Follow-Up From Last Week

Last week I was kind of frazzled. I wrote about it in my last post titled “Here We Go Again“. Cooper was not sleeping and I was tired and stressed out. I was trying to trouble shoot with a few friends of mine to figure out what could be going on with Cooper. I am still not really sure what happened, but for about 2.5 weeks, Cooper was not sleeping well at all. I thought I was following all the usual tricks to get him to sleep well. Then it dawned on me- maybe Cooper is getting TOO much sleep. This happened when Cooper was about 8 weeks old. I realized that even though all the books said to put him to bed early, that was not working for him. When I put him to bed early at 8 weeks old (7pm), he would wake up a lot through the night and he took terrible naps. I started to keep him up later and he slept better both during the day and at night. So, I bumped up Cooper’s bedtime from 7pm to 8pm. That really seemed to help. I also extended the amount of time that Cooper is awake between naps. Presto…he started to sleep well again! YEA!!!

I should also add that during this time, Cooper was 29-30 weeks old. According to the book The Wonder Weeks, Cooper was not experiencing a wonder week but perhaps separation anxiety. The book says that separation anxiety typically happens during those two weeks. That could explain why he was waking in the middle of the night screaming. I would go in his room to feed him thinking he was hungry, but he did not nurse hardly at all. He would just cuddle up and rock with me in the rocking chair and be completely content. However, the moment I put him back into his crib, he would start to cry. I think he was just feeling anxious about me leaving and me not being there when he would wake in the middle of the night.

Could have been a bout of separation anxiety and the need to tweak his schedule. Even if it was neither, it really does not matter much any more. At least that is all behind us and we are all getting sleep again! I posted Cooper’s new schedule just in case you wanted to know what we are doing with him now that he is 7 months old.

Cooper’s 7 Months Schedule

7 Months Schedule

7:00 milk & solids
9:00 nap

11:30 milk & solids
2:00/2:30 milk** & nap

3:30/4:00 snack (Gerber puffs 10-20 pieces)
5:00 solids
6:30 bath & milk
7:00 bed

I wait 15-30 minutes in between milk and solid food. This helps Cooper eat better.
Nap= 1.5-2 hours each
Morning wake time is 2 hours, afternoon wake time is 3 hours
** I started to breastfeed Cooper before his nap because he was waking early out of his naps from hunger. This solved the early waking from his nap.