Am I accidental parenting???

[momnew]

Here is my EASY Schedule, we're transitioning to a 4 HR easy, but this is what it will end up looking like.
This whole time we have been doing EASY I feed LO (17 weeks) and then put right back down, she used to wake up at 9:00 to eat and that wasn't too much sleep at night. I would put her down for bed at 8.

The new schedule makes it different now for me. Should I just make her bedtime at 9:00 now and still have her wake up for the day at 10:00? I thought about just waking her at 9:00 like she is used to and just keeping her up and feeding her at 10:00. But this would really throw her off of A time. Does this make sense to anyone???

E 6am (immediately put down and go back to sleep
E 10
A
S 11:30-12:00
Y

E 2
A
S 3:30-4:00
Y

E 6
A
S Catnap only if showing signs

E 10

[vadensmommy]

Am I understanding that she's only taking 2x 30min naps? or does she typically go down to sleep between those two times posted and sleeps until the next posted feed time?

It's really up to you which you want to do.  If you do decide wake her at 9am, you'll probably want to go ahead and feed then if possible, just to get a good start to your day and to avoid feeding to sleep with a later feeding time.  Ideally the 6am feeding will become later and later and merge with the 9am feeding, or whatever becomes her internal clock waking hour.  I guess you could wait to feed her, if you wake her, but when you start solids, that will become an issue because you'll be trying to get a milk feed and a solids feed into such a short A time, that she'll be due one or the other at the same time she will be wanting to nap.  Does that make sense??

Ideally she'd have a 12hr day and 12hr night.  So if you do wake her at 9am, you'll probably want to make sure she has a bedtime no later than 9pm.

If she is refusing the catnap some days in the early evening, I would probably also make sure she has an earlier bedtime in order to avoid OT.

HTH!

[momnew]

She does go down between those times.

Hmmm, generally when do the 6 and 9 feeding combine into one?

I don't start solids until 6 months, right? Not even rice cereal until then? She seems to be doing great without solids now. I haven't even figured out how to introduce solids so the nap and eating solid thing went over my head :0)

OK, so I suppose it will be like the following

E 6
E 9
A
S 1030-11
Y

E 1
A
S 230-3
Y

E 5
A
S 630-7 Cat Nap
Y

E 9 and then Bed

Can I do 10:30 DF?
Y

[vadensmommy]

When to start solids depends on your pediatrician and where you live.  My pediatrician was trying to get me to start cereal at 3mo because dd was having issues bottle feeding.  I ignored him because he was wrong (according to my mommy intuition ) and started cereal at 5mo.  But yes, in most countries they recommend waiting to start solids until 6mo, especially if you are breast feeding.

Not real sure there is a "typical" age when that early morning feeding goes away.  There are many moms who are doing them for a very long time.  Once we started EASY (around 7 weeks) it took about 2 weeks for them to go away.  I found that the feeding started getting later and later until her basic awake time settled at about 7:30am.

You can try to limit this feeding some in order to help her be hungrier at the 9am wake up and feed time - if you bottle feed, you can try to limit this feeding a little - maybe offer her fewer oz.  If you breast feed, it can be a little harder, but you can try to limit the # of minutes at the breast.  For us, I just rode it out and fed her the usual when she woke and ended up with some A time before E for the rest of the day until she started waking later to eat.  You can even try just getting her to go back to sleep using pat/shh (I never tried that tbh).

I think 10:30 for a dream feed would be fine.  Since her day starts later, it may mean she doesn't take as much in for the dream feed because the last feeding of the day is so much later than most folks.  Vaden usually had a 7pm bedtime and 11pm dream feed, so she was getting at least 5 full feedings a day, that might be why your dd is waking for that early feeding - because she's not taking enough at the DF because it is so close to the last feeding of the day. 

You might even consider bringing that last feeding of the day a bit earlier - maybe even right after the catnap.  There wouldn't be a full 4hrs between the last two feedings, but I know at least for my dd, she is always hungrier at night and will take a full feeding before a full 4hrs.  So maybe instead of the last "daytime" feeding being at 9, make it at 7:30 or 8 so that there will be a little longer between the last feeding, and the DF and she will be hungrier and take more in.  I don't think I would recommend doing the dream feed after 11, because then it is considered a night feeding, and could interrupt her sleep more.

Oh, I think I've probably typed more than I should Sorry!  I am a bit too wordy, but I hope it helps some!!

[momnew]

No need to aplogize for the long email....I tend to do it myself.

First I would like to say, the picture of your dd is simply precious!!!

Now, you are going to think that I am crazy. Now, dd is on a 3.5hr easy, the example of what I would like to do were listed above. So we are still transitioning. I'm a little confused now. My dd doesn't just wake up at 6, I have to wake her up. I just wake her and then put her back down so I can get ready for work.

Should I wait and see when she wakes up and adjust feeding from there.

I would love the below scedule (just Es)

7:30, 11:30, 3:30, 7:30, DF 10:30.

[vadensmommy]

Thanks you   I've got another fun snow picture I may have to put up.  It hasn't snowed where we live in 16 years!!  So it's fun to have these to put in her baby book.

Hm, I am a bit confused as to why you are waking her at 6am to do a feeding??  How late would she sleep if you just let her wake on her own, and didn't do the 6am feeding?

[momnew]

I am sooooo sorry for the late reply. I woke her up at 6am because I figured if I fed her then I could go and exercise and get ready for work.

However, I will say over this past weekend, I tried to see what time she would wake up if I left her on her own. The first day she woke up to what she is conditioned to, so I pat/shhed her. Then I just woke her up at 7:30. With me working I could not let her sleep any later than 7:30.

So I think that is what time I am going to start her day at. This way, I can keep her on the regular schedule. I think putting her down after the first feeding was kind of messing her schedule up a bit.

The only thing is, I work out with someone on Mondays and Thursdays from 7-8. Do you think if I woke her up earlier on these days that it would cause a problem for the other days.

I am sorry for constantly changing my questions. Do I make any sense?

[vadensmommy]

Each baby is different, but I know for me, once I woke vaden early once, that reset her internal clock which totally sucked.  NOW, I can wake her earlier one day a week (and I have to - because we have an early meeting at work every Thursday) and it works out just fine.  So a lot of it will be experimentation on your part and seeing what she does.  If there is any way that dad can help out on those mornings to keep things consistent, then I'd probably do that as a first choice if possible. 

The other thing that is a bit more difficult is that on the mornings you wake her early, you'll probably have to offer an earlier bedtime to avoid OT, and that can screw things up because she might keep waking at the earlier time because she doesn't need the 12.5hrs of sleep - that is basically what happened with us.  Just some thoughts!

HTH!

[momnew]

That is what I thought you were going to say  I figured it may mess the rhythm of what we have right now.

I think that I might ask my MIL if she can come earlier on Mondays and Thursdays so I can actually work out on those days. I know that sounds conceited, but I have to do something.

I really have enjoyed this 730 thing a lot better. Thanks for your help!

[vadensmommy]

Good luck, and I hope that you can get some y time in there for the exercising.  Good luck!