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Hi Vivian,
It’s so good to hear you enjoyed the course and you didn’t find my family too much 😂
Your little one will find it easier to fall asleep at bedtime if he is tired, so I recommend you wait until he is tired to put him to bed. Over the next few nights, you can record the time he falls asleep, which will let you know his actual bedtime and what time you should strive for.
For naps, I recommend starting the nap-time routine when he is showing early to mid-tired signs. The main thing is you want to avoid starting it when he is showing late, tired signs. This is because he will just take longer to settle down and then fall asleep (as you will need to calm him down first). The routine is a lot smoother if you start it when he is showing early to mid-tired signs.
It’s great that he has taken to the pacifier. If it does fall out and he cries, try to pause and give him the chance to fall asleep without it. If he continues to escalate, then pop it back in.
When babies first start to have longer stretches of sleep (which can happen around 6 weeks of age), the beginning of the night is the part that stretches first. So they tend to have a longer stretch of sleep at the beginning of the night. A dream feed can interrupt this long stretch of sleep, so I don’t feel dream feeds are necessary.
At this age, when people refer to sleeping through the night, they just mean the baby can sleep for 6 – 8 hours before waking for a feed. It’s not sleeping for 11 – 12 hours without a feed. In saying that, some babies will naturally sleep 10 – 11 hours without a feed, but most babies at this age will wake for 2 – 3 feeds overnight.
If he is still pooping overnight, then it’s important to change his diaper. You would just do this when he wakes for a feed. So when he wakes, you would follow the pattern of unswaddling, feeding, changing his diaper, swaddling, feeding, and then sleeping. You could also talk to the doctor about diaper creams to help prevent nappy rash.
Feeding 2 hourly during the day is fine. You should notice that this will start to lengthen over the next month.
Hope that helps!
Emma