Saturday, August 4, 2007

Welcome!

At the insistence of one of my favorite clients, I have finally started this baby care blog!

I hope to post a few times a week about my work with newborns, current trends/recommendations and stories from my travels.

I will also be answering your questions about newborn care and special concerns like; sleep (or lack thereof), reflux and colic.

When posting questions, please list your baby's age, weight and how much he/she eats. A summary of an average day will help too!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes for a good night's sleep,

Cortney

1 comment:

eskate said...

Hello,

I have gotten so much different advice from so many people, I've gotten confused!

My boy is 17 weeks old, 15 lbs, 1 oz. He eats every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-5 hours at night (after a very busy day, he'll sleep longer..up to 8 hours). He is exclusively breastfed.

He's never been a good sleeper. At nine weeks old, we were still getting up every hour (!) in the night. It's much better now: He goes down at 8, wakes again at either midnight or 1 and then at either 3 or 4. He's up for good between 6 and 7 am.

He is a fast eater, so he's only up for 5-10 minutes for night feedings.

But I can't seem to find a rhythm to his daytime naps. Some days, he will catnap for 10-15 minutes and then wake up grinning with no intention of going back down. (He'll be a demon by evening when this happens.) Other times, he will sleep for an hour several times in the day.

He often nurses to sleep, but can be put down awake with a pacifier if he's tired. He tends to have a rough time winding down during the day, and also has a strong startle reflex that causes him to kick the mattress and wake himself up.

Should I be concerned at this age with setting him on a schedule that has him sleeping longer at set times of the day? (And if so, how do I do that when he doesn't want to sleep?!)

Or should I just let him find his own way, since he's getting a solid 11 or so hours at night?

Thanks for your help!