I can't believe how much there was to read!
Theresa (and Aaron) welcome aboard. I see that our LO's are only a week apart. I can relate to what you said about not wanting to obsess about our LO's food intake. I have really been struggling with this. My LO has reflux and if he's not taking a 'normal' amount I start to wonder if he's in pain, if his med's are off, why his food intake dropped off one day etc. etc. Just these past 3 days this has really been an issue for me. My DS has been screaming when he begins to suckle and doesn't want the bottle anywhere near his mouth. Although once he starts, he can get it down. We are on a 4hr EASY so I know that he must need food . . . but what's going on??? . . . (We've got a doctor's appointment scheduled for next Monday but I'm not sure I can wait that long).
JJstar - How do you know for sure to switch from a 3hr to 4 hr EASY? I guess it's trial and error and once they are on 4 hours and making it, then you'll know. For us, we tried extending the 3hr routine by 15, 30, or 45 minutes. I wan't rigid at all - if DS made it, great! If not, I'd feed him at 3 hrs. Some days he would extend all of his feeds, and on others he'd only extend 1 or 2. Once DS was able to go 4hrs between feeds a little more regularly I decided to make the switch. We did this at 12 weeks.
Once we changed the routine DS did very well (for the eating part). He had no problem going 4 hrs between feeds. What we struggled with was the Activity time. If a feed takes 30 minutes, and we aim for 2 hrs sleep, 15 minutes for wind down and diaper change, that means there is about 1 hr and 15 minutes for Activity time. He's getting better, but it's hard trying to extend his A time and still get him down in his window . . . and of course, what if he doesn't go 2 hrs???
We still have one nap/feed that is off the 4 hr mark. We feed at 6am, 10am, 2pm, between 5-6pm, and a DF at 10:30pm. He usually has two 2 hour naps and one 45 minute nap. I think we may need to use the "wake-to-sleep" method again as DS is taking to wake at 5am (he likes to play in his crib at this time). The problem is that if he is awake an hour before we feed him his activity time is shot! Then our day sometimes starts out at 6am with ESAS. I want to break this because I don't want DS used to taking 45 min naps.
Is anyone doing pu/pd with their LO's? This has caused some difficulties for my DH (he's a bit of a softy). My question is, when you do pu/pd do you use a paci?? What about swaddling? When my LO is frantic his arms/fingers/thumb are no where near his mouth. Suggestions???
It's amazing to think that we have come along this far . . . 3 months. When I think back to those first few weeks I can't believe I survived.
I could go on and on right now but this has gotten rather long, so I'll cut it off here.