Day 4 on EASY

[ycoetzee]

Hello All

Well, I'm very glad to report that things are going MUCH better. We still have some issues, but I'm sure it will be worked out in time....I hope.

Issue 1: I still have to go in and Sh/Pat her ALOT. It takes about 30 minutes for her to fall asleep. I sh/pat her until she is stil, and then stop. Am I doing this right? I rush in when she starts crying, so that she does not get to worked up, or should I leave her a little??

Issue 2: She still feeds every 2 or so hours. I try and feed her more, but she just clamps her mouth shut. If I try and extend the time between her feeds, she is not happy? If she does 10 minutes of nursing at a time, it's long. (She is 7.5 weeks old.)

Issue 3: She somtimes only nap for 45 minutes, what do I do then? Continue EASY, even if her last feed we 40 (A) + 45 (S) minutes ago? It just does'nt work out to be 2.5 or 3 hours?

Today looked like this:

Awake at 8
E: 8:20
A
S: 8:50 (Awake at 10:10, small feed)

S: 11:00
E: 12:00
A
S: 1:15

E: 2:30 (She was ready at 2)
A:
S: 3:20

It is slowly getting better...

How do I make sure that sp/pat does not become a prop? I'm doing alot of it.

She still does not want to DF. I'm not to worried about it, but untill she does not do it properly, I cannot expect her to drop her 1am feed.
Regarding the 1am feed, she nurses for 5 minutes, and then is fast asleep, shutting her mouth if I try and feed her more. Should I sh/pat her and see what happens, or should I first get the DF right? (She'll DF for 3 or 5 minutes..) I do have a very fast let down, and lots of milk - I'm not sure how much she is getting in 5 minutes? Could it be enough?

Thank you all again for your help!

Yvette

[MJMom]

Issue 1 - Rushing in is sometimes counter productive.  Try to wait a bit to see if she really needs you.  She may not.  It does take a while for babies to learn their self-soothing mechanisms, so I think you're doing OK with the sh/pt.  Especially if she seems to be comforted.

Issue 2 - My LO was very similar.  I just kept encouraging her to aet as much as possible at those feeds.  If she doesn't eat, she doesn't eat.  I think I did more of a 2 - 2.5 hr EASY until my LO was about 10 weeks when she hit a GS.  Then she was able to go longer.  Don't fret it.  These are guidelines, not rules. 

Issue 3 - Have you read the 0-3 mo teaching an infant to sleep thread?  You may find some other helpful tidbits in nap extension
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85500.0
Also, check out this one as well
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85499.0

For the DF, you could try bottle feeding her once to see how many ounces she is getting at that time.  It's possible she is getting enough in 5 minutes, but if her other feeds are 10 minutes, I kind of doubt it a bit.