What am I doing wrong????

[saree's mom]

Last night was insane i dont know what to do, this was my night....

Got my 5.5 mth LO into bed by 8:30, she woke up at 10:15, starting to wake up for her DF?? (which is given closer to 11) she is expecting it already? I tried to get her back to sleep rather than giving DF early, dont want her to expect bottle or BF every time she wakes up. So i gave her pacifier, patted her back and turned on her mobile music she relaxed and went back to sleep. I gave her DF at 10:55 which was fine.
Her norm is to sleep from bedtime till DF then sleep till 4:30ish, where i nurse for a few and she goes back to sleep till morning....

She woke up at 1:30, gave her pacifier, patted her, soft music....I thought she went back to sleep, i thought wrong....30 min later she starts crying again. I tried to comfort her the same way as before but she wasn't interested, so i tried nursing her (she hadnt finished her DF bottle so i thought perhaps hungry), she wasn't interested after a lil while so i put her bak into crib (2:30 am) She started crying again at 3:30 am, thats when i shoved DH out of bed to take care of her. He tried bottle wasnt interested, he tells me she pretty much stayed awake till 5 am and then slept till 7 am woke up ready to start the day. She did not sleep enough and my nanny told me that her am nap was only 1 hr i wouldve expected her to conk out for at least 2 hrs.

i dont think her naps that day were too much (first 2 were 1 hr 30 min, and 3rd i woke her after 1 hr 20 min), maybe 3rd was lil too long, would an extra 30 min of nap time do that much damage???
Her naps are different every day, so its hard to see when to let her sleep and when to wake her like today i wouldnt wake her if naps were a lil long bec poor thing didnt sleep enuf last nite. Is that just gonna create a vicious cycle

Her nights aren't usually like this so maybe i just have to expect some bad nights. Its funny though because this is the second time this week i set my alarm to try for the first time W2S 30 min b4 her ususal wakeup and both times her nites were all messed up and she woke up way earlier that her usual wakeup time. Maybe she is trying to tell me something...

If anyone has any suggestions im all ears... most people tell me to suck it up or let her cry 

[saree's mom]

I start her bedtime ritual at 7:30 which includes bath, top off...i can try to move it up earlier, thing is her last nap ends usually 6ish, so wouldnt 7:30 be too early for bed, she isnt usually tired that early.

The DF would not be a prob to move up so ill try that tonight.

So stacy thats an excellent question, bec ive been having that thought in the back of my mind. I have been doing bottle and breast from the beg. bec i knew i was going back to work from the get go. But ive been doing the pumping business for abt 3 and half mts now since i returned to work. When i pump im getting anywhere between 4-5 oz. each time i do it. I pump twice at work. I miss 2 of her feedings and one is the EBM and the other is formula. So those i can see how many oz.'s she dinks bec its in bottles.

So according to BW u pump 1 oz. less than baby can get. But here is the thing, she is so not interested in nursing after like not even 10 minutes. She is distracted by everything, ive tried quiet rooms, doesnt really help. I cant even get to nurse both sides. My nanny tells me that sometimes in order to get lo to finish the bottle by stopping for 10 min after the bottle two thirds empty after 10 min she finshes it. (however i think that may have ended since i bought the next size nipples for the bottles) But with nursing i dont like doing that so often bec i want her to realize that she has to eat when its time to eat and eat fully, not start and stop.
On the weekends when im fully nursing i get herto eat every 3 and a half hrs, whereas when my nany gives bottles its closer to 3.50 - 4 hrs.
So how do i know if she is just an efficient eater or maybe going thru this age where too distracted to eat or if its a milk supply thing

[saree's mom]

Thanks for the support stacy, it feels nice to get some once in a while. 

So re naps today they were all 45 min. so i told my nanny to put her back down after she woke up from nap #2 she got her back to sleep 45 min later for another 45 min. lol (my lil monster
Of course nap #3 50 min. into it she is still fast asleep, so i woker her up, fed, a lil A time, bathe, top off, a lil fuss going to sleep but got her down by 8. (baby steps stacy, better than 8:30 right)

its funny i thought i should be pumping more than that, i thought its bec i dont drink enuf water, i figured if she is eating bet 5-8 oz. a feeding i should be pumping like 6 each time. Sometimes i only get like 3 and half oz. If i get  a good 5 oz. its prob bec its been like 6 hrs since i nursed so i dont know if what i said in pp is correct. [for example today, i completely forgot to pump(didnt feel engored, so it slipped my mind) so i didnt pump till 2:30 pm a i had fed her 7:30, i only got 5 and half, is that good?]

Ill try offeing her more 10 min after i finish nursing and see what happens, today when i nursed her b4 bath i offered an oz. of formula to see if she was still hungry after she nursed and she only too half an oz.

Are you offering feeds when hungry or sooner to try and up intake? Dont know if this is common with babies, but i cant give her more food, when she doesnt want anymore she wont eat. PERIOD. The 10 minute breaks can usually get a lil more milk in her but when she has had enuf she keeps those lil lips pursed shut.

Do you find her latch is good and she eats vigorously from the breast?  her latch has been excellent from the day she was born (trust me i felt it) and she eats quite vigoroulsy, i hear the gulping but the vigorousness (that a word?) ends after like 7-10 min. then imbattling to get her back on the boob to finish up. She seems to like her fingers better. I pull them out gently and stick my boob back in her face coaxing her to eat some more, i want to make sure she is really full.

I try to get her to eat every 4 hrs and not sooner, ill feed her 3 1/2 if she really is whining for it, but not less than that. I recently moved her from 3 hr easy to 4 so 3 and half is ok too.

Thanks for taking the time to try to help me, its so helpful. 
I know there are other options out there, just cant find them

[saree's mom]

I hear ya, ok so at least i know thats the not the prob, the question remains though, why does she keep waking up

She did it again last night, waking up more than she used to. And her naps keep lasting 45 min., i tried to explain to my nanny w2s to try it for her 2nd nap, we'll see what happens.
Someone else on a diff thread said i should try w2s at nite every 90 min., what do u think?
i dont know what to try for nights, i dont know what came first anymore chicken or egg.
 bad naps so bad nights or bad nights so bad naps..... 

[saree's mom]

they are usually 2 to 2 and half hrs on a normal day, s/t 3 (is that too much)

i put her to bed last nite at 7:15 since she 2 loong naps 2nd ending at 4:45, today her 1st nap was 40 min. dh in other room trying to get to sleep after A time of 2 1/2 hrs. not havig an easy time of it. We sing to her for abt 10 min. while holding her i rock her a lil and pat her, i try not to but its hard. dh def rocks her when singing but we put her down AWAKE but sleepy.

[saree's mom]

forgot to mention,last nite she woke up at 1:15, dh patted her she went back to sleep, i woke up at 3:30 to do w2s and she woke up at 4:15 (did i do s/t wrong?) so i fed her , she slept till 8ish i think.

[saree's mom]

i dont normally feed her if she wakes up at 1-2 because i gave her DF at 10:30, so on her normal/good nites she goes from DF to about 4ish, she eats for a just a few minutes and back to sleep. (on a bad nite she has that 1ish wake up)

For example last nite:
bed - 8:00 (i try for a lil earlier usually)
DF - 10:15
woke up 4:15 ate for a few minutes and back to sleep
woke up 7:30 babbling in crib, i came to get her @ 8, she wasnt even looking for food but i had to feed her then so that we can get out the door on time

I have a question for you, she usually kinda wakes up by her DF, goes right back to sleep but her eyes do open, is that defeating the purpose
So according to what ur saying, if i need to nap her as late as 5 pm, i should wake her up after  like 30 min.?