nap / feeding issues

[Isabella's Mummy (Lilab4)]

Hello!!!

I apologise in advance for the length of this post!!! It is to do with eating and sleeping, so I wasn't sure where to put it (It is also on under sleep)!

Isabella is 16 weeks old, I breast fed in the beginning and the first couple of weeks were actually easier than I had anticipated. She fell alsomost immediately into a 2-4 hour eating routine and slept most of the rest of the day. It all went wrong at 2.5 weeks when I suffered a post partum hemorrhage and we had to go back into hospital for 5 days. Feeding was difficult as I had tubes going into me on both sides, midwives were having to latch her on and I couldn't get off of the bed to comfort her. (She would only calm down if we walked with her and is still a little like this now!). Anyway, she became very unsettled and seemed to struggle a lot with feeding, often wanting to be fed hourly during the day. She would only nap for 10 minutes at a time and I didn't feel I could work on this when I never knew if she was hungry or not. I continued to breast feed until 8 weeks, but after discussion with my HV we decided to switch to the bottle. At the same time as this we decided to take her to see a cranial osteopath (it wasn't an easy birth and she found it difficult to turn her head to the right). We don't know whether it was the osteopath, the bottle or a combination of both, but things improved quickly. She began to go longer between feeds and take 40 minute naps.

I was happy that things had got better, but we still need to do some work! These are the problems I have:

1 - She now takes 2 - 3 oz in the first sitting and it takes me up to an hour to get her to take between 5 and 6 oz. I have to keep trying giving her 10 minute breaks or walking around with her. - Should I be doing this or leaving it at trying twice? By doing it it means that we get around a 2 hour gap between feeds, but I don't want to encourage her to think this is the way we feed. I tried a size 3 teat today, but it was clearly too fast for her.

2 - Her naps are only around 40 minutes each and she often starts yawning almost as soon as she is up! I have tried trying to get her back to sleep, but she just doesn't want to know. Even if we go out in the car after a nap (which usually sends her to sleep) she will still stay awake and yawn!! This creates a further problem in that she is the really tired and ready to sleep just before her next feed. This makes feeding even more difficult. I thought about using PU/PD, but I don't really see it will work as she is quite happy to lie and play in her cot for 20 minutes or so after she wakes. Yesterday and the day before that she slept for over 1.5 hours for her first nap, I got excited, but then she went back to 40 minutes today!!

Her short naps don't cause too much of a problem until late afternoon, then she is hard work as you know she is very tired and it is really difficult to get her of to sleep, even for a cat nap. I try to bath her at 6.30pm and she has her last feed at 7pm, but some days (like today), she has to go earlier and she was asleep by 6.15 pm. We are very lucky in that she goes from 6/7pm until at least 3-4am and half the week she goes through until 7am!! I am a bit scared to try new things in the day in case it upsets our night!!!

I can try to put down a routine, but it is difficult as her erratic sleeping means we don't really have one!!

7am - Activity (not ready for feed)
7.30 Feed (this goes on til 8.30 mixed in with activity time and then wind down)
8.15 am - We go to her room to start to get her off to sleep
8.30 - 40 minutes sleep (sometime she cries for more food after we've put her down, she rarely falls asleep on the bottle but is often sleepy when we put her down).

9.10 - Try to get her back to sleep, but it doesn't work (we get lots of smiles and laughing even if we avoid eye contact) so we end up taking her downstairs for A, where she begins to yawn!! We then struggle to keep her going til 10 for her next feed and often have to use a dummy.
10.00 feed (again for up to an hour)
10.30/11.00 - 40 minute nap if we are lucky!!

11.40 - same problems as before
1.00 Feed (as before)
2.00 ish - 40 minute nap if we are lucky

2.40 - same problems as before
4/4.30 Feed (as before)

We really struggle to get her to nap here, usually take her for a walk, but she seldom falls asleep.

6.30 Bath
7.00 Feed
7.30 ish Sleep

Sometimes feed between 3 and 4.

Sorry that was so long, I will try not to write so much in future. Can anyone help??

Thanks in advance x

[calebs mommy]

Okay, I am not an expert, but here is my advice... Since your daughter is 16 weeks, maybe you should start moving towards a 4 hr EASY.  Some people start with a 3 1/2 hr EASY, then transition to 4 hr-that way you can ease your baby into staying up longer and waiting longer between feeds.  Often, when there is trouble with short naps and not eating as well, it helps to change the routine.  Tracy suggest that 4 month olds be on a 4 hr. rountine.  Hopefully, by extending out the time between her feeds, she will be hungier and eat more and hopefully faster in one sitting.  For the naps, hopefully by slowly adding to your awake time as you increase to the 4 hr routine, your daughter will sleep better during naps.  Most 4 month olds can stay awake for around 2 hrs at a time when they have a good nap.  Just go slowly by adding 5 min or so to activity time each day.  If that doesn't work for naps then you can try doing wake to sleep.   I have been working on that myself, to help my 6 month old to extend his naps.  He has been off these last couple of weeks, so I am trying to get back on course. I just go in at the 30 min mark and lightly rub his face or his arm, until he stirs, but not wakes up, then I wait for him to resettle, then I leave.  It really has been helping.  If your baby is happy in her crib, then you can't do pu/pd, but wake to sleep my be your answer.  And, if she is yawning soon after you get her up then that tells you she does need a longer nap.  It all takes a lot of work, but it pays off.  Don't worry about your nights messing up...usually the better daytime sleep they have (thus not being overtired when put down for the night), the better their nights are.  You may have a few off nights during the adjustment period, but if she sleeps well at night, I am sure the trend will continue.  Just know that you definitely are not alone in all of this.  I hope this helps.  Also, Stacy is one of the moderators and she is awesome, hopefully, she will throw in some advice.

[Isabella's Mummy (Lilab4)]

Thank you for your reply. I have posted a response under bottle feeding as I had put this post in 2 places.

x