10 week old, naps and the dreaded school run

[Mdufs]

My LO is 10 weeks today. She follows 3hr easy. On weekend and school hols we have lovely days when she takes long naps (1hr 30mins). I have to put her to sleep in her car seat in order to do school runs and I am now concerned that this is not ideal as I use it for all naps, even on weekends. She associates it with naps and goes down easily. Should I try and put her down for late morning nap in her basket? I am scared this may disrupt things but aware that she needs to learn to sleep in other environments (holidays, visiting, when she outgrows the seat!)
Another issue is not settling after second night feed at approx 3-4am. I try and wind well but often no results. She squirms and cries out with short naps until getting up at 6am. This then shifts the whole day routine. Not convinced she needs the second night feed -only takes a ounce or two whereas she takes nearly full bottle at 12-1am ish. Do you think me feeding is causing more problems e.g wind etc? Scared to not offer bottle is she is hungry as she is still so little. Thanking you all for listening and any help gratefully received x

[Ima shel Alon]

Is she napping well in the seat? If she does I would be reluctant to try and stop right now, because when she gets a bit older, around 5m, it's going to be so much easier to wean this prop.
We had all our naps in the pram till DS was 5m old. We tried at around 2.5m to move him to the crib with pat/shh and it was a nightmare so we went back to having lovely naps in the pram. When he was 5m old we tried again and it wasn't easy, of course, but it was doable and only took us a couple of days to see a huge change.
At her age it's still normal to have 2 NF so IIWY I would still continue with it. I know she only takes very little, but I am afraid that if you won't feed it will be very difficult for you to settle her at her age. Did I get it right that she settles all right when you DO feed her the second NF?

[Mdufs]

She doesn't settle well after the 4am feed, she cries out and is very restless until we get up around 6am ish.  Tried infracol and winding but nothing seems to work. I was worried that maybe the feeding was causing the problem. I tried without the feed initially last night and used dummy, having replaced it approx 20times I eventually fed her and she was obviously hungry. Any ideas?
Thanks for advise on naps, she sleeps beautifully in the car seat so I think we will carry on with this.

[Ima shel Alon]

Maybe something in her routine is causing the restlessness in the early morning. Would you like to post your day in an EASY format? A times can and naps can effect night sleep, so maybe it's that.
Are you successful with burping her after the feed?

[Mdufs]

Start time of day depends on last feed time but roughly....

7am feed get dressed, change nappy etc
8:15 naps till next feed generally
10am feed
11:15 naps till next feed generally
2pm feed
3:15 nap often disrupted by school run might only manage an hour
5pm feed
6pm catnap
7pm feed and bedtime settles easily

Self settles for all naps and bedtime. Tried dream feeds and tried without and doesn't affect NWs. Doesn't wind particularly well at night, get up a couple of burps but I never know how much is enough! Activity times generally involve 20min feed, talking, approx 10mins on playmat, nappy change, more chatting and then to sleep in car seat in fluffy suit. Recently increased from 1hour A time to 1hr 10-15 mins. Not really affected NWs but has extended the naps slightly. FF and I offer 6oz at each feed. Takes between 3-5oz most feeds, rarely drains bottle. Doesn't have dummy as wont take easily and loses it very quickly. Sleeps swaddled but naps unswaddled.

[Mdufs]

Oops! Just realised I have swapped times by mistake. Basically she is on 3hr EASY with variable start time. My first LO did EASY routine to a tee from the book and slept through from 8 weeks (but she didnt have to fit around an older siblings routines!) I wonder if I am expecting too much. I wonder if there is still a problem with reflux, she had improved a lot and we stopped meds at 4weeks. Maybe this is causing the early hours discomfort? As you can see I am grasping at straws....

[Ima shel Alon]

Reflux can mess up with sleep big time, so I would def take her to the Dr. again to have her checked. No amount of tweaking will help her with NW if she is in pain, yk?
The only thing that I can see that might cause the EW and the restlessness is that maybe she is ready for a little bit more A time, perhaps even just a 10min increase would do the trick. You can try it for 3 days and if it doesn't help and she starts short napping (30-35min naps which would be OT) then you can go back to your previous A of 1:15h. What you could also try is offer a full A time before BT because right now it's rather short, right?
But her routine actually looks good, so it could well may be discomfort, either Reflux or wind.

[Mdufs]

We gave gaviscon with both night feeds last night and she only woke at 11:30pm and 5am and was easy to settle after both....so I think you are right, the reflux is causing problems. We have changed her to thicker formula today and will use gaviscon in night feeds again and see what happens.
Thanks for all the tips, it's great that you all take the time to look at the routines and try and help us out!! Keep up the fantastic work!! I will keep you posted x

[Ima shel Alon]

That's great! I mean, not great that Reflux is flaring again, of course, but great that you found the solution.

[Mdufs]

My friend suggested reducing the volume of milk I offer at night to try and encourage increased intake in the day. I currently offer 6oz at all feeds but was thinking of reducing the two night feeds to 4oz.  She takes anything between 3-6oz in daytime and often drains bottles at night.  Wonder if we have got things back to front somewhere along the line?? What do you think? X

[Ima shel Alon]

TBH, I think she is still too young for that. We used this method as well, but reducing 1oz every 3 nights. Many mommies here use it, but I would never suggest it to babies younger than 5m, which is the age IMO tat they can cope with no night feeds (and only if they are FF). It's still normal and actually important for your baby to feed at night so she could get all the calories she needs.