EASY method for newborn?

[Deleted]

If you tried this with your LO, how long did you try to keep them awake after eating during the day? I don't want to overtire her but I don't want her to sleep all day either (and thus be awake all night, lol).

TIA!

[GailGoldie]

sleep begets sleep. Most newborns sleep all the time --- we did EASY/babywise, and the boys would be up just for a few minutes after eating before starting another nap.... as they get bigger- the awake time gets longer... and eventually their naps become regular- and sometimes they aren't napping between each bottle, etc.

for the first 6-8 weeks almost every baby will need to wake up at night approx 2-3 hours between feeding... no matter how much they sleep during the day.

I never kept my boys from napping when they wanted to - they all slept from 10-7am every night starting at 8 weeks... again, the better they nap during the day- the better they will sleep at night.

[dcrunnergirl]

Jul 17, 2012 8:45:53 GMT -5 GailGoldie said:

sleep begets sleep. Most newborns sleep all the time --- we did EASY/babywise, and the boys would be up just for a few minutes after eating before starting another nap.... as they get bigger- the awake time gets longer... and eventually their naps become regular- and sometimes they aren't napping between each bottle, etc.

for the first 6-8 weeks almost every baby will need to wake up at night approx 2-3 hours between feeding... no matter how much they sleep during the day.

I never kept my boys from napping when they wanted to - they all slept from 10-7am every night starting at 8 weeks... again, the better they nap during the day- the better they will sleep at night.

This is the advice I'd give too. Don't try to keep your baby awake. If the LO wants to sleep, let them. The more they sleep during the day, the more they'll sleep at night. We did an EASY-routine with the kids from day 1 and it worked great. Have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby? That book really explained why sleep is so important, even if it means they sleep most of the day.

Also, this post gives general awake times for babies by age. The times include from the moment the baby wakes up from bed/nap through their feeding and the time to fall asleep again. So, you'll see that for a new baby, they are only awake for about an hour before they need a nap again. If you keep them up past that, they'll get overtired and will have trouble sleeping later.

community.babycenter.com/post/a8755765/awake_times

[ijack]

at 4 days old she's not going to have active time. she's pretty much just going to eat, sleep, poop, repeat.

[froggy76]

I didn't try getting into the EASY routine for the first couple months. I don't think she can sleep too much at this point. I did try to keep the house light during the day and dark at night.

I must have missed your announcement- CONGRATS!!

[mishap]

For the first six weeks, I think it was about 30 minutes to an hour of awake time. Anything more than an hour and DS would get super fussy. After six weeks it would slowly stretch out from an hour -- keeping in mind that they like to switch it up as soon as you get used to something! (ETA: Just saw you have two other kids and probably rolling your eyes at this. Sorry!)

The EASY system worked really well with both of my boys. Putting them down before they got overstimulated really helped them learn how to put themselves asleep drowsy but awake (at least I think it did).

Congratulations!

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 9:37:29 GMT -5 mishap said:

For the first six weeks, I think it was about 30 minutes to an hour of awake time. Anything more than an hour and DS would get super fussy. After six weeks it would slowly stretch out from an hour -- keeping in mind that they like to switch it up as soon as you get used to something! (ETA: Just saw you have two other kids and probably rolling your eyes at this. Sorry!)

The EASY system worked really well with both of my boys. Putting them down before they got overstimulated really helped them learn how to put themselves asleep drowsy but awake (at least I think it did).

Congratulations!

lol, don't worry about it. It's funny how much you forget after a few years go by. Or maybe I just have a really bad memory for this stuff. I had totally forgotten what a killer the initial sleep deprivation is when they basically want to nurse every hour or two. I was thinking that getting her on a schedule might help a bit with that.

[Deleted]

Jul 17, 2012 10:06:53 GMT -5 @mrswindycity said:

there's a good chart that has average awake times, let me see if I can find it.

Not sure if this is the same one but close enouh: www.troublesometots.com/are-you-keeping-baby-awake-too-long/

Thanks for posting this!

[pugz]

I feel so tied to the clock/feeding schedule right now, it's exhausting. Baby G is so sleepy though we have to wake her up on a schedule to eat, she does not wake herself. She might stay awake for 5-10 min after a feeding but otherwise she is asleep, fast fast asleep.

[eddy]

Jul 17, 2012 10:38:00 GMT -5 pugz said:

I feel so tied to the clock/feeding schedule right now, it's exhausting. Baby G is so sleepy though we have to wake her up on a schedule to eat, she does not wake herself. She might stay awake for 5-10 min after a feeding but otherwise she is asleep, fast fast asleep.

Give it a couple weeks and you won't need to do this. I found close to my due date is when my 36 weeker could be trusted to wake himself to eat. Hang in there!

[dcrunnergirl]

Jul 17, 2012 10:47:20 GMT -5 eddy said:

Jul 17, 2012 10:38:00 GMT -5 pugz said:

I feel so tied to the clock/feeding schedule right now, it's exhausting. Baby G is so sleepy though we have to wake her up on a schedule to eat, she does not wake herself. She might stay awake for 5-10 min after a feeding but otherwise she is asleep, fast fast asleep.

Give it a couple weeks and you won't need to do this. I found close to my due date is when my 36 weeker could be trusted to wake himself to eat. Hang in there!

I agree with this too. My 36 weekers were so sleepy, so getting them to feed was hard. We had to rub their feet and chest with ice cubes to wake them, which I know sounds cruel, but it was the only way to even slightly rouse them. It got better around 4 weeks/my due date.

[pugz]

Yeah i am holding her over an air vent to wake her to relatch. She will suck for a min then conk out

[DarcyLongfellow]

EASY never worked for me. My DD ALWAYS fell asleep nursing, so having her awake time after eating wasn't happening. She fell asleep every time she ate for at least the first 4 months (and pretty often after that too), and (newborns excepted) I have a strict rule of not waking a sleeping baby!!

If I were trying EASY with a newborn, my goal wouldn't be a set amount of awake time, my goal would be to put *some* space between the eating and the sleeping, so that they were separate things in the kid's mind. Even if it was just -- nurse in living room, walk to bedroom to put kid down to sleep. Then as the child gets older you can work on letting her play on the floor/have tummy time/play in the swing, etc. after eating and before you try to put her down.