Archive Sleeping FAQ: 0-8 weeks

2.

My daughter sleeps well from 6.30/7pm until I wake her at 10pm. She then feeds well from one breast, but dozes off on the second side and I rouse her twice by winding her. She settles easily until 3.30/4.15am. She then feeds well from one breast and, appearing to be sleepy, begins to nod off in my arms. Unfortunately, after ten minutes in her cot, she starts to kick her legs, make grunting noises and finally scream. I check she is swaddled and tucked in and try to settle her by rocking the cot and making gentle noises. This doesn’t work or, if it does, she dozes off only to wake screaming again within 15-30 minutes. After another unsuccessful attempt at settling I then get her up and find she is wide awake. My daughter is then irritable until fed again at 6.30/7am. After a good feed at this time, she is sleepy and it is difficult to keep her awake until her 9am nap. She is also sleepy after her next feed and it is difficult to keep her awake until her lunchtime sleep. By 11.30am she is dozing in my arms. I settle her and she sleeps really well until I wake her two hours later. She is then fairly alert for the afternoon, but it is an effort to keep her awake until 4pm, at which time she nods off as soon as the pram starts moving. Could her problem of not settling after her early morning feed be due to an insufficient feed at 10.30/11pm? Or is it more likely due to her getting only half a feed at 4am? Is she then over-tired at 9am and unable to settle herself? She settles easily at 4pm when we go out in the pram, but it is a very light sleep and bright lights or sudden noise easily wakens her. At present she is exclusively breast-fed. She feeds at 7am for 30 minutes, 7.45am for 20 minutes, 9.30am for 20minutes, 10.30am for 15minutes, 2pm for 20 minutes, 2.45pm for 15 minutes, 5pm for 20 minutes, 6.15pm for 20 minutes, 10pm for 25minutes, 10.45pm for 15 minutes and 4am for 15-20minutes. My daughter weighs 9lb 2oz. She naps at 8.30-9.15am, 11.30-2pm and 4-5pm.
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1.

