your milk supply is well-established, and you are probably mostly over the 6 week growth spurt, so things will slow down ot a more even keel in that regard. If you're bottle feeding, I don't have much help for you about feeding times. Sorry, but I hope some of this helps!!

If you have some time on Thursday night come out to Laurel and here Kim West Speak on sleep for babies and children.
Kim West, “The Sleep Lady”
Thursday, April 10, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.
Our Savior Lutheran Church
13611 Laurel Bowie Rd. (Rte 197)
Laurel, Maryland 20708

KIM WEST is a mother of two and a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C) who has been a practicing child and family social worker for more than thirteen years. Known as The Sleep Lady® by her clients, over the past ten years she has helped more than a thousand tired parents learn to listen to their intuition, recognize their child’s important cues and behaviors, and gently create changes that promote and preserve his or her healthy sleep habits.

West has appeared on the Dr. Phil, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, TLC’s Bringing Home Baby and CNN, and has been written about in a number of publications including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Child, Baby Talk, Parenting, The Baltimore Sun, USA Today and the Washington Post. West hosts the sleep section of The Newborn Channel, played in maternity wards in hospitals across the country.

ADVANCED REGISTRATION $10, $15 AT THE DOOR.
FOR INFO CALL : ###-###-#### OR ###-###-####
Email: ____@____.com