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Week 3-4 schedule update

So Kyle is now in week 4 of being on a schedule.
He are pretty much ready for the time change here's what his schedule looks like:
8:30am eat
9:30am nap
12pm eat
1:15-1:30pm nap
3:30pm eat
4:30pm nap
6pm eat
7-8 not really nap
8:30pm eat, bed
11:30pm dreamfeed

He's on a combo 3.5-3hr schedule. I'm looking at dropping his feedings down to 5 though cause they get so close together in the evening. I would love to drop the dreamfeed but I think starting next week with the time change I'm going to go for this schedule

7:30am wake eat
8:30am nap
11am eat
12:15 nap
2:30pm eat
3:45-4pm nap
5:30pm eat
6:30-7:30pm cat nap
7:30pm bed
9pm dreamfeed?

I'm still trying to figure out what to do in the evenings and with the last feed/bedtime.

Wake times:
He's been able to extend them a little to 1hr 3o min sometimes. I also have noticed he needs to be more stimulated during them in order to sleep better.

Naps:
Naps are good for a couple days then bad for a couple days. I think he's still adjusting to them. He almost always wakes up at 45 minutes. Sometimes he goes back to sleep, sometimes he doesn't. I am going to start not giving him his paci to go to sleep only give it to him if he wakes up and can't go back to sleep.

Night time: He has always done really well at night. Some nights he will wake up once or twice but ususally settles himself. It's rare I have to feed him, his paci usually does the trick if he can't get back to sleep on his own.

Week 3 early update

So I know it's only 3 days into week 3 of Kyle on a Schedule but I've had some success today and I just need to share!
Yesterday was a little rough, probably the after effects of church Sunday. Today was so much better despite the fact that we started our day at 6:30am. It actually worked out okay because we had MOPS and that means we have to leave at 8:45am, normally the time he would go down for a nap. So this is how our schedule has gone so far
6:30am eat
7:00am nap (he'd been up since about 5:15am so I figured he would need to go down quick)
8:45 leave for mops (he didn't fall asleep till about 7:30 so that meant an hour and 15 minute nap but that's okay, at least he got one).
9:45 eat
11am nap (fell asleep at MOPS)
1:30pm eat (yes a 2.5 hour nap!)
2:30pm nap
4:30pm eat
5:30 nap
and that's where we are now. He didn't fall asleep till about 6pm but that's awesome still because he NEVER wants to sleep for this nap. So hopefully he'll sleep till 7:30pm where then he will eat, pjs, and bedtime at 8pm.

I know right now I'm supposed to be doing things later to get ready for the time change but since we are still so new into this whole thing I figure I'll adjust things afterwards. I'm just happy if he sleeps durin every nap and preferablly longer than 1 hour.

New Schedule Week 1-2

So starting off on a schedule was a little hard but I was expecting that when Kyle went from sleeping with us and being fed on demand 24/7 to sleeping in his crib and being on a schedule for feeding.
I would first like to say that even with a schedule the #1 rule is- If your baby is hungry feed him! No matter how long it was since he last ate.
The first thing I had to do was figure out what Kyle's cries meant and to also watch his body language when he is crying and also when he is tired. The book The Secrets of the Babywhisper beautifully outlines the body language of babies and what things could mean. Of course every baby is different. The book also outlines the 3 steps of sleep in babies which is also important because you want to notice when they are in step 1 and get them to bed before they get to step 3.
So this is what I found out for Kyle. He will start to yawn when he's tired, and then it progresses into fussing and rubbing his eyes. If I can get him down right after that first yawn then he falls asleep easily and stays asleep for longer.
This is what I learned about his cry. I definitely know the hungry cry and the come pick me up and reassure me cry. The other ones are mostly just saying, "I don't want to take a nap though I'm tired so let me just pout about it a little before I go to sleep".

So this is the schedule I put him on
8am wake, eat, change diaper, play etc.
9am nap
11am eat, change, play
12-12:15am nap
2pm eat, change, play
3:15pm nap
5:00pm eat, change, play
6pm nap
7:30pm eat, pj's. story
8pm bed time
10:30pm dreamfeed

The first 2 days were rough, all he did was cry through each nap, sometimes scream, I would go in and reassure him every 15-20 min or so. Make sure he didn't have gas, etc.

By the 4th day I think he slept for all but one of his naps though he wouldn't sleep the entire time.

He also slept through the night by the 2nd day I think. He might wake up during the night but he'd go back to sleep on his own. I consider that STTN because we all wake up a few times during the night and go back to sleep.
So now we are on day 12 and he hardly cries at nap time at all. He is also SO much happier when he is awake. Instead of being fussy all day long because he was tired he is awake and alert and much more able to focus on learning his skills like sitting up and rolling over and playing with his toys.

Right now I am working on getting him to sleep for his 6pm nap because he doesn't but he get's too tired if I let him stay up. So we'll see what happens. Daylight Savings Time is also ending so I have to adjust his schedule for that too. I will post every week and let you know how the process is going. I will also be posting soon on how to be on a schedule but still have a social life...LOL

Our New Schedule

So Kyle has been on a schedule for about 1 1/2 weeks now and it is going well. I would first like to say why I put him on a schedule. I noticed he seemed really unorganized during the day like he didn't know when to eat, when to sleep, etc. It was driving me crazy! I also felt like I couldn't tell what he wanted so I would just try and feed him whenever he cried. He also started to suck his fingers which gave me the clue he was learning to soothe himself.

I had heard about the cry it out method and thought it was really cruel and said I would never do that to a newborn that didn't know what they wanted. I decided to do some research on the Becoming Babywise book (one of the cry it out methods) because some friends had success with putting their babies on a schedule of eat/play/sleep.
During my research I found this blog Chronicles of a Babywise Mom. It was liteally a life saver. I read about the philosophy of Babywise and it really made alot of sense. Baby's look to us to figure out how the world works. They look for patterns and really thrive on consistency.

This blog also talked about a book called The BabyWhisperer (and the series as well). The Baby whisperer doesn't do cry it out (cio) they really focus on learning to communicate with your baby and learn their cries so you can better meet their needs. They also talk about helping teach the baby to self soothe so they don't need to rely on us to put them to sleep or to fall back asleep if they wake up. Alot of mom's start to feel like a human pacifier.

So on Sunday almost 2 weeks ago I decided this is what we needed to do. For my sanity and for Kyle's sake we started on a schedule. I will recap the first 2 weeks in another post and then will post each week an update on how things are going.