I am struggling to keep my son on the 1-2 week routine, as he is unable to stay awake for more than one hour. He will then fall into a deep sleep wherever he is and nothing will wake him. This throws the routines, as I don't know whether to stick to your waking times (which means that he is getting longer than the recommended nap times) or keep him to the recommended length of nap times (which means that I am waking him earlier). At night he goes down very well at 7pm. I wake him at 10pm, but he is so sleepy I can rarely wake him up properly. He then wakes around 3-4am, then again at 5am, 6am and I have to wake him again at 7am. He goes back down fairly easily at 5am and 6am if I give him 20mls of milk or water. I know his night time wakings are probably due to him sleeping too much during the day, but I can't force him to stay awake, however much I try! Also, I know his 7am feed is small because he is having a full feed at 4-5am. I have tried giving him water before the milk, but he is not happy about that and really wants milk. Is it advisable to dilute the milk by putting half the formula in? I read that tip on the message boards. At present he feeds at 7am 90mls, 10am 90-100mls, 2pm 100mls, 5pm 80mls, 6.15pm 60-70mls, 10pm 100mls, 2am 20-30mls water, 4am 70mls and 5am 30mls after 20-30mls water. He weighs 10lb 9oz. He naps from 8.15-10am, 11.15am-2pm, 3-5pm and is asleep by 6.45pm.
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Joel fitted into your routines generally very well for the first four weeks. However for the past five nights he has been impossible to settle at 7pm, even though before then there had been no problems. I have looked on the website for ideas and tried them all; starting the evening routine earlier, making sure he had enough to eat, working hard on winding him down, using a dummy to settle him into his cot; nothing seems to work. We now have reached the point where one of us has to hold him until he falls asleep properly and we are afraid of giving him all the wrong messages, but we don’t want to let him cry for ages at this age.What is so frustrating is that we can't pinpoint a cause and are concerned in starting the wrong associations with Joel falling asleep. Does he just need a bit of reassurance? He is feeding well and gaining more weight than is recommended but that is what he seems to need when on the breast.He feeds for 20-30 minutes one side and then is offered the second breast at 7.15am, 10.15am, 2.00pm, one breast at 5pm 20-30mins, second breast at 6pm 20-30mins, 10pm 20-30 minutes one side, second side for 10-15mins, 4am one side, 20 minutes max at any time between 4-6pm.Joel weighs 10lb 3.5ozs. He sleeps 8.50-9.50am, 11.45-2.00pm, 4-4.30pm.
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We are having problems settling Charlie in the evenings. He is now 4 weeks old. He will go down sleepy, but within 10 minutes has woken again. We go in and re-swaddle him to settle him again. Sometimes he settles listening to his musical mobile, other times he doesn’t. We persevere and keep going in every 10 minutes, but at times he just doesn’t settle and we are not sure what to do. Should we pick him up or do we offer him a dummy? We don't want to offer him more food as we are concerned it will put him off his 11pm feed.Sometimes he becomes very wound up and falls asleep exhausted. One night it has taken an hour and a half to settle him, tonight almost two hours. Where are we going wrong? I understand he is overtired and fighting sleep now but he seems so relaxed and sleepy at 7pm.Charlie is a very sucky baby and he takes his feeds fast. As he is on Omneo Comfort he needs a medium sized teat. We offer him a dummy after his feeds, but I am concerned about his recent weight gain. He is a very sicky baby and spent the first two weeks of life bringing back his bottles. He presently weighs 11lbs 1oz, his birth weight being 8lbs 13ozs but has put on 35ozs in two weeks. Surely this is too much? He always seems hungry though.At present he takes between 27-31ozs a day, having feeds at 7am 4-5ozs, 10am 4-5ozs, 11.45am 1-2oz top up, 2.00pm 4ozs, 5pm 3-4ozs, 6.15pm 3ozs, 11pm 5ozs, 3.30am 3ozs. He sleeps for about 4 hr 45 minutes during the day.
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Harvey is 6.5 weeks old. He was breast fed for 10 days and is now on formula. Whilst in hospital he was difficult to settle; even the nurses had a problem. He would fall asleep whilst feeding and then only be put down when deeply asleep. Once on the bottle he seemed to settle into a routine, having several naps a day and going down about 9pm. He would then wake at 4am for a feed. But he still needed to be cuddled to sleep. At 4am he would never properly settle, so I began to take him downstairs and sleep with him until 7-8am. I began to follow the CLB routines about a week ago hoping it would help him to settle better and drop the 4am feed. Now he will still only settle in the day when he is being held, but has also begun to startle himself awake as soon as he is in his pram or cot. Settling in the evening is just as bad. He was moved into his own room at night over a week ago, but despite introducing an additional feed at 10.30/11pm once on the CLB routine, he is still waking at 4am and not settling back unless I am cuddling him. Before starting the routine he was settling at 9pm and going through to 4am. He regularly wakes himself with the Moro(startle) reflex; I have tried to swaddle him but he just hates it; getting more upset. During the day I have tried to put him down much earlier than the routine suggests, so he can try to settle himself. He is happy to go into his cot and amuse himself for 20 minutes but then cries gently before getting hysterical. I have tried to leave him for an hour at a time, returning and trying to settle him, but to no avail. However, it did work this morning but he woke after 15 minutes with a startle reflex and was unable to settle himself back again. Harvey was 7lbs 15ozs at birth and is now 14lbs. I have had conflicting advice about this from doctors and medical professionals, some saying it was alright, others warning I should watch his weight as it could lead to trouble. Harvey has not really had a dummy but I had started to give him one to help him settle. Having read the section about dummies in the CLB book, I don't want him to become dependent on this.
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My baby is only happy if being fed or cuddled. Within minutes of putting him in his bouncy chair or on his play mat he cries and gets progressively hysterical. He is also doing this when being put down for naps or at bedtime. He seems only satisfied if cuddled or fed to sleep. How do you break this pattern and get him to settle on his own? I have started to leave him to cry today but I am not sure how long it is safe to leave him and I worry he may be still be hungry as I am breastfeeding him, so I don't know how much he is having.Callum is three weeks old and weighs 8lbs 15 oz. He has put on 1lb since birth.He is breast fed at 7.00,10.00,14.00,17.00,18.30hrs. He has a formula feed of 4ozs at 22.30pm and 02.30am. At 11.45am I give him a top up of expressed milk to help him settle for his nap.
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Please could I have your advice about my 7 week old daughter and sleeping? We have been trying to apply your routines from about two weeks but seem to be struggling to get things established. Though to begin with she would settle if put in her moses basket dozy, she now will not. We have tried all sorts of shushing, rocking, jiggling etc and when we can get her to settle, she wakes and cries 10 minutes after being settled. During the day she will sleep in her bouncy chair, and she will also sleep in the car, but the moses basket/dark room means she just screams. Last night she did not settle at all until 3.00am when my husband took her out in the car in desperation. We have also stopped swaddling and moved to a sleeping bag which seems to be no better or worse. We used controlled crying technique on my older daughter (now two and a half) very successfully, but she was much older (4/5 months) I now feel we have no option but to do this with Megan but I am concerned that at just 7 weeks she is too young for it to work. I would be grateful for your thoughts or advice as we are now finding it very difficult to cope with so little sleep! To give you a little more background - Megan is being breastfed, was 7lbs 10oz at birth and at 6 weeks was 11lbs 8oz, so is gaining weight very well. As for her daytime routine, I am trying to stick to your routine but she like us is so exhausted that every day seems to go awry and is rarely the same as the day before. She is so difficult to settle to sleep that her lunchtime sleep, for example, instead of being 2-2.5 hours is more like 20 or 30 minutes.
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I need some advice on how to put twins to bed. Harriet and Evie are just over 2 weeks old and at the moment both sleep in separate Moses baskets in the same room. However, I am not sure if this is the best idea as more often than not, one will disturb the other either by not settling to sleep straight away and disturb the other during the 20 minutes of wind-down crying, or alternatively one will wake earlier than the other and invariably wake the other - which would be fine if they were both due a feed, but not so good if they both should still be asleep !! I know that there is an element of comfort in keeping them both together but I wonder if perhaps it would be easier if they were in different rooms (especially if those rooms were in different houses !!!!)
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My daughter is fine during the day, feeding and sleeping according to your routines, but she will not settle at 7pm. We have tried giving her more milk in the evenings, thinking she may be hungry, and we have tried to vary her afternoon nap, but it doesn’t seem to work. She feeds well between 10 and 11pm and will usually sleep through to 6/7am. It is, however, extremely difficult to keep her awake until 9am and she often takes her morning nap between 8.30 and 9.30am. She then sleeps at 11.30am- 2pm and 4.15-4.45pm. When we put her in her cot at 7pm she sometimes settles, but within twenty minutes she is crying. We then wait ten minutes before going in to settle her. Sometimes by this point she has temporarily stopped crying, but if we don’t go in and she starts crying again five minutes later, should we wait another ten minutes before going in? We have also tried putting her to bed earlier in case she is overtired, but that hasn’t worked either. My daughter is breastfed. She feeds at 7am 20 minutes one side, 15 minutes second side; 10.15am 20 minutes both sides; 2pm 20 minutes both sides; 5pm 20 minutes one side; 6.15 20-45 minutes second side; 10pm 20 minutes both sides. She weighed 9lbs 2oz last week.
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I am having real problems getting my 5.5week son on the routine. He is sleepy all the time, and will often drop off almost immediately after a bottle, despite having just had a nap. I do make sure he is fully awake before feeding. We have tried everything to keep him awake during the wake period, changing nappies, clothes, play mats etc but he just goes!
I am also thinking that he does not take enough feed in one go, normally only 4oz per feed and that this is why he always wants to be fed before the times he is supposed to. I try to string him out until the next feed time, but all this does is upset him/make him tired etc.
He is also almost always waking at 5am if not he will go until about 6am, but there is no way I can keep him awake until even 8.30am as per the routine.
Basically I do not know what to do. I try not to start the day before six am. If he wakes at five am I try to settle him back down, but sometimes I have to give him a second night feed, then he will take a top up at 7.30am, but is still screaming for the next bottle early!
Please help me, I also have 3 yr old who followed this routine from about 3mths old, and is still a contented toddler, who sleeps and eats well. I know this works but just do not know what to do.
I have read some on the questions etc on the FAQ, but I am having trouble with sleeping and eating and do not know where to turn. He is also very colicky and get uncomfortable. Some evenings he will settle and others he will not. We never know where we stand and what to expect.

