Help! - refusal to take naps affecting feeding

[fivesey]

Hello,
I am trying to get EASY up and running with my 5 week old but am having problems. She wakes up about 8am and I try to stick to a 3 hour EASY. It starts well with a 45 breastfeed and she is then alert and happy for 45min - 1hour. She then gets tired but will not nap so we go for a walk and she sleeps for about 45min. She then feeds at 11am but usually quite sleepily but we persevere using all of the usual tips to keep her awake so it takes about 1h15. She then stays awake till the next feed which usually happens about 1.30pm. The problem is that she is now both hungry and tired and she feeds/sleeps for 5 minutes at a time. If things are really bad I supplement with 2oz of formula just so that she will be full (otherwise will be snacking all afternoon). At this point by topping up with breast, she may eventually give in and sleep for 45min - 1hour in her vibrating bouncy chair (takes quite alot of shshing). However, she refuses to go to sleep in her moses basket despite trying this everyday and using shsh. Sometimes despite being exhausted she will not give into sleep and I go do some errands as she falls asleep in the car. She then feeds at 5pm - how well this goes depends on whether she has slept or not - and from then on she tends to cluster feed from 6 - 10pm. She has a happy alert period from 7 - 8pm but otherwise she tends to snack/sleep in 5/10min intervals. Eventually at 11pm we give her 4oz of formula and she goes down for the night in her cot. We have been doing this last part since she came home and she has always gone down and she either sleeps through for 8hours or wakes up once and feeds for 40mins and then goes back to sleep. But any attempt to repeat this during the day is a dismal failure!
She is putting on weight so she must be getting milk from me but all this snacking is worrying. Shouldn't she be able to stay awake for a full feed by now?? The amazing thing is that as soon as she comes off the breast she is as alert as a button! Also, I feel that I am messing up with her naps as she just gets more and more tired throughout the day and therefore more and more irritable and less able to feed efficiently. Also, especially in the evenings she gets so tired that she screams herself into a meltdown which can only be stopped by my putting her on the breast - and I am afraid that this is a bad habit!
If anyone has any ideas/advice I would really appreciate it. Thanks!!
Fiona (mum of Maria - 5 weeks)

[Missy Lou]

at 5 weeks, her total awake time should be about 60 minutes.  progressing to an hour, 15 minutes by 8 weeks.  are you saying that she's up 1.5 to 2 hours?

does LO seem hungry before 3 hours?  i'm just wondering because I know my LO wanted to eat every 2 or 2.5 hours when she was 5 weeks and nursing.

at 5 weeks, i'd be more worried about cuddling and making sure she's gaining weight.  get her on the basic routine and try to limit AP.  But she will require your help with settling down when she's this young.  after swaddling, hold her/rock her until she's drowsy and then place her in her crib.  don't stress too much about bad habits.  of course, don't start any you don't want to have to either break later or still be doing when she's older.  but i spent a lot of time worrying about things and you don't need to.   

melissa

[fivesey]

Thank you for your advice Melissa.
To answer your questions ..

Maria does not sleep for whole cycles (2.5 - 3h) especially in the morning so that by the time we get to her next feed she is falling asleep on the breast, which obviously then sets off a vicious cycle for the day. I try to follow her cues as closely as possible and at least up to now the only way to ensure she gets some sleep in the morning is to bring her for a long walk as she sleeps then.

Sometimes she is hungry after 2 or 2.5h and I feed her then - although as the day goes on she tends to be both tired and hungry. It is hard to know which one to deal with first as they affect each other!

She has a weigh-in this wednesday but I am happy that she is gaining weight (she is a hungry baby!). I shall work on helping her go down for sleeps but as soon as she hits her moses basket mattress she suddenly stops yawning and looks all alert!
Thanks again, Fiona x

[Missy Lou]

i would try doing a 2.5 hour EASY for a bit and see if that helps.  like you said, she may be crying from hunger and she won't be able to nap if she's hungry.

she really should only be up about an hour at a time - including eating, diaper change, playing and winddown.  So if she takes 45 minutes to eat, then i'd change her diaper, swaddle her and put her down.

that suddenly be wide awake when you lay her down is probably because she's overtired.  i don't know why they do that. 

for the next week or two, try this

E: 7
S: 8-9:30

E: 9:30
S: 10:30-12

E: 12
S: 1-2:30

E: 2:30
S: 3:30-5

E: 5 - maybe do bath too
S: 6-7:30

E: 7:30 - this would be the cluster feed and right back to bed

E: 10 - DF and right back to bed

Eat whenever she wakes during the night which will probably be at least twice.

then at about 7 or 8 weeks, try moving to eating every 3 hours.  if she starts eating less at each feeding before then, that means she's ready to eat every 3 hours and then we'll adjust her routine to 3 hour EASY.

does that make sense?
Melissa