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ACTIVITY => E.A.S.Y. Forum => Topic started by: Mom2katiebug on January 11, 2006, 18:35:01 pm

Title: HELP: Chaos is our routine!
Post by: Mom2katiebug on January 11, 2006, 18:35:01 pm
DD is 11.5 WO and we had all the signs to move to a 4hr EASY, so we have made the transition...sort of.  She is usually fine eating every 4 hours (sometimes even 5), but she's struggling with the A and S times.  Sometimes she's crying for sleep at the 1 hr mark and sometimes she can go 2 hrs and be fine (low-key for the last part).  She's struggling with naps like almost every LO her age - but we're fighting 30 minutes not the usual 45.  She's usually been a champion sleeper overnight (TG), but now is waking 2 times to eat (almost full feeds) and restless from 5am on.  So, here are my questions:

1.  Should I not have stretched to 4hr EASY?
2.  Any ideas for a routine?  I've penciled so many out and then tossed them out that I've lost count.

Thanks!
Title: HELP: Chaos is our routine!
Post by: HeatherC on January 11, 2006, 20:24:42 pm
Casey, sounds just like my dd when she was under 6 months.  First off, keep in mind that your day doesn't necessarily have to be EASY.  If, for instance, your lo can go 4 hr stretches between feeds, but is easily tired or doesn't sleep until the next feeding, you may have EASAE.  That is totally normal.  And the 30 min naps, also very common.  Mine did the same.  I urge you to read and study Tracy's sleep training methods to help her through the sleep cycles and regain her ability to sleep longer.  I didn't follow through with my dd and we both suffered 30 min naps until she was 6 mos old.
I have 2 thoughts in mind about her night sleep.  She is probably overtired from short naps and unable to settle peacefully at night.  I would assume that if you can get more day sleep from her that her nights will also improve.  Are you giving a df?  If you believe she is waking from hunger at night, the best thing is to get more in to her during the day.  She may be going through a 3 mo growth spurt, and Tracy recommends giving cluster feeds (say at 5 & 7 pm) to "tank" her up.
I would say she's restless around 5 am from being tired.  But these are fixable situations.  Also, remember that you don't have to feed at exactly 4hrs.  Watch your lo for cues as to when she's hungry and when she's tired.  If she will take a feed before 4 hrs, especially if she's woken from a nap early and it's awhile until the next feed, I would feed her.  This will hopefully settle her if she's fussy from being tired, and maybe give you an opportunity to get more feeds into her during the day. 
If you tell me what time you start your day, I can suggest a sample routine.  But you can also check for those at the top of the EASY forum.
Title: HELP: Chaos is our routine!
Post by: Mom2katiebug on January 12, 2006, 00:39:56 am
Thanks Heather.  This is going to be long to give you all the info you need and then some!  Sorry!!  We try to start the day around 7am, but with Katie being unsettled from 5am on, it gets dicey.  Sometimes we have to start at 6am, sometimes her second overnight feed is at 5am, so she'll sleep until 8 and since sleep has been such a struggle lately, I've been catching up myself. 

I do watch Katie and she will sometimes be hungry earlier, so we eat when she wants to eat.  I do have to be careful that she doesn't start grazing though.  We had a problem with her snacking early on.  And the other problem that we run into a lot is that she gets sleepy and is due for a feed, so I feed her and she'll eat just enough to take the edge off and then fall asleep.  So, I try to rouse her to avoid the FTS problem, but then she's so overtired that she just cries.  I put her to bed.  30 minutes she's awake and since she "topped off" earlier, won't eat.  If I don't feed her, then she just can't seem to sleep at all becuase she's hungry.  It's a Catch 22!!!  Then, without naps, the day just goes to heck very quickly.  We spend a lot of time trying to get her to sleep and usually resort to AP - swing or a carride - to get something in. 

I really think she could handle longer awake times if she would sleep, but some days we just try to sleep all day long and she gets spurts of 15 minutes her and 30 minutes there.  A lot of her awake time is spent fussing in her crib trying to get to sleep.  Why do the fight it so?!?

And, here's the latest weird thing...on a 3hr EASY Katie would sleep from roughly 7pm to roughly 3am - an 8 hour stretch.  Skipping a feed would mean a 6 hour stretch, so I thought this was further evidence that she could handle the 4 hr EASY (at least the eating part).  But since going to the 4hr plan, she's waking every 4-5 hours overnight every night and taking very close to a full feed.  Was I totally wrong about the 4hr plan?  At bedtime, she's netting about the same calories as the 3hr plan, jsut eating fewer bigger bottles.  She's averaging about 4-5 oz. per bottle and 24-28 per day, although yesterday was her all time high at 30 oz.  To get her back to her once a night waking, I need to add 4-5 oz. to her daytime bottles which is about an oz more at each feed.  How do I do that???  I always make 6 oz. bottles so that there's always a little left over - even if she's really hungry.  But, try as I might to offer her the full 6 oz., she's done when she's done and just won't take more.  Any thoughts?  Or do I just need to be patient for her tummy to grow?  It's weird though that she only needed 4-5 oz overnight just a few days ago and now it's twice that much.  It could be her 12wk/3mo growth spurt (she's almost 12 WO, but has a couple of weeks to go til 3MO), but it's been ABOUT 8 days that she's wanted these extra feeds.  How long does the GS normally last?  Last time it was about 4 days. 

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP!!!  :D
Title: HELP: Chaos is our routine!
Post by: HeatherC on January 13, 2006, 01:30:41 am
I consider anything before 6 am a nightwaking.  So 5 am, feed and put back to bed.  If you can get her to sleep until 7 or so, that's wonderful.  It sounds like she needs to eat about every 3 hours, but if every now and then she wants to go longer until a feed, it's okay.  I did 2.75 hrs around that age.  I think this is what we did until 4 months:
feed at 8, 10:45, 1:15, 4:30, 7, put to bed by 8, wake and feed at 10 (she wouldn't eat asleep like a normal df so we had to completely wake her, she'd eat and go back to sleep all night).  That's six feedings.  At that time I was bf, so I can't give you an oz count, but that would be roughly 24-30 oz if she took 4-6 oz per bottle.  You didn't mention (I don't think)  if you give a df or have tried giving a df.
I don't think you can think of an 8 hr stretch at night the same way you think of length between feeds during the day.  It's probably part of our neurological settings.
As far as her short naps, try putting her down for her first nap within an hour of waking.  So, if she wakes back up at 7, put her back down around 8, then feed her around 10.  I may be wrong, but that worked for me.  You don't want her to get so tired that she can't rest all day.  If she nodds off while eating, do the best you can to wake her.  If she doesn't take her full feed, I would guess that she's using that to fall asleep, which is what you don't want.  I think once she gets some rest, she's gonna straighten right out.  It's all just a cycle, one thing affects the next.  You're doing great!