My son feeds at 5am, 3ozs, 7.30am 2ozs, 9.45am 4ozs, 1.20pm 4ozs, 5pm 4ozs, 6.45pm 3ozs, 10.30pm 4ozs, 2.30am 4ozs, 6am 2ozs.

My son was 8.13ozs at birth and now weighs 11lbs.

He naps at 7.30-9.30am, 11-1pm, 3-5pm and settles at 7pm.
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My son of 6.5 weeks is fed at 7am, and then starts to become tired 8.20/30. I change his nappy and cuddle him for 15 minutes then take to his dark nursery for 10/15 minutes until he is drowsy. Sometimes he will sleep for a full 45 minutes but most times cries for full 45 minutes, when I will then bring him downstairs. He is normally too hungry to go any later than 10.15am for next feed, but if he has not slept he is shattered and sleeping by 11am and I have to then wake him between 2pm an 2.30pm. If I was to wake him any earlier he wouldn’t make it to 4/4.30pm. If he does sleep in the morning, he will then be tired at 11.30/45pm where he goes to sleep on most days in the car seat as I am getting ready to go and collect my daughter from nursery. So he always has a great sleep at this time regardless if it’s going into his seat or cot. He then takes his 2.30pm feed and will usually be starving taking 6 - 7oz. He then starts getting tired at 3.30pm. I change his nappy and cuddle him until 4.15/30pm and then put in his chair where he will wake on and off until 5pm and will be starving again. He would take 6-7oz if I would let him, but I cant, I only give him 4-5oz as he needs some for after his bath. But he doesn’t enjoy his bath because he is still hungry. He then takes the rest of his bottle and I take him to his room where he is very drowsy but most night’s cries from 7 - 10pm. I give him his feed at 10pm and he sleeps until  2-3am, takes a small feed and  goes back to sleep until about 5am. He takes another small feed and will only sleep on my chest then until I wake us at 7am.
(Although last night only took 1oz at 3am and would not take anything at 5am- just went to sleep on my chest and was not as starving as I thought he would be for his 7am bottle). Please could you look at my routine and tell me where I am going wrong, I do let him cry in the morning and evening checking at the appropriate intervals but he is just too upset to go to sleep.

