[Maria Malamatari]

Hi Emma,

Thanks for these questions that you have raised. Taking each of these questions one by one:

1. Baby Eirini currently has no consistent wake time in the morning. Generally, we aim to feed her every 3 hours during the day, with the last feed of the day being at 10:30pm / 11pm everyday. This means we definitely keep an eye on the clock during the day. However, we don’t have an alarm throughout the night. If she may wake up 2 hours from the last 11pm feed or 4 hours from the last feed (e.g. 3am). This is then followed by another 2-4 hours sleeping window – depending on the day (e.g. if she has gas). If appropriate, Ι would be grateful if you recommend a detailed routine (if appropriate) for us to follow throughout the day and night. From a quick google search, it seems that there is no rigid routine at this early (7 week old) stage and it is all about reading and responding to baby’s cue. At the same time, I have seen certain sample routine to be as follows:

6am to 7am – Wake up, nappy change and feeding

7am to 8am – Awake time – tummy, gentle play or sing to baby.

8am to 9:30am – morning nap

9:30am to 10am – Feeding

10am to 11am – Awake time

11am to 12:30am – Nap

12:30pm to 1pm – feeding

1pm to 2pm – awake time

2pm to 3:30pm nap

3:30pm to 4pm – feeding

4pm to 5pm – awake time

5pm to 6pm – evening nap

6pm to 6:30pm feeding

6:30pm to 7:30pm awake time with bath

7:30pm to 9:30pm – nap

9:30pm to 10pm – feeding

10pm to 12am – Bedtime. Baby hopefully sleeps for 3-4 hors before waking up in the middle of the night for feed.

2. We have not been tracking her awake time between naps. But we generally estimate that awake time is between 30 mins to 3 hours.

3. She uses a pacifier when there is extended crying and she has already been fed and clean.

4. We swaddle her for sleeping. We use Tomme Tippe swaddle.

5. Room temperature is currently 21 C, as we are now in spring in Greece. Sleeping environment at night is dark. During the day, if she sleeps in her room (rather than in the same room as us), it is also dark, quiet with white noise machine being turned on.

6. Settling – we typically settle her for naps and bedtime by holding her and walking around the room.

7. We have no real nap time routine other than: Wake her up, change nappy, feed her, playtime in the baby gym, followed by holding her and walking her around the room / walking outside in a stroller or baby sling to make her fall asleep.

8. We have not been tracking how many naps she has been having each day. We generally try to follow the routine of feeding her every 3 hours.

Many thanks