45 minute intruder
You may be wondering what a 45 minute intruder is. Well, I'm going to tell you. It's a concept I read about in the book On Becoming Babywise. Apparently at several times during the first year of a baby's life they have growth spurts. This is obvious by the huge amount of growing they do in that first year. These growth spurts can and often do cause a baby to wake up 45 minutes into their naps because they are hungry, even though they ate less than 2 hour earlier.
This is what we are going through with Caleb at the moment. It started earlier this week. I moved Caleb into his own room and into his crib, and all the sudden he started napping differently than he had before. I attributed this change to the fact that he was in a new bed and it would just take him some time to adjust. But then, it didn't make sense that sometimes he was sleeping fine, and his nighttime sleep never changed. Just a few random naps. So I began to think that maybe something else was waking him up. Is it too hot? too cold? too noisy at certain times of the day? I tried changing some things around, but still he was waking up 45 minutes into at least 2 naps a day. Then I found the section in Babywise on the 45 minute intruder and it sounded like what I was dealing with. And supposedly it hits around 8 weeks and again at 4 months. According to the book, this consistent waking is a feeding problem, not a sleep problem. During growth spurts babies need more calories for a few days to keep them growing. So I figured I might as well try it.
The next time he woke up after only 45 minutes of napping, I tried feeding him. It had only been an hour and 45 minutes since he had eaten last (he usually goes 3) but he ate, and ate well. He was hungry. I had finally figured it out. So today, I did the same. He woke early from 2 of his 4 naps and had a total of 9 feedings today instead of 7. ( I was worried for a moment about over feeding him because he's already rather (ummm) chubby, but according to the pediatrician you can't really over feed a breastfed baby). This made for a much less stressful day for me because I had been trying to make him go back to sleep when he woke early, which only ended in tears and frustration. (it's hard for anyone to sleep when they are hungry, I just assumed that hunger wasn't the culprit because it hadn't been long since he'd eaten). Hopefully today did the trick and we'll be back to our old schedule by the end of the weekend.
He's a growing boy and packing on the pounds. :)
This is what we are going through with Caleb at the moment. It started earlier this week. I moved Caleb into his own room and into his crib, and all the sudden he started napping differently than he had before. I attributed this change to the fact that he was in a new bed and it would just take him some time to adjust. But then, it didn't make sense that sometimes he was sleeping fine, and his nighttime sleep never changed. Just a few random naps. So I began to think that maybe something else was waking him up. Is it too hot? too cold? too noisy at certain times of the day? I tried changing some things around, but still he was waking up 45 minutes into at least 2 naps a day. Then I found the section in Babywise on the 45 minute intruder and it sounded like what I was dealing with. And supposedly it hits around 8 weeks and again at 4 months. According to the book, this consistent waking is a feeding problem, not a sleep problem. During growth spurts babies need more calories for a few days to keep them growing. So I figured I might as well try it.
The next time he woke up after only 45 minutes of napping, I tried feeding him. It had only been an hour and 45 minutes since he had eaten last (he usually goes 3) but he ate, and ate well. He was hungry. I had finally figured it out. So today, I did the same. He woke early from 2 of his 4 naps and had a total of 9 feedings today instead of 7. ( I was worried for a moment about over feeding him because he's already rather (ummm) chubby, but according to the pediatrician you can't really over feed a breastfed baby). This made for a much less stressful day for me because I had been trying to make him go back to sleep when he woke early, which only ended in tears and frustration. (it's hard for anyone to sleep when they are hungry, I just assumed that hunger wasn't the culprit because it hadn't been long since he'd eaten). Hopefully today did the trick and we'll be back to our old schedule by the end of the weekend.
He's a growing boy and packing on the pounds. :)
Labels: little man, parenting
1 Comments:
I found you through the blog frog and saw your cute pix and checked out your blog...
I was concerned when I read your post about babywise. I am a mother of 6 children and am in no way judging you. The first baby is so new and its so difficult to figure it all out.
You get so much advice and you so badly want to do everything right... I just thought that you might want to do a little more research on babywise before you continue to follow through with it.
Heres a website http://www.ezzo.info/
I hope it helps and I know that I don't know you but I will still be praying for your decision.
I felt led to share.
Blessings!
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