so these days, ozzy is on a 2 hour schedule. in the past 2.5 weeks since i started him on this 2 hour schedule (as opposed to random sleeping and playing and feeding every hour to every hour and a half), things have gotten much easier. basically he's on the E.A.S.Y. schedule that Tracy Hogg suggests in her The Baby Whisperer book. it works very well. Eat Activity Sleep You (the 'you' part means, you have your time when the baby sleeps. but dont get all excited about that part. it's actually a very brief time. sometimes it is 15 minutes...occasionally i can get a whopping 30 min to myself. usually enough time to use the bathroom, get water and some food or otherwise take care of mimi's needs)
i latch him on to feed, let's say at 9 am, he feeds until about 9:30ish, then plays with me (we look at each other, smile, chat, sing, clap, etc, or get time on the tummy and practice rolling back and forth, or play with toys, he can't quite reach yet, but is getting better at grasping, so i hold toys in front of him and try to encourage him to grab for things, diaper changes and baths also count as 'activity'). play time usually goes for about an hour and then i help him go to sleep when i notice he seems tired. he might fuss a bit or just look away and refuse to look at me or the object i'm holding, or else he may touch his eyes. if i miss the cues then his face scrunches up and he does that breath holding that precedes a rather desperate sounding cry.
going to sleep can be easy if he's nicely tired. all i have to do is lay him on his tummy, slip a pacy in his mouth, and flip on the fan (white noise), and he's down for the count. if i miss the cues or overstimulated him, then it requires that i hold him over my shoulder and walk a couple of laps around the house and then he'll slip quietly into sleep on my shoulders and then i can put him down. once he is down he is down until the two hours of this cycle is up.
so no matter what time he goes down he will wake up exactly two hours after i initially latched him on for his feed. if activity time went long, then nap time is shortened. unfortunately it doesnt work the other way around. i can't shorten the activity time and hope for a longer nap because he gets mad at being forced to sleep before he is ready. but if i can catch him at just the right moment, then i can sometimes get a good 30 minute nap out of him. this is not the norm however.
so this routine goes on from around 4 in the morning until 8 at night (give or take an hour). the wee hours of the morning he doesn't do the activity part and just goes from feed to sleep. so he goes down at around 8pm (sometimes a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later), sleeps until around 3 or 4 am, feeds while still sleepy then goes back to sleep when he's done, wakes up again at 6 am for another feed and diaper change, sleeps again and wakes up at 8 and then he's really up and wants to play after his feed. then gets tired by 9:15ish and wants to sleep. it's tough though b/c that's around the time i have to take mimi to school so his nap is usually delayed a bit, or sometimes his feed falls right at that time mimi needs to go to school and then we end up going to school late b/c the baby needs to be fed.
so then after a nap, the whole two hour cycle starts all over again and continues nonstop until 6 pm. then at 6 he starts his 'cluster feeding' every hour until 8ish. probably due to a reduction in my milk supply by evening he needs to feed 2-3 times in a row in order to get the same amount of milk he gets in the morning when my supply is greatest.
and that is his current schedule. it's tiring, but predictable and that takes all the guesswork out of trying to figure out why he is crying...if he cries after a nap he is hungry. if he cries after a feed he's bored. if he cries after activity time he is tired and wants sleep. isnt that a beautiful thing to know? :) makes caring for an infant easier when you understand how to comfort the crying baby...it can be hard since they can't tell you what's wrong, but the EASY method solves that problem.
i latch him on to feed, let's say at 9 am, he feeds until about 9:30ish, then plays with me (we look at each other, smile, chat, sing, clap, etc, or get time on the tummy and practice rolling back and forth, or play with toys, he can't quite reach yet, but is getting better at grasping, so i hold toys in front of him and try to encourage him to grab for things, diaper changes and baths also count as 'activity'). play time usually goes for about an hour and then i help him go to sleep when i notice he seems tired. he might fuss a bit or just look away and refuse to look at me or the object i'm holding, or else he may touch his eyes. if i miss the cues then his face scrunches up and he does that breath holding that precedes a rather desperate sounding cry.
going to sleep can be easy if he's nicely tired. all i have to do is lay him on his tummy, slip a pacy in his mouth, and flip on the fan (white noise), and he's down for the count. if i miss the cues or overstimulated him, then it requires that i hold him over my shoulder and walk a couple of laps around the house and then he'll slip quietly into sleep on my shoulders and then i can put him down. once he is down he is down until the two hours of this cycle is up.
so no matter what time he goes down he will wake up exactly two hours after i initially latched him on for his feed. if activity time went long, then nap time is shortened. unfortunately it doesnt work the other way around. i can't shorten the activity time and hope for a longer nap because he gets mad at being forced to sleep before he is ready. but if i can catch him at just the right moment, then i can sometimes get a good 30 minute nap out of him. this is not the norm however.
so this routine goes on from around 4 in the morning until 8 at night (give or take an hour). the wee hours of the morning he doesn't do the activity part and just goes from feed to sleep. so he goes down at around 8pm (sometimes a bit earlier, sometimes a bit later), sleeps until around 3 or 4 am, feeds while still sleepy then goes back to sleep when he's done, wakes up again at 6 am for another feed and diaper change, sleeps again and wakes up at 8 and then he's really up and wants to play after his feed. then gets tired by 9:15ish and wants to sleep. it's tough though b/c that's around the time i have to take mimi to school so his nap is usually delayed a bit, or sometimes his feed falls right at that time mimi needs to go to school and then we end up going to school late b/c the baby needs to be fed.
so then after a nap, the whole two hour cycle starts all over again and continues nonstop until 6 pm. then at 6 he starts his 'cluster feeding' every hour until 8ish. probably due to a reduction in my milk supply by evening he needs to feed 2-3 times in a row in order to get the same amount of milk he gets in the morning when my supply is greatest.
and that is his current schedule. it's tiring, but predictable and that takes all the guesswork out of trying to figure out why he is crying...if he cries after a nap he is hungry. if he cries after a feed he's bored. if he cries after activity time he is tired and wants sleep. isnt that a beautiful thing to know? :) makes caring for an infant easier when you understand how to comfort the crying baby...it can be hard since they can't tell you what's wrong, but the EASY method solves that problem.
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