Hi Maddy! Welcome to Baby Whisperer!
Let me get started in answering some of your questions
E -
-If she wakes and seems hungry (rooting, etc) at the 2-2 1/2 hour mark, is it okay to try to get her to 3 hours from her last feed? It feels mean, and if she's really crying and I can't calm her, I just feed her. She likes to do this esp at night (she's a little reversed right now with day and night)
- She often will only eat from one side for upto 15 minutes, closer to 10 usually. She then refuses the other side. When I pump the other side, I get about 2-3 oz. Is that ok?
EASY is more about reading your dd's cues and avoiding accidetal parenting. Feeding her to sleep is accidental parenting, so by feeding her when she wakes up or better yet NOT before sleeping is the goal. If she's hungry at 2.5 hours then feed her, but shoot for having a period of time after the feeding that se is awake. Little by little you can scoot this time more and more towards when she wakes up.
Try not to watch the clock, it's more about the pattern.
Some babies only nurse from one side per feed, which is ok. I think it's great that you pump from the other side!! This EBM can be used for her dreamfeed or for when daddy wants to feed her
A -
-She likes to usually fall asleep after eating, so how do I keep her up? She shows all the signs of being tired (yawns, big eyes, nodding off), so if we try to keep her up, I fear that it will just throw her off for the rest of the day. I try to make even a diaper change or change of clothes be part of her awake time, but she often cries through it.
- What do I do if she's awake and not hungry after sleeping? Is there a way to reverse her slowly?
-How long should I expect her awake times to be at this age?
Once you start shifting her feeding time, her A time will alos extended as a result. If she's not hungry right after waking, it's ok. Just feed her 45 mins or an hour after she wakes up so that she can have another little strech of A time before her nap. Since she takes about 15 mins then her A time should be 1 1/4 hours.
S-
-Right now, she does some longer stretches of sleeping, but they're in the daytime - how do I get her to do them at night?
- When is it okay to try giving her a pacifier instead of feeding at night if she cries?
- What time do you do the dreamfeed? What if she refuses to eat then? Try again in an hour?
- I still pretty much rock her to sleep.
- We still swaddle her at night, for some of her daytime naps she'll sleep without being wrapped.
Try to not let naps go for longer than 1.5 hours. Go in and rub her hands, speak softly to her and unswaddle her, that it ususally enough to wake them. Now our ped recommended to not turn on lights or speak to our ds when he was still so young. She said the less we interacted with him the more he'd get the idea of dark nighttime is for sleeping and bing low key. It worked pretty well for us.
If she can be calmed with a paci at night then that is the better. Although at this age she should still be getting a feed during the night
The dreamfeed is usually at 10 or 11. My ds never took the dreamfeed and did ok without it. If she doesn't show interest in eating then let her sleep. No harm no foul
Try not to rock her to sleep. Stop by our sleep boards to see how to do shhh/pat which is the way to soothe her at her age.
If she likes to be swaddle then swaddle her!! My ds HATED to be swaddle and we had to use a wedge and constantly get up in the middle of the night to make sure he wasn't stuck in a corner of his crib.....which most of the times he was
I hope I was able to help clarify some of your doubts.
- Beca
