I just came back from vacation and started my new dcb! He's the sibling of a 2 yr old dcb that I have now. The baby was really good. Only had a couple of crying episodes. He slept a 1/2 hour this morning and 1/2 hour this afternoon and his big nap around 11:30 he slept for 3 hours. I told the mom that and she about had a stroke. she said, oh he doesn't normally sleep over 3 hours during the day because I wake him up to keep him on schedule so he sleeps good at night. He's here 10 hours a day. I hate to tell her but I don't wake up babies that are only 2 1/2 months old. Do you guys?

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Nope I do not wake infants period and I be sure the parents know that from day 1.

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It was kinda funny because my daughter (12) was sitting there and later she said that she heard the dcm say that and though to herself no way. You never wake a baby up. Thought that was funny coming from a 12 year old. I kinda thought to myself that I'm supposed to deal with a tired baby (because waking a 2 1/2 mo old is going to result in a tired baby) for 10 hours a day so that dcm can keep her night schedule? That's a long day for me and for baby. No way.

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Explain to mom that sleep begets sleep and you will never wake a sleeping baby to accommodate their home schedule. They have the kids two waking hours a day. We have them 10 or more. No way would THEY deal with a sleepy baby for ten hours and neither will I.

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Exactly! Not to mention now I have their 2 yr old that threw one hell of a fit because he couldnt' snap the baby into the carseat. Told mom that tomorrow I would already have baby strapped in when I see her pull in to stop that crap. I have never seen him act like that and I've had him since 2 months old. She says he does that all the time for them. This is not going to be a daily thing I can tell ya that.

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Well Dad just dropped off baby. He was kinda laughing and said what did you do to him yesterday. When he got home he was up for 5 hours. Guess that's not usual. I said, I let him sleep when he wanted to sleep. I have never woken babies up from their naps, especially at 2-3 months old. He said he went to bed at 11;00 and slept until 4:00 or 5:00. Why they wake him every 3 hours to eat is beyond me. I told him that the longer you stretch out the feedings the longer he'll sleep at night. He said he was happy the 5 hours he was up. So my question is if you haven't seen him since 7:00 in the morning and don't pick him up until after 5:00 p.m., why wouldn't you want him up for 5 hours? I don't get it.

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Is she breast feeding?? I know some parents take the "wake every two - three hours way too far... It is recommended the first month if needed but not forever! Lol. Hope they relax!!

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Yes, she is breastfeeding. You would think that they would be more relaxed about it. They have a 2 year old also, so not like they haven't done this before. Although the 2 year old is the first one done at mealtime and the one that eats more than the 4 year old. Feeding habits? Hmmm

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I have friends that have three and haven't relaxed any more from the first!! Ugh!!! Thankfully I don't watch them!
Maybe track (if you already don't) wet diapers and respond- oh dcbaby has plenty of wet diapers so we don't need to wake him!
I wouldn't wake him... If they want to through the night they can have at it but ugh!!! Lol.
Babies are hard enough- they need so much sleep!!!

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I love the babies! Out of my 12 years of daycare I have only had 2 infants that cried and the moms were the ones that didn't want them sleeping much here. I just started last Monday a little 3 month old girl. She also has a sister that is 2 that I watch. The baby is on breast milk and the mom only bottle feeds her. She is easy to feed and in a pretty good mood. She does cry herself to sleep maybe for about 10-15min. She has been sleeping for about 1-2 hours in the morning. And at lunch time for about 2-3 hours. She then has a quicker nap at about 4-:430 for maybe an hour. Then she is up and happy gets her last bottle and mom picks up at 6:30pm. So far so good. I used to have a mom that didn't want me to let her baby sleep very much at my home. She wanted her up as much as possible so she would sleep at night for her. That baby was the hardest baby I have EVER had. She was always crying and for a 10 hour day that was what she did. She would have to cry herself to sleep and would scream bloody murder doing it. When she woke up she was screaming bloody murder again till she went home. Her mother would tell me she did the same thing at night. So they were both always tired. I tried everything I could think of to keep her happy and nothing worked. She was 3 moths old at the time and today she is 7 years old. I still watch her on non school days and during the summer. Today she is amazing. Sweet, soft spoken, and super helpful. So glad I kept working with her!

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Explain to mom and dad the reason the baby needs so much sleep during the day is because they are waking him up to feed him at night.

If they would quit doing that, because he's plenty old enough to go all not without a feeding, then he wouldn't sleep so much during the day and would be all around better for him.

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I'll have to ask her tonight at pickup if she's waking him up during the night also or if he's just waking up. According to her schedule he should be up and eating at 1;00 and it's 1:05 so I'm in trouble cause he's still sleeping! Also seems like he could be eating more per feeding. He's only at 4 oz's at a time. He'll be 3 months old next week. Doesn't that seem like very little?

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Ok, I asked her if they were waking him up at night and she said that no they let him wake up himself. She said that last week he slept from 10 p.m. until 7:30 - 8:00 in the morning. I told her that he took 2 half hour naps today and roughly a 2 hour nap. It may also be the stimulation that he got yesterday since it was his first day. She said he wasn't crabby last night, but just wouldn't settle down. Probably just because he's used to being at home with mom and now he's with 5 other kids. He was an angel today. I absolutely refuse to wake him up especially if she wants him to sleep less than 2hours for the mid-day nap. We'll see how he does tonight.

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Good for you!! I LOVE infants- but I don't love the amount of energy some take to get on the same page with parents-
Maybe just switch details from he slept forhalf an hour in the am and two hours in the pm to: he had a morning and afternoon nap and a great day over all!

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Being a breastfeeding mom myself, I have to say that breast milk is easier digested and therefore they have to eat more often. Also, four ounces is fine at that age because they are eating more often. I do believe in never waking a sleeping baby. Both of my daughters were exclusively breast fed and they were both sleeping through the night by a month to two months old. She may also be feeding him/her during the night to relieve the fullness of her milk.

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...and I just realized this is pretty old, so hopefully the issue is resolved by now! lol! Sorry

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That's okay. The baby is now 10 months old and is doing very well. He was taking a morning nap and afternoon nap. Well, it got so that he wanted to sleep 3 hours in the morning and then wake up just as the older kids were going down for their nap. So, I sucked it up for a week and got rid of that morning nap. He was crabby a couple of days, but now does not take a morning nap and sleeps along with everyone else for about 3 hours at 1:00. Perfect!

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