Issues.

[annabellesmommy]

Alright.  Well, DD2 will sometimes take a bottle but not all the time.  Needless to say I am still feeding all night.

I work 4 days per week and I am trying to get her into a schedule that works for when we are in the car dropping DD1 off and then when they both get picked up.  Man, what a pain.  Here is what we are currently doing:

5am - Breastfeed
6-7am -wake (you just never know when )
7:30am - Breastfeed
(after breastfeed to leaving the house is complete craziness just to get the heck out the door! )
8:15 - leave the house to drop off DD1
9 am - arrive a DD2's caregiver

She usually sleeps from 9-9:30 until about 10:30am.

11-11:30 - she usually takes a bottle, sometimes only a couple of ounces.

From what I can gather she is sleeping about an hour to 1.5 hours here.

1-1:30pm - just recently started taking 2 Tablespoons rice cereal.

2:45 - 3pm - pick up DD2.  I usually breastfeed her in the car bu 3 pm.  Then we go on to pick up DD1 and get home.

Catnap from 4-5pm (needed because her daytime sleep has been sucky)

5pm - breastfeed (1 side) and afterwards solids (usually 2 tablespoons)
5:30pm - bedtime routine with both of them starts
6:30 -  breastfeed (the other side)
6:30-7pm - asleep

She usually wakes up about 30-45 minutes after and is easily settlee and putback down. 

She the typically eats again at 2am and 5am.  I have not stopped the night feeds because she does not always take her bottle.

And to throw in another issue - some days I have appointments that start earlier, especially the day when dh is home.  So, then I feed her earlier before I leave for the day.

Do I have any hope of doing EASY or at the least getting her to sleep through the night?

The last 2 week she is taking 4-6 ounces (whatever I can pump the day before) from the bottle at the 11-11:30am feed regularly.  I know for some it's a bit early to start solids but she loves them and mows them down.  She actually sucks on her tongue when she can see any type of food or anyone eating.  LOL.  So we are nearing a 3 "solids" meals a day.

The other 3 days she is with me so I have been trying to get her to a 4 hour EASY routine but she seems to get hungry at the 3 hour mark pretty much all the time.

She is a VERY easy baby and the only time she cries is when she is hungry or in pain (gas, teeth).

What do you think?

From, a very tired Mama

TIA!

[Laura's Mum]

Laura did this too when I went back to work.

She did not ever take to a bottle, an oz or two at the most - she would simply hang out for the boob.

Not really what you want to hear though is it.  Good news is that at 8-9mos - she would take almost anything from a sippy cup, so she had the Avent sippies for formula and then another kind for water.  She never drank 6-8 oz of formula, but would take 3-4 at a go.  As well she was picking up her solid intake too - so I was only bf'ing morning and evening (before bedtime routine) and the night waking stopped.

My 2nd dd would have bottle/boob whatever was going - so different.

Anyway - not much help there.

Could you maybe send in dh at night with a bottle of ebm or water when she wakes?

Hopefully someone else will chime in with a good solution - but just wanted to let you know that someone else went through this same scenario - and it DID pass 

Janelle

[annabellesmommy]

Thanks Janelle.  I'm not really worried about the nights.  I'm okay.   My feeling at this point, is it is already going by fast enough.  Pretty soon she won't want to breastfeed.   So, if she feeds at 2am and 5am until she stops breastfeeding, I'm okay with that

It's the rest of the day.  We just cannot seem to get an EASY schedule going.  Which, I also think I am okay with but just wanted to see if anyone had any tips.

I'm so much more easy going this time around.  It all goes by so fast, that I just want to enjoy my baby and worry less about when she eats and sleeps.  IYKWIM.

[Laura's Mum]

You are so right - that first year passes so quickly.

Hopefully someone will give you some tips for a smoother routine.

With my 2nd, I don't think we REALLY got a consistent routine until she went to 1 nap - which I encouraged sooner than I did with Laura.  I just found with work and Laura's pre-school etc it was so hard to get consistent morning and afternoon naps.  I just used to try for 1 decent one - and then supplement with cat-naps - not ideal - but best I could manage with the 2nd.

Then when 1 big sleep in the middle of the day came - it all got better.