I followed the routine with my daughter who is now 3.5years and she still sleeps 7-7. She was definitely a happy, confident, contented baby and I just want my little boy to be as happy. Just now he doesn’t appear to be, he doesn’t enjoy activities as he is either getting tired or he is too tired as he has not slept.

His feeding times and amounts are 7am 6-7ozs, 10am 5-6ozs, 2.30pm 5-7ozs, 5pm 4-5ozs, 6.15pm 3-4ozs, 10.30pm 5ozs, 2/3am 1-3ozs, 4/5am 1-3ozs. He weighs 11lbs 7ozs.

He naps at 8.50-9.35am, 11.30-2pm, and 4.15-5pm.
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My son is very hard to settle after at least one of his feeds during the night.  The other night he would not go to sleep again after his 10.30pm feed and was up until about 4am which left me with 2 hours sleep as I also have another son of 27mths. I find it very hard to keep him awake during the day, he sleeps so much and I try changing his nappy often but even that doesn’t do the trick. He often falls asleep on the bottle too! I would like to know what method is best to use on a 3 week old baby who is putting good weight on, either controlled crying or the crying down method? Also how can I keep him awake more and get him into a better daytime routine?

At present my son feeds at 6.30am 2-4ozs, 10am 2.5-4ozs,1pm2.5-4ozs, 4.30pm 2.5-4ozs, 6.30pm 2.5ozs, 10.30pm 3-4ozs, 2am 2-3ozs. He weighs 9.3lbs.

He naps at 10.30am -12.30pm, 2-4.30pm, 4.45-5.30pm and settles around 6.30pm.
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I used the Contented Baby routines for our first son and within 3 days he was within the routine - it was brilliant.

I have now been trying to get out second son into a routine for over two weeks and it is being a nightmare. A typical day is as follows:

My son of six weeks will wake in the night anywhere between 3.30am and 6.30am - the time he wakes is not related to either the amount of feed he takes or what time he goes down after his 10.30pm feed. I only give him a maximum of 2 ounces and then settle him back down to sleep - he generally settles back down quite well. I wake him at 6.50am and give him his feed but he quickly loses interest and rarely takes more than 4 ounces. The feed finishes at about 7.40am.

My son will then sit in his chair for about 20 minutes and look relatively content and alert. After a maximum of 20 minutes he will then start to cry and then to scream. If I give him a dummy, he will immediately fall asleep (this is despite the fact that we have been very careful not to let him have his dummy in his cot or to fall asleep with his dummy). If I remove his dummy just before he falls asleep, he will scream again. If I do not return the dummy, he can scream for up to an hour. If I do return the dummy, the cycle starts again. Rocking him in his chair does not settle him and even rocking him myself only brings temporary and imperfect relief - the minute he goes back in his chair, the screaming begins again. When he falls soundly asleep, he is impossible to wake.

At 9am it is then very difficult to settle him and the day degenerates from then on. Waking times are spent with an initial 30 minutes of feeding and then only up to a maximum of 10 or 20 minutes play before the screaming begins.

I have used Infacol and gripe water in case he has either reflux or wind. Neither had any effect.

I have taken my son to the doctor who was very helpful and has prescribed Baby Gaviscon in case Oliver has reflux (although she did not think this was the case). She said she was happy to see him again if the Baby Gaviscon did not work (which it hasn't) and she would try other things (e.g. seeing if he has a urine infection) but she didn't see that there was any physical reason for his behavior - he is an extremely healthy baby and is putting on the right amount of weight. She thought he may just be a difficult baby.

I have also taken my son to a chiropractor who carried out an hour and a half physical examination and came to the same conclusion as the doctor, that he is an exceptionally healthy baby and there is no physical reason for his screaming. Again, he thought my son may just be a difficult baby and that he would eventually grow out of it.

I am now reaching the end of my tether. Although my son sleeps quite well during the night, I am constantly on tenterhooks as to whether he will start screaming and how I will placate him if he does. Listening to your baby scream practically constantly during his waking hours is extremely upsetting and it is beginning to really take its toll on me. It also cannot be good for my baby to have such unhappy waking hours.

