Capri's Feeding & Sleeping schedule
By popular demand, here is a post all about Capri’s eating & sleeping schedule. I know every baby is different, and trust me, this is all trial and error for us, but we strongly feel that staying consistent about this from day one is the reason why Capri is so easy. Having our night nurse was helpful in developing a nightime routine, but ultimately Paul planned the feeding & sleeping schedule and still does. Right now Capri is one week away from being 3 months, and we have slowly been working up to this current schedule that I have shared below. We obviously had to make adjustments as she was growing and consuming more ounces. Also, once we felt comfortable taking her on outings (only as of 2 weeks ago) things have shifted slightly in the napping schedule since we can’t control the environment. I know this is probably already all over the place, hard to follow, and lots of information but that’s just how it goes!
Right now Capri consumes between 5.5 & 6 ounces per feeding. Since she is 12 pounds we have some flexibility over the stretch of time between each feeding but we are currently feeding her every 4 hours, and then at night she goes 8 hours. From the start our doctor gave us the green light to not wake her in the middle of the night to feed so it gave us the opportunity to see how long she would sleep at night. At first it was 6 hours. Starting this week we are cutting out the midnight feeding so she will go an 8-hour stretch. Here is what we did:
6:30AM – first feeding of the day
8:00AM – naptime (she usually sleeping between 1.5 – 2 hours during a nap)
10:15AM- feeding
11:30AM – naptime
2:00PM- feeding
3:30PM – naptime
5:45PM- feeding
7:30PM- naptime
9:30PM – feeding
12:00AM- dream feed (we give her 3 ounces here and she sleeps through the whole feeding. To start weening her off this feeding we started giving her less and less formula until she was only consuming about 1 ounce. From here she usually sleeps until 6:00AM / 6:30AM. Sometimes she will wake up at 5:30AM and Paul gets up to give her a pacifier and she goes back to sleep)
As of this week here is the schedule we plan to follow for a few weeks:
6:30AM – first feeding
8:00AM / 8:30AM – naptime (of all her naps this one is the most crucial for Capri. She is super tired and really easy to put down)
10:30AM – feeding
12:00PM – naptime (around this nap she doesn’t sleep as well or as long)
2:30PM – feeding
4:30PM – naptime
6:30PM – feeding
10:30PM – final feeding
Since we started taking Capri out during the day I’ve noticed that she doesn’t nap as well between 12:00PM & 4:00PM. She is just too alert, excited, and then basically over tired. She can sometimes get really cranky because of it and getting her down is extremely difficult and frustrating. There are days where she goes down easy but wakes up every 15 minutes during her naps, which is just annoying because I can’t get anything done. However, after the 6:30PM feeding she is usually really easy to put to sleep.
As far as sleeping through the night…we are blessed. She has always been really easy and our night nurse even raved about how great she is at night (hence us ending her services). Like I said above, a couple nights a week she will wake up in the 5:00AM hour for a pacifier, but she never needs to be picked up or rocked back to sleep. The most we do is giver her a pacifier and turn on the shusher. If you guys are interested in baby products that have been life savers / things you definitely need let me know and I’ll happily put one together.
Here are a few things we’ve learned & some tips that worked for us:
-Sleep training can begin once a baby is 12 pounds
-Babies sleep an average of 18 hours (give or take a couple hours) a day
-Doing squats or bouncing on a yoga ball is EVERYTHING. Capri doesn’t give a shit for rocking or swinging, she likes being bounced up & down
-The swaddle was crucial for her sleep. Now that she is rolling over we graduated her to this swaddle
-Capri imitates us. So when it’s naptime we literally pretend to sleep with our eyes closed as we bounce her to sleep
-Routine is key. I wasn’t a fan of such a strict schedule but honestly, it makes her a happier baby and I just know when I can do my stuff and forces me to be productive during my downtime (aka her naptimes)
-For the night shifts, I would do the midnight dream feed and Paul is on duty for 6:3oAM. This way we each get a good stretch of sleep
-Sound machines or white noise is really helpful while they sleep