6 weeks routine

[joannek]

i'm trying to get my 6 week old on a routine. i read gina ford's routine & i think she's way too strict & bb's not feeding enough (only 6 times a day?!) i like Baby Whisperer's E.A.S.Y. (eat, activity, sleep, you). the routine is to make her more predictable & my life easier, cos i have a 4-yr old who's on a good routine.

question is, normally, how much breastmilk a 6 wk-old need (like 8-12 feeds/day)? what about EBM (3oz/feed, still 8-12 times/day?) how much sleep does she need (14-18hrs?)

she is sort of falling into her own time-table now, except it's sleeping all morning til 11am, then from 11am-10pm, she'd only nap for 30 mins interval for about 4 times. which means during this time, we're busy feeding her, burping & playing with her non-stop. plus, we don't know if she's hungry or tired, cos sometimes she's go several hrs without a nap & end up being so exhausted she's screaming. i know tracy hogg said if she yawned once, we have to put her down, we tried that but she wouldn't sleep & continue playing in her crib for 10 mins then cry. i tried to give her a dummy, but she continues sucking for a long time meaning she's not really sleeping. once we remove the dummy she wakes up & cry. but if she's well fed & tired, she'd spit out the dummy before she falls asleep.

what do you guys do? let me know your routine, so i can have an idea of what it should be for us.

thanks a million

 

[onesarah]

Hi there
I have a 12 week old - my 2nd son. I tried to Gina Fird him at first but it didnt work for him and I couldnt get him to settle for naps, so moved onto the EASY routine which just didnt work either!
After lots of trial and error for the first 9 weeks, we actually have come back to G.Ford as the EASY routine seemed to be asking the wee one to sleep far too much for what our son needed - ie. 1 hour awake, followed by 2 hours nap all day long.
So, for the last little while our routine has been:
Awake 7am & Bottle
Nap 9 - 9.45am
Bottle 10.30am
Sleep 11.45 - 2.30
Bottle 2.30
Cat naps of 10 mins during afternoon
Bottle 4.30pm
Bath 5.45pm
Bottle 6.30pm
Bed 7pm
Dream feed - 11pm, bottle around 3am.

This works well for us, he is having around 150mls of formula at most feeds, needs 'helping' to sleep and does awaken during naps but is generally a very happy boy and seldom cries.

My first son was a doddle re. a routine but this one has been much harder. I think the first 3 months you just have to find what works for you and also work towards what routine you want for your child. I know GF has her faults, but this routine works great for us now - we just needed longer to get there!

Hope this helps.