My son feeds at 5.30am 1.5ozs, 7am 5ozs, 10.30am 4ozs, 2.30pm 4ozs, 5.15pm 4ozs, 6.30pm 1.5ozs, and 10.30pm 3.5ozs. He weighs 10lbs.

He naps at 7.30-10am, 11.30-12 midday, 1.30-2.30pm, and 4.50-5.30pm. He is settled by 7pm.
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My daughter has suddenly been unable to stay awake after the 2pm feed.
She is very sleepy all afternoon and I cannot keep her awake after about 3pm.
I have tried giving her a cat nap around 3pm for 15mins but this seems to make her even sleepier during the rest of the afternoon.
I have cooled her down and cooled the room down but nothing gives!

At present she naps from 9-9.45am, 11.50-2.15pm and 3.30-5pm. She settles at 7pm
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My daughter is completely unable to settle for naps in the morning or at lunch time. For the first couple of weeks we followed the routines, and she settled at least at some naps, but now she is unable to settle for any, screaming on and off for the entire time. I have read the similar FAQs on your site, and have been taking her to her room at the first sign of tiredness. This is often an hour and a half (maybe less) from when she last woke. I swaddle her, top her up with food if she wants it, wind her, and sit quietly with her in the dark until she is 'heavy' and her eyes are 'staring' and getting droopy. I then put her in the cot, pat her lightly, check she is dozing off and leave. Sometimes there's a lot of snuffling and stretching going on, but she does go quiet for 20 minutes, but then she starts to fuss and then cry - gradually escalating to hard screaming. She never goes off for longer than this. Sometimes she is reluctant to even settle in my arms, so starts crying quite quickly. I leave her for ten minutes (or longer if she is just 'grumbling' crying, but not actually sounding distressed) and then go in to comfort her. For a while we tried just patting her, but it didn't work. Sometimes she calmed down, but would quickly start crying hard again, often before I had fully calmed her. Or she just cried on through the patting / stroking. So we pick her up, calm her and put her back down the moment she is calm and dozy. But any where between 2 and 10 minutes later she cries again. This goes on for the entire nap time, often until she is then too tired to settle anyway, or hunger is setting in for her next feed. I have stayed in the room and watched her before to see what is happening, and she seems unable to go off into a deep sleep, and starts to stretch, wriggle, fuss and then cry, just when I think she seems to have finally drifted off. I am now swaddling her arms again, as she seemed to be fussing more with them out, and scratching her face a lot. The knock on effect of all this is that come the afternoon, the pair of us are exhausted. She feeds at 2pm, and then conks out by 3pm at the latest. As we often go out in the buggy, she stays asleep until 5pm, but then I find it so hard to wake her to feed then. If I do rouse her enough to feed, she then falls back asleep afterwards, and no amount of changing her nappy, taking layers of clothes off, wiping her face will wake her. This means I have to take her to bath her early, just to wake her up. All of this is all very well at the moment, but I have a toddler (22 months) and a nanny with us for the next three weeks. After this, I am on my own, so will be less able to sit doing the long wind-downs at naps, or bathing my daughter during what is effectively my other daughter's tea time. Nights with my daughter are OK. Sometimes she fusses and won't settle at 7pm, but mostly she does. We wake her at 10.30pm and then she wakes for a feed at about 3am. Our day begins at (or just after) 7am. I followed the routines successfully with my other daughter, but she used to cry at the beginning of naps, but once she went to sleep she stayed asleep. I am feeling utterly at a loss to know what to do, and feeling like I have tried everything and seeing no progress. The times that she is awake are a constant battle to keep her awake for a little while after feeding so as to keep her on track for the day, but this is not a very enjoyable way to spend time with my baby. Is there anything else I can do? Could this be a 5.5 week / 6 week blip? I remember my daughter was very unsettled in other ways around this time?
At present she feeds at 7am 4-5ozs expressed milk, offered a top up before nap, may take a few minutes. 10am 3-4ozs formula, top up offered before nap, may take 5mins, 2pm 4ozs formula, 6.30pm 2-3ozs formula, 7pm 4ozs expressed breast milk, 10.30pm 3-4ozs formula, 3am 3-4ozs formula. She weighs over 10lbs.
My daughter naps at 8.30-9am, 11.20-12pm, 3-5pm and 5.30-6pm.
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My 5-week-old daughter is a very alert baby. She is not one for being comforted. Independent lady!
From the start I have found it difficult to get her to nap in the morning. This is now almost impossible - she will cry for the whole hour while I try to get her down - I go in and soothe her every 5/10mins; I usually do not pick her up. She seems to get into a complete state so that sleep is nigh impossible. I have never known her to cry herself to sleep. She naps OK if I am going out and about with her in the car or buggy, but the home naps are getting harder and harder. However, I am going out less and trying to face this problem head on.
At night she is OK – she has her ups and downs, but generally she will do the 7-10pm sleep and then wake up at either 1/3am and 5/6am. We have only had one night where she slept through (the night before last) from 12 midnight to 5am then I woke her at 7am. However, that night it took us ages to get her to go down in the evening - she slept from 9pm-11pm. We had been rocking her to sleep a bit for a week or so and did not even realize we were doing it so we thought we must stop - hence the time it took us to get her down without rocking that evening. Last night she went down fine at 7pm without rocking. I have never rocked her to sleep for daytime naps, only she does every other day have at least one nap in her pram or the car.
She feeds as per the routine but the naps are a nightmare. She seems so alert in the morning and is quite happy to sit under her play mat for an hour or more looking around and kicking about. Then I take her to her room to get her to nap and she goes mad crying.

