When Maia was a newborn baby her needs were quite easy to read, or at least to guess. If she wasn’t hungry or tired, she had a dirty or wet nappy. Attending to those three things would most of the time result in a happy baby. Now she is 12-weeks old and things are getting a bit more complicated than that…
In the past week she has started behaving in a strange manner; fussing on the boob, fighting sleep and generally being more restless. For example she might not settle to feed even when I know she’s hungry, or when she’s riding in the pram with her eyes wide open although she should definitely be sleepy (she used to always fall asleep in her pram!). It’s like she’s too busy observing the world to close her eyes!
I find this tiring and frustrating at times but I’m convinced this is a normal stage of her development and I just need to figure out how to best deal with it. At 12-weeks Maia is definitely increasingly interested and aware of what is happening around her. She sleeps very well at night – for example 9 hours last night with one short feed in the middle – and spends more time awake during the day. She gets bored quickly and is no longer happy to just cuddle but needs entertainment which is demanding more of me of course. On the bright side she enjoys her rocker chair even more now (seems like we didn’t waste our money on it after all!) which gives me 10-15 minutes here and there to get some chores done or have my meals in peace.
I am doing activities with her everyday and I have thought the stimulation is good for her development. We have started baby swimming lessons in addition to the mum and baby yoga/fitness/ballet classes we are doing and she seems to enjoy them. We are reading baby books and playing on her play mat in which she’s also getting more interested. But ever since she started behaving in this restless manner I couldn’t help but to wonder if she’s getting too much stimulation? Or perhaps she’s getting overtired at times? But if that’s the case, why was she fussy again this morning and wouldn’t settle for a proper feed although she had had a good night’s sleep?
It’s all very confusing…
We have an evening bedtime routine for her and she’s been sleeping like a dream for the past two weeks (apart from one night when she had a very blocked nose). During the day I have let her dictate when she wants to be fed and put down for a nap as I believe under three-month old babies are not developed enough to understand or benefit from a 24-hour routine (and because she sleeps most of the night without a day routine). But now she’s approaching the three-month mark and I’m starting to think I need to pay more attention to what is happening during the day to avoid situations where she gets overtired or hungry. For instance, perhaps staying out all day is not a great idea anymore if she’s not definitely going to sleep in the pram!?
There are pros and cons to following a strict routine, of course. From a selfish perspective, having her nap always between 1pm and 3pm in her own bed at home would restrict our life quite significantly. If instead she would sleep in the pram or the sling during that time, I would have more flexibility with regards to my day plan. On the other hand, if she got into a routine and would definitely always sleep in her bed 1pm-3pm, I could plan around it…
We wouldn’t be able to just jump into a routine anyway but the first baby steps could be to encourage her to stick to any sleep pattern I can identify at the moment (before trying to change it) and also to encourage her to start napping in her bed at least once a day. Since birth she has mainly napped either on me, in her pram, or in her Sleepyhead in the living room. I can’t understand why she sleeps in her bed all night but won’t during the day!
I need to dig out my Gina Ford book again (Content little baby) about establishing routines… I tossed it somewhere during the first weeks when I realised Maia was feeding every 1-2 hours and none of the routines in the book allowed for that. But she’s no longer a tiny newborn so maybe we’ll give it another go! We can try at least!
xoxoxo,
Sini