My 5-mo old daughter is on a 3-4 hour schedule. She wakes on the clock at 7am, and we do a 10-15 minute breastfeed. Then she's active. She's been crawling a couple weeks and has just started pulling herself up on things. Around 10:30, she starts to make sleepy-eyes (rubbing them) and hungry sounds. She'll do another 10 minute feed, be up for 10-15 more minutes, then fall asleep for about an hour nap. She's up around noon and wants to play - she won't take the boob - until 1, when she wants a 10-15 minute feed, then to play again for another 1-1.5hours, then another snack and a 1hr nap. She's usually up around 3:30, will do a 5-8 minute feed, then wants to play for 3-4 hours, has another 15 min feed and a 30 min nap around 6:30. She wakes up, is active for a couple of hours, does a 20-30 min feed (gulping almost the entire time) around 8:30 and is asleep by 9/9:15, and she sleeps through the night.
Now, she was on EASY for the first 3-4 months; probably mid-June was when we got screwed up. She started wanting to eat more frequently and the LC I was working with said that was normal given the hot, hot weather and our lack of A/C. The LC said that when she seemed hungry, I should offer her the boob because she might just need a few minutes of the "quencher" milk - like she was thirsty and needed it to avoid dehydration. Well, it's gotten us completely off EASY and on to Samantha being a snacker, doing 5 min here and there throughout the day.
I want her back on EASY because I return to work on Sept. 4 to a horrible schedule (I'm a college professor), and I want something consistent for her dad and nanny to deal with. But, it's still 95 out every day, and I don't want her to become dehydrated just because I want her on this schedule. Suggestions, please? Can I switch her around? Does she need little snacks to avoid dehydration?
