I am doing a series of updates from Beckham's patterns by age, his weight gain, as well as helpful tips & routines I do, his sleep & eating habits, etc.
I hope it helps and guides somehow, but please remember every kid has their pattern & every family has a different lifestyle too!
BABY PATTERNS/GUIDE BY AGE 0-6 WEEKS ARE:
- Sleep a total of 15 to 18 hours per every 24h
- Sleeping by 930-11pm
- Wake up by 7-8am
- Awake windows from 30 to 60minutes (not more to not over stimulate)
- Random naps of anything from 15min to 3hours
- Longest stretch at night of 4h
And below I am giving you a little guide on our weeks & how the patterns changed, as well as some things I did to help him.
DAY 0
He was born at 7.1lbs and 20inches
Breastfeeding exclusively
I nursed on demand, read HOW I NURSE here.
To make sure he did not lose too much birth weight (which is normal), I woke him up every 1.5hours during the day to nurse, and every 2-3h during the night. Although a majority of the times he woke to nurse before my alarm went off.
The first days babies are more sleepy. Take advantage of this & rest. They get more awake & fussy later.
To help him differentiate between night and day I kept days bright, exposing him to day light, full of activity & noise, and nights dark, calm, and quiet (by the way, it is normal if it takes a few days for them to adapt).
I didn't bath him until week 3 so he can get all the valuable benefits from the vernix.
DAY 3
He was 6.11lbs: He lost a little bit of birth weight, as its usual, but not too much, so my pediatrician and lactation consultant let me keep going with the 1.5-2h during the day and now up to 3h at night. Although a majority of the times he woke to nurse before my alarm went off.
By this third day he had could differentiate the night and day, so we started going to our room at 8pm every night, and keep the lights low for "night sleep" until 8am.
WEEK 2
He was 8.05lbs, woho!
Usually they want them to be back at their birth weight by now, and he was a whole pound over which is awesome, so they let me go up to 4-5h at night, although he still woke up every 2-3h to nurse.
This week we started doing tummy time and taking a daily Vitamin D and Probiotic shop them here organic & preservative free, with code LAURA15 for 15% your total.
WEEK 3
Here's when the witching hours began for both Sofia and Beckham, if you don't know what they are, go read about them here. So expect them to be much more awake during the day, and fussy at night sometime between 5-11pm, for a few hours. You can learn to minimize the fussiness a lot if you do everything I shared!
He was still waking every 2-3hours at night aprox, with some random longer stretches of 4h.
But because he still woke to poop too, it made the wakings way more frequent. Nearly hourly.
This week, I started bathing him AND to minimize the witching hours we started a set night routine at 8pm every night:
Low Lights Bath
Brush Hair
PJs
If you want to swaddle I recommend this one that allows them to sleep with their hands up (a more natural position) and flex their hips, while also having easy and convenient zipper access.
WEEK 4
The witching hours continued & he kept waking every 2-3h with some random longer stretches of 4h.
This week he was much more awake during the day too, with some added fussy times daytime as well due to his immature stomach (baby bellies mature around 4 months and that is why some babies, like B, are sensitive to it and have belly complains that seem like gas pains).
Speak to your pediatrician always but, gripe water also can help with general fussiness, belly aches and colic. Use code LAURA15 for 15% off.
WEEK 5 & 6
His belly started to settle and he became less fussy (except witching hours, although I also got much better at minimizing them with him, as every baby is different and takes a while to get a hang of what works best).
He was still waking around 2-3h on the average, with some random exceptions of 4h stretches still.
He was also even more awake during the day, and started smiling back (socially/responsive) a lot, which was very cute to see!
At his 6w appointment he was 11 lbs & 22 inches so he is growing beautifully!
PRODUCTS
Naps will be random and usually in your arms, but cuddles won't last long, so enjoy it!
I recommend having the swing, bouncer & dockatot so you can enjoy some arm-free time too, even if it is 10min.
Vitamin D + probiotic + gripe water (all organic, preservative free, non GMO) from here with code LAURA15 for 15% off your total (if you buy 3 you'll get 25% off instead!)
I also love a good carrier like this one, although I know others prefer the wrap like this for home.
You can also check out my Newborn Bedtime Essentials here
For more details on newborn essentials and items I use daily watch this video