The afternoon nap is also a nightmare - I always take her for a walk and she often cries for 10-20mins before falling asleep so she never gets a full hour then - usually half an hour at the most. The couple of days it has rained and I cannot go out, she will not go down to sleep in her room – she cries constantly for the hour.
Today has been awful. She skipped the 9-10am nap despite my efforts to get her down, calm her and leave her crying. Then I fed her at 10 (25mins then 10mins after expressing). She was very sleepy and I tried to rouse her with no luck so I put her down in cot at 11am - again I tried to rouse her but she was totally asleep. At 11.30 she woke up crying her lungs out. I left her for 10mins then went in and tried to console her. After half an hour of her screaming, I brought her downstairs to try and calm her but she was so worked up. I walked around with her in my arms but she was moving about loads and rooting to be fed. I put her in her moses basket in the lounge and she was OK for 2 mins then started crying again. At 12.20 I thought I have to feed her because she was still crying and nothing I could do would console her. So I fed her for 10mins and she got really sleepy so I took her upstairs into dark nursery and fed her another 10mins. I re-swaddled her in a lighter blanket and did not put a blanket on top of this (I did put rolls down sides to stop her moving though). I thought she might have been too hot earlier. I put her down (12.45) and roused her slightly before leaving the room. At 12.50 she started making noises and at 12.55 she started crying loudly. I went in to soothe her and held her in my arms as she was screaming again. Her eyes were very sleepy and she did stop crying this time. I put her back in cot, roused her slightly and left room at 1pm. At 1.05 she started crying for a couple of minutes and then I think in sheer exhaustion she stopped and has been asleep since. It is now 2pm and I am not sure whether to wake her now or leave her for a bit longer seeing as she has only 1.5 hours nap time so far... I think I will leave her until 2.30pm.
If she does not go down at the required time, am I supposed to move her wake up time forward so she gets the required sleep? I tend to meet half way on this and so if she goes down two hours late, I will push her wake up time 1 hour forward. Am I right to do this?

