My hubby is going to be home for a few extra days this week so we'd like to make a concerted effort to get our 2 month old on the eat-play-sleep routine during the day in the hope that we'll all get better sleep at night. I'm not trying to get a rigid schedule going, just want t start working towards a more general predictable daily routine. We did this with our now 2 year old, but 1) I can't remember how and 2) we didn't have any other kids at the time. The big problem I'm experiencing is that if I don't interact pretty directly with the baby, he'll fall asleep. This has been tough in trying to attend to the baby and the toddler, too. I'm already using tv to keep the big one entertained while I'm nursing and then play just with him when the baby is sleeping.
I'd love to hear tips or suggestions from parents who have done this successfully. Thanks!
To address Dana's question - he's not really doing a lot of playing during the day, just eating and sleeping and that seems to be resulting in him not sleeping much at night... So I want to increase the amount of time he's awake and interacting with us during the day. But he wants to sleep constantly, I think partly because of his age and partly because he's such a crappy night sleeper that he makes up for it with long naps during the day.
I did this with my twins after reading the book Baby Wise. Dana K is right in saying that babies do this naturally, but when I was so sleep deprived and overwhelmed with 2 newborns and big brother, the book really helped by spelling it out step by step. We had them sleeping through the night by 3 months once I started with the Baby Wise techniques. Good luck!
Too soon. First three months out of the womb is called the "Fourth Trimester" by some. Human brains need to grow larger than they physically could, and still make it down the birth canal.
So the first three months are the leftover from the "cooking" process. Let him finish cooking, then you can do it.
Follow your instincts -- he's sleepy, let him sleep! He's got the rest of his life to be awake and to interact with the family. And fwiw, I nursed my kids to sleep practically every time they went to sleep for at least their first year and perhaps beyond, and they have always been excellent sleepers. From what little I know of the eat-play-sleep ideology, the purpose of making the baby stay awake after eating is to not get them in the habit of having to be nursed or otherwise lulled to sleep later on. All I can say is, my kids (ages 5 & 7) are told to go to bed, and they are in bed 5 minutes later and don't get up, and have done that ever since they were weaned; and other families (who shall remain nameless) that I know of who strictly scheduled their kids and/or did the eat-play-sleep routine at least partly so their kids would be obedient and easy to put to sleep, have no end of trouble getting their kids to sleep, and have had trouble pretty much their entire lives (and their kids are about my age, or older), so I don't hold "eat play sleep" in much esteem. :-/
When I nursed my baby, I read to my toddler and talked with him about all kinds of questions from the book, topics the book brought up etc (he was 2-3yrs old while I was nursing baby sister. That way we were spending quality time together - two birds with one stone, right? Bring you toddler in with the baby play time too. Ask your toddler to pick out a toy to show baby - find me an animal, find me something red etc to show baby. Put a blanket out on the floor and just play with your toddler and let your baby lay next to you, or in your lap etc and narrate everything!! See who's hand or foot is bigger. I found that my baby girl was more interested in her 2 yr old brother than me MANY times :)
My kiddos always wanted to nurse to sleep. It was a struggle for sure. I used a hybrid of Baby Wise with #1, but found the overall book to be too militant for me, but in terms of getting you on track with your second, worth a quick read and you can pull out what you need/want from it.
I also used the playing during the day to get my children to "straighten out" their days and nights.
I'm a little confused. Isn't this what babies do naturally? When DS was born he would wake (screaming like he was being murdered or dying of starvation), eat, play for a while and then sleep. Repeat q 3 hours. It never occurred to us to change anything - we interacted with him when he was awake. When he was tired - he fell asleep - anywhere - stroller, car seat, floor, crib, being held.
My son did not really 'play' when he was very little - just be awake a little bit, look around, move his arms and then conk out. Since from birth to six months, they should sleep 15-16 hours a day, the awake time your baby has is probably fine. If he wants to sleep, I would let him sleep. DH and I had a mantra - 'never wake the baby' - it worked for us.
When they are that young they don't stay awake for long during the day. I change my sons diaper after he eats to wake him up. I started when he was about 9 months and he would stay awake maybe 45 min and then fall asleep. He would sleep for about an hour and then eat. As he is getting older he is slowly staying awake a little bit longer. He started sleeping for 5 hours at night after doing this for 2 weeks.
ETA - Meant 9 weeks. He's only 12 weeks now.
