Please help....11 week old napping only 50 minutes and eating every 2 hours

[mom_of_mia]

Hi, I am new to the board.  I have been through the sleep FAQ's and through most of the board posts but still feel like I could use an opinion on my particular situation.  I have an 11 week old baby girl.  She was 6 pounds 2 ounces when she was born and is now a little over 10 pounds.  She sleeps very well at night, either going from 7pm-6:30am or 7pm-4am then 4:35am-7am.  In the beginning, she was hooked on napping in the swing but for 3 weeks has been taking all naps in her crib.  She would be characterized as a "Textbook" baby mostly with some "Touchy" tendencies.  I have two issues so I will take this in two parts.

1) During the day she still eats every 2 hours! 
2) She takes 50 minute naps that you can set your watch by. 

Eating: 
During the day the most she can go between feedings is 2 hours and 15 minutes except for right before bed which is usually a 2.5 hour span.  I tend to think that this is because of her size but I am starting to wonder if I am just making excuses at this point.  I am following her licking lips and hands to mouth cues proceeding naps and she appears to be taking full feedings.  Thoughts?

Napping:
For naps she is always swaddled and has never taken to the paci (sometimes she will suck on her fist).  She will start to cry the moment she is swaddled (after our wind-down routine) but less than 5 minutes of pat/shh and she is again relaxed and put down awake in her crib.  She is asleep on her own within 2-5 minutes. 
She takes four 50 minute naps sometimes with a 20 minute cat number right before bedtime.  For her age, I feel like this is too many naps and too short a time to nap.  She does not flinch around the 38 minute mark.  She flinches right at 50 minutes with eyes wide open straight into hard crying a second later.  I have tried to apply pressure to her at the 50 minute mark as she wakes up but she just looks at me like "what are you doing? I’m done napping" look.  I have also tried to let her cry in hopes that she will fall back asleep on her own but she will cry for the duration of the nap period.  Obviously I would prefer she eat every 2.5 hours at this point but this is where we stand. 

Our day looks roughly like this:

E 6:30 she wakes and morning feed
A 7-7:30 (wind down time included in awake times)
S 7:30-8:20
E 8:30
A 9-9:30
S 9:30-10:20
E 10:30
A 11-11:30
S 11:30-12:20
E 12:30
A 1-1:30
S 1:30-2:20
E 2:30
A 3-3:15
S 3:15-4:00
E 4:00
A 4:30-5:30                                                                                                                                         S S5:30-5:50
A 5:50-6:30 awake then bath time
6:30 Bottle of formula (I breast feed the rest of the day)
7pm Bed

Any feedback or comments about what I may be doing wrong are appreciated.  When should I be expecting her to eat every 2.5-3 hours and how do I length her naps?  I am starting to wonder if she may just be a short napper.  She has never taken longer naps and although she wakes up crying, I perceive it be out of hunger and once she is fed she is very cheerful although it's not uncommon to see her yawn soon after she wakes up. 

Thanks!

[marensmama]

Firstly, you are not doing anything WRONG!  You are doing your best to provide your LO with what she needs and you are going on what you think she is telling you, so you are to be applauded for your efforts.  I do have some thoughts, though
~ LO's at 3 months can usually hand 80-90 minutes of A time, and naps between 45-60 minutes typically mean that the babe is UT and needs more A time.  From your routine, it looks as though this is the case. 
~ She is only a short napper because she's not getting enough A time so she's not tired enough to take a longer nap.  (ie that's all the nap she needs for the amount of A time she gets).  The same may be going on for the feedings.  She takes smaller more frequent feeds because she's not terribly hungry by the time she gets milk.  KWIM?
~ I think those hunger cues are more predictable for a younger babe.  Someone else can correct me if I'm wrong there. She 'should' be able to go for 3 hours between feeds, so I'd push it longer unless she's getting really upset and nothing will distract her from her crying.  That's actually how would tell if DD2 was hungry, since her tired and hungry cues were so similar.

Great nights though!  Good work.  Let me know how things go for you!

[mom_of_mia]

Thank you so much for the input.  I gave a 2.5 hour window between daytime feeds a go yesterday rather than jumping from a 2 hour to a 3 hour routine.  I also lengthened her awake time to between 80 and 90 minutes depending on her signs.

I don't know if it's too quick to tell but in terms of lengthening the the eating she would cry and cry from the 2 hour and 10 mark until 2.5 hours with me doing my best to distract to pass the time.  Maybe this is just because she is used to eating so frequently?

Also, as you can tell from the above she wasn't sleeping any longer with the new A time.  She gave 2- 50 minute naps, 1- 45 minute nap, and a cat nap late afternoon with the longer A time.  So we ended up with alot of E,A,S, A, E yesterday.

You mentioned that I may be looking for hungry signs of a younger infant...I feel like I may not be reading her correctly.  At 11-12 weeks what are characteristic hungry and sleepy signs?

I really appreciate the support.  We are giving it another go today!

[marensmama]

Remember that consistency is key, and you may only see little bits of progress at a time.  It can take 3 days to a week to see good results. 

I agree with you that the more frequent meals are causing more frequent meals, IYKWIM.  It's perfectly fine to take baby steps and make changes to the routine 10 minutes at a time.  Babies prefer to know what's happening and when, too much change at once can make it confusing to them. 
 
EASAE is fine, btw as long as she's not getting OT.

Re: sleepy signs, every baby is different and sometimes once you see the 'typical' cues, it's too late... here's what I look for: 2nd yawn in a few minutes, becoming more vocal, looking away from me or losing interest in toys.  Hungry signs, I always got them confused with sleepy signs at first (same with DD1) so this time I just relied on the clock (ie how many hours since last feed) and if I thought it wasn't time yet for a feed but nothing else would appease her, then I would just feed.  Maybe someone else has better ideas, that's just how I did it.

You are doing a great job and seem really tuned in to what your baby needs.  The core of BW philosophy is to be able to communicate with your baby by paying attention to their cues and providing them with what they need.  There is no exact formula since every babe is different, and once you get them figured out they change some more.  So you may never feel like you know what you're doing, but as long as you're always trying to respond to them you're doing great!!

[deckchariot]

are you bfing?  sometimes bfing babies take longer to extend the length of time between feeds.  It's possible as you begin to stretch her A time as Nicole has suggested that will help to lengthen time between feeds.