Also, I can keep her awake for a period after feeding but then I find it difficult to get her to go down to sleep. She goes down fine when I feed her then put her down shortly afterwards, but anything longer than half an hour later after her feed and she starts expecting food again. I have been expressing and my milk is plentiful, she eats loads generally, is quite a “sicky” baby (I burp her very carefully), but has been putting on weight well. She weighed 7.14lbs on 19/09.
Would it be wrong to let her skip the morning nap?
Which routine do you think she should be on? I am trying to do the 4-6 weeks one now.
What can I do to get her to sleep in the daytime?
At present she is breast fed at 7.15am: 20-25mins one side, 15-20mins on second, 10am: 20-40mins depending how sleepy, 12.30pm: 15mins if not willing to sleep, 2pm: 20mins if I am out, or 20mins on both sides if at home, 5pm: 25-30mins, 6.15pm: 25mins, 10.45pm: 20mins one side, 10-20mins second [can be sleepy], 3.15am: 20mins, 5.30am: 20 mins.
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My son is now just over five weeks old. We have been following the programme since week 2 and although we are making good process, I still find it impossible to stick to the timings of the routine. He wakes twice in the night, approximately 2.30am and then again at 6am. At 6am we are unable to settle him back to sleep; he has a small feed at 6am and then waits to have a larger feed at 7am. The problem is that he is very sleepy by 8.15am and naps until close to 10am - is it a problem to have this length of sleep in the morning? He then feeds again at around 10.15am but starts to get sleepy by 11.15am. He sleeps from approximately 11.30am to 2.00pm. He feeds again at 2.00pm and then is awake until 4pm-ish. At 4pm we go out for a walk and he sleeps for approximately 30 minutes. Once back at 5pm he feeds well, has his bath and then feeds again. He goes down by 7pm. We then wake him at 10.30pm for another feed and then he goes down to 2.30am, feeds again and is often very difficult to resettle. He is then awake by 6am and ready to start his day! How can we get him to settle again at 6am? Could the length of his morning nap be affecting the rest of the day?
He is breast fed and feeding at 6am, 10mins, 7am 20mins, 10.15am 20mins, 11am 5 minutes, 2pm 20mins, 5pm 20mins, 6pm 15mins, 10.30pm 15-20mins, 2.30am 10-15 minutes. He weighs 11lbs.
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I am trying to follow the routines to the letter but finding it difficult to wake her at the suggested times. I am also finding it almost impossible to keep her awake after her bottle. At week 5 she was very alert during these times but the last few days I have had to resort to washing her face several times trying to keep her awake. Do you have any suggestions or ideas as to why this is so difficult? I am unable to wake her at all at 10.30pm and she takes her bottle whilst still asleep. She will have about 4oz but I am unable to get any more into her. She usually then sleeps until 5am-5.30am and wakes wanting a full feed. I suspect that she might sleep longer if she took her whole bottle.
She weighs 9lbs 10 ozs at present and feeds at 7.15am 2ozs, 10am 4 ozs, 2.30pm 5ozs, 5.20pm 2ozs, 6.15pm 3ozs, 10.30pm 3.5ozs, 5am 6ozs.
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My 4-week-old daughter seems to have day and night confused. For the first week, we followed the advice in CLB to feed three hourly, thereafter, I attempted to follow the routines. However, I also have a two year old who demands a lot of attention, and I find it unsafe to leave her on her play mat for as often as I like for fear of sibling interference. Consequently, the last few days, she has been asleep almost all day (I tried giving her a bath at lunchtime, so that she was awake at least for a couple for hours while my son had his nap, but she still went right back to sleep even after being put under the play gym). And if I try to take my son for outings, she is guaranteed to sleep right through them. We try to go out at least once a day to keep things interesting for him, but it is destroying any chance of a routine. This then means that my daughter is wakeful at night. She settles well at 7pm, wakes (on her own) for a feed at 10pm. Wakes again at 12.30 - 1am for a quick feed and is usually relatively easy to settle, but by 3.30am, she is wide awake, feeds voraciously and is then impossible to settle. In the end, I brought her into bed with me this morning (bad, I know, but after several very bad nights, sleep deprivation got the better of me!) and she did not go back to sleep until gone 5am. Then she woke starving for a feed at 6am. My toddler often wakes up at 6 (it was 5.30 this morning, just to make matters worse!), so this "routine" we have got ourselves into does make for a very short night. This is making it very difficult for me to be up and bright for an active toddler, and I want to nip this in the bud before it gets worse. My daughter weighed 4ks at birth, and has put on 1kg in just over three weeks, has plenty of dirty and wet nappies, so I am sure she has enough to eat (I seem to have an oversupply, if anything - I expressed over 10oz in one sitting yesterday before I gave up).
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Having followed your routines with my first son and had great success with them, I am not finding it so easy with my second son. I am struggling to get Charlie to nap during the morning and afternoon. He sleeps well at lunchtime and at night.In the morning he wakes between 6-7am and then gets very sleepy from about 8.15am. I try to keep him awake until 8.45 and he goes down all right but wakes again about 9.10am. This then has makes it difficult to keep him awake during the mid-morning for his lunchtime nap. I have tried resettling him but it doesn’t work. He will sleep at this time if we are in the car going to nursery or he is in the sling. The same is also true of the afternoon nap. I sometimes feel he is overtired in the morning as he may have been awake since 6.15am. If I keep him up until 8.45 he has then been awake longer than two hours. But if I put him down at 8.15, will it surely not affect the other naps and feeds?We do find that when Charlie does go down for a sleep he always wakes 5-10 minutes later and needs resettling. We have tried leaving him for 10 minutes and he often does resettle himself. How long can we leave a baby of this age before going into him? He loves his dummy and is a very "sucky" baby. As soon as we go in to resettle him, he wants the dummy. I give it to him but am worried about creating sleep associations. Never having had these problems with our first son, I am not sure where we are going wrong.
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The main problem is with getting my seven-week-old son to sleep during the day. He is amazing at night and we follow the night time routine and he goes down well between 6.30pm and 7pm. He has to be woken at 10.30pm for his feed and is now waking at 4am and then goes back down until 7am. He does this no matter what we do during the day. I have been following the routines since day 1 and he will not settle for his morning nap or lunchtime nap. I have persevered for weeks but he simply cries for the whole time and gets himself really upset and will not settle. He then has his 2/2.30pm feed, and is very sleepy and then sleeps for the rest of  the afternoon until 5pm when we begin the evening routine. The nursery is very dark and I have tried top-up feeding just before he goes down at lunchtime but nothing seems to work. I have left him to cry for up to 45 minutes one day and felt terrible and he was really upset and it was too much for him. Please help, as I am at the point where I feel I may be better abandoning the day-time naps and just let him sleep when he needs to. I don't really want to do this in case it affects the night time which is going so well.
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I have a second child, who is nearly 5 weeks old. I bought The New Contented Little Baby Book for first child and had great success from about 8 weeks old. I followed it up with From Contented Baby to Confident Child and we have a brilliant 3 year old! I have recommended you to all my friends with new babies and 6 out of 7 have also hailed you as a goddess. We jokingly refer to your first book as our bible!

