need help on end of day EASY for 8 week old

[Mummyhood]

Hello,

I am confused about the end of day in the 3 hour E.A.S.Y prior to bath time. 

According to BWSAYP p.34 his afternoon feed takes place at 4pm and then he has a cat-nap at around 5h15 or 5h30 pm for 40 minutes to prepare him for his bath and dinner. So that is the E the A and the S but then when he wakes around 6h15 what is he supposed to be doing until his next feed at 7pm before bath-time, swaddling and bed-time?

I actually feed him at 6h45pm so that he has time to "sit" before his bath or he'll throw up half his dinner but am considering doing the bath at 6h30 or so , swaddle etc. BEFORE the 7pm feed so as to avoid too much reflux.


This is our E.A.S.Y at the moment:

7am  - Eat
8 am - Sleep on & off sleep until about 9h20 when he wakes hungry - I try to keep him waiting until 10 with a paci
10 am - Eat
11h10 - Sleep
1pm - Eat
2h15 - Sleep
4pm - Eat
5h15 - very short nap - usually not more than 20 minutes
6h45pm - Eat
7h15 pm - bath, pajamas, swaddle,
7h30-45 - sh-pat then to bed
11pm - DF
around 2 or 3 am - wakes to Eat
4 or 5 fussy waking, grunts, I re-swaddle, change if soiled and try to keep him waiting until at least 6h30 am with a paci but am seriously considering feeding him at this time - even if it means moving next feed to 8am - so that we can catch some sleep between 4am and 6h30am!  Would adding this feed be a mistake?

Thanks for your help!!!

[empowered mama]

hi there

after the catnap, we would always to a lower-key activity time to bring us up to bedtime.  You could do something like read books, take a walk, etc.  Something to help him wind down from the day.

It's up to you about that 6:30 feed - if he is genuinely hungry, I would say go for it (especially since he is only 8 weeks).  There is a chance though that over time it could become a habitual waking and you may have to do a gentle wean to get him through the morning.

HTH hun

[Mummyhood]

Hi,
thanks for your reply... not much activity at 8 weeks! A bath and swaddling is a lot at this time of day especially with all the noise my 3 year old makes around bath time "helping me out" 
I wasn't sure if there was more Activity since that made it EASY - A -before the final: E(dinner), A(wind-down), S(sleep), Y(some couple time!).
Anyway, yesterday I changed things slightly,  following the end of day routine of one of the example postings on chronological EASY (by Katie on June 02, 2006: sample routines for 0-3 month olds) and had the bath & swaddling right AFTER the catnap and BEFORE dinner feed at 7pm. This suits me better in terms of dinner time with my 3 year old daughter and means my LO won't reflux his dinner in the bath! ;-)

Will try it this way for a while and see how it goes!

[empowered mama]

Great!  Really it's whatever works for you and your LO and however best allows him to wind down for bedtime.  Hope the new changes work well for you