This baby! I can totally see why some people have a third – especially when the second baby is so much easier than the first. My gosh…if all babies were this easy. And this happy! Drake is always smiling, rarely cries and I’m able to load him up and drag him around and he just rides. Grady is a handful. I love him with all my soul, but he’s a lot. Drake is a breath of fresh air. Both boys are totally different and with that being said, they each are going to have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Schedule
We’re slowly getting a schedule in place. I wasn’t so crazy with getting Drake on a schedule because as I learned with Grady, it will eventually fall into place. Our day goes a little something like this:
- 5am – wake and breastfeed and go back to sleep until…
- 7am – wake for the day. He usually plays while I make breakfast for the crew.
- 8am – 1st bottle
- 8:30/8:45 – He starts to get sleepy and goes down for his first nap. Sometimes it’s 30 minutes. Sometimes it’s a hour. It just depends.
- 10am – Let’s just say he sleeps until 10. I usually schedule the next nap 2 hours AFTER he wakes. So next nap would be 12pm.
- 11am – Bottle and play/exploration (He has been taking 6 to 6.5 ounces in a bottle every 3 hours.)
- 12pm – Nap 2. The middle of the day nap is usually longer. We’ve either been out for the morning and he’s tired or he’s taken a not-so-good-nap in the morning. Sometimes it’s an hour. Sometimes it’s two hours.
- 2pm – Bottle and play/exploration. Let’s just say he wakes up at 2pm. His afternoon nap would be at 4pm.
- 4pm – Last nap
- 5pm – Bottle and play/exploration
- 6:30pm – start bedtime routine
- 7pm – Last bottle (to top off before the night) and bedtime
I generally try to keep it simple: 3 naps (every two hours from wake time), 6 ounce bottles every 3 hours (for a total of five feedings), bedtime at 7pm. As he grows and reaches new milestones, the schedule will change again, just like it did with Grady.
Sleep
I’m not going to lie. Drake wakes at precisely 5am every single morning and I bring him in bed and nurse him back to sleep. Some would say oh that’s no big deal! My kids sleep with me every night! It’s a big deal for me because I never let Grady in my bed – not even for a nap. I don’t have many memories of just Drake and I. I have so many with Grady (because he was the one and only for 2.5 years of course). So if that means Drakes comes to bed with me at 5am for some ninny and a nap, so be it.
Drake will sleep from 7pm to 5am. From 2 months of age he would wake up just once a night for a feeding. Grady was sleeping through the night at 2 months so the fact that Drake was 4 months and still waking up was frustrating. I used this book to help me with sleep training. It worked for Grady so I just stuck with it.
Some things I did for sleep training:
- Put the baby in the crib as early as possible (this is your space, this is your room, these are your smells). I had Drake in the bassinet in my room for about a week but then I moved him because I needed MY space back (I say that and now he’s in my bed every morning).
- I don’t use sleep aids. I try not to let a baby get used to all those things that “put them to sleep” (i.e. bassinets that move, weighted swaddles, pacifiers, etc.) Why? Because when they outgrow all those things and they have to move into a crib, then you’re back to square one with trying to get them to sleep. I love using a Hatch light for white noise and some soft light but that’s about it. I don’t even rock them to sleep! I know…so cruel…
- I started a bedtime routine at 8 weeks. This lets him know this is the long sleep. Our routine is simple: nakey time, a quick bath, lotion, bottle and a little book.
So after implementing all these things, Drake was still waking up. One of my friends is a lactation consultant and mentioned that perhaps he wasn’t getting enough calories during the day. At 16 weeks Drake was exclusively breastfeeding BUT he was feeding off both breasts every hour and a half to two hours. After giving Drake bottles, he was only eating every 3 hours. It actually was a relief not to be constantly feeding. But what about the feeding at night? After seeing that he was getting plenty of calories during the day, it was clear he didn’t need a night feeding. So what did I do? Good old fashioned cry it out. And wouldn’t you believe that it only took ONE night. Just one. He cried for an hour of course but the next night he slept all the way through. Some moms just can’t handle the cry it out and I get it. You want to go in and comfort them and let them know it’s okay. I, on the other hand, had had my fill and was ready to start sleeping through the night. The way I saw it, I could snuggle him DURING the day – it doesn’t have to be at night.
Now that he’s four and a half months, we’re going through the dreaded four month regression. I FINALLY got him sleeping through the night only to be back to square one. He usually wakes between 2 and 3am and screams for an hour. Grady went through the four month regression when we were on a two week trip to Florida. For two weeks I woke up to breastfeed him all through the night. It took a week when we got home for me to get him sleeping through the night again. I’m hoping this regression doesn’t last three weeks. My book tells me to continue doing what I’ve been doing and not change anything. Stay tuned.
Where Grady was so easy to sleep train, Drake has been more difficult. Grady was sleeping through the night at two months whereas Drake is still waking up at four months. Where Grady had acid reflux, Drake has drool. Where Grady adjusted very well to a crib, Drake isn’t happy unless he’s sleeping next to me. Grady was a very high strung baby and Drake is super chill. All babies are different in different areas and you just have to adjust. I’m learning new things about this baby every day and I can’t wait to see what the next two months bring.
~Ashley