This baby wakes up for a night feed about 2-3 am, takes about 4oz and then settles back into his bed. He will then wake up again around 4am, go back to sleep and wake again maybe at 5 or 5.30am. I don't think it is hunger as feeding him a little seems to put him off his morning feed. I have tried settling him with water and cuddle for past couple of days and he does nod off back to sleep temporarily but he is still waking up. Is he too young to be left when he grizzles/cries and if so how long do you think I should leave him before I cave? As a result of the aforementioned he is very difficult to keep awake post 10am after his nap, he drifts in and out of light sleep (remember I have a toddler too) wakes up too early at his lunchtime nap etc - you can see the knock-on effect.  HELP!
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I need help with my son Hugo who is 6 weeks old. His birth weight was 7.5lbs and he is now 10.5 lbs or 4.7kg. Despite trying since the beginning with the routine I am finding it extremely hard to keep him awake at all for more than an hour at a time, so it is very hard for me to stick to the routine of the 6 to 8 weeks old baby. He wakes up at 7 am has a 4oz feed and stays awake up to 8 am with great difficulty. He then falls asleep for 45 minutes to one hour and has his next feed at 10am (4-5oz). He then falls asleep around 11.30 and keeps waking and falling asleep until 2pm when I get him up. I often need to give him 2oz of formula to settle him back to sleep. When he wakes up he then drinks another 3oz and stays awake until 3pm. He than falls asleep until 5pm when I wake him up for his next feed (3-4oz) and then another 3-4oz after his bath at 6 pm. He then falls asleep after the feed and wake up any time between 9.30 and 10.15pm. He drinks 5-6oz and falls asleep until 2 to 3 am when he drinks 4oz. He is awake again at around 5 to 6am and has another 2oz. He doesn't settle down even with some water at this feed.

Please help, because it doesn't seem to get any better. I have changed his formula to Aptamil 2 for hungrier babies hoping that it would get better but he never seems to get satisfied. Your advice will be greatly appreciated. I successfully raised my first son with the routine, he is a contented boy and I am very keen to be as successful with Hugo.
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My baby is now 6 weeks old and 4.6kg. She is breastfeeding. My query is not so much a problem but I am curious as she has started to sleep straight through the night from 7pm to 6.30am. Her daytime naps are a bit hit and miss at the moment but I try to ensure that she gets at least 3½ hours a day. I just wondered whether her sleeping so long at night this early on could be a problem in the future? She is in good health and a good weight and feeds at the recommended times. I have to say that it is brilliant for me that she is sleeping so well as I am completely rested!
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My son of 6 weeks was quite happily following the routine until about 1 week ago, when he started waking during sleeps, getting sleepy during feeds and then being impossible to wake for awake time, therefore the routine times went all haywire! I am pretty sure the problem is down to him having difficulty going to the toilet. He has always been a straining baby even when solely on breast milk and has always seemed to have trouble going for a poo but it seems to be causing him a lot of trouble this past week. I am unsure as to whether it is the formula. He has been on Aptamil for about 2 weeks now and the first week he was very content - much more so than when he was just on breast milk. I am now giving him a combination of formula and expressed breast milk feeds. He is now straining so much that he wakes during his sleep times and cries so much that he won’t go back to sleep (I leave him for 10-15 minutes). He poos about once a day and it is soft; he sometimes strains to wee; he strains so much he gets sweaty, clammy and quite often vomits if he's just fed. I have taken his temperature and it is fine (36.2) It seems like a cycle I will never break as I cant seem to help him poo (tried the cycling legs, massaging tummy, Infacol etc) and his sleep and feeding are now haphazard! I also find it so upsetting when he cries all the time and am finding it hard to cope with as I often find myself in tears too! I just don’t know how I can solve this problem and help him. I have just started giving a couple of fluid ounces of cooled boiled water but there has been no change as yet.

At present he weighs 11lbs.6oz and is taking feeds at 7.30am 4-5 oz formula, 10.30am 5-6 oz breast milk, 2.30pm 5oz formula, 5.30pm 3ozs breast milk, 6.40pm 3ozs breast milk, 10.30pm 5oz formula, 4.30am 5oz formula.
He naps from 9-9.45am, 11.30am-1.30pm, 3.45-4.45pm and settles at 7pm.
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