Help with 17 week easy and afternoon!!

[nicetoeslee]

Hi

This is the first time I've posted on here, always just used as guidance but now I need help. 

My first child (DS) was Angel although i didn't realise at the time, and my second (DD) is textbook with a bit of touchy, not much though.  Where I am struggling is with her afternoon/early evening. Most nights she will be screaming at about 5.30pm/6pm.  Today was a bit better but she ended up OT at bedtime (which I did earlier) and then woke twice within the hour crying.  We are pretty much on a 3.5hr easy and this is where I am getting stuck. I didn't really have to transition with my first Angel baby so I am really stuck. It doesn't help that she has just had chickenpox (whilst is Spain, so double whammy of out of her comfort zone) and I just fed on demand as she had a fever and wasn't sleeping properly, but this has really thrown things out for us.

Also, I get confused as she was 4 weeks prem so do I treat her asthough she were only 13 weeks or should she have 'caught up'?

Our routine changes and I've been a bit rubbish to be fair to stick to it, as with my DS being at school it's been hard to fit things into his timings too.

Today was ok )ish
E  7.15 breast feed
A
S  9.15

E  10.45 - breast feed
A
S  12.45 - woke up at 1.45 crying and I tried to calm her in her cot which didn't work but stuck with it and eventually got her up at 2.15

E  2.15 - she was falling asleep on the boob - breastfeed
A
S  3.50 - woke at 4.30 but happy and smiling so I got her up

E  5 - she took 7ozs of bottle!!!
A
S  5.45 tried to put her down but she wasn't tired so got her up again

    6.40 - decided to put her to bed earlier than the usual 7 as she was now getting tetchy

E  6.50 - falling asleep on bottle - only took 4 ozs

S  7.15

Woke up twice by 8.30pm crying. I went in, did PU/PD once both times with her and she went down.

She has also been having NW. 3 nights ago was 1.30am and 5.30am (breast fed both times), 2 nights ago was 4.30am (I was away for the night to she had 5ox of bottle) and last night was 5am and she was asleep again by 5.30am. I decided to stop feeding her and settled her with a dummy instead and some water which worked, she woke again at 6am for settled herself.  Could this have been a growth spurt?

I feel a bit lost and asthough I don't know what I'm doing with her which is really frustrating as my DS was so easy in comparison.

Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Ruth

[nicetoeslee]

UPDATE

Well last night she woke at 10.45pm crying, so went in and gave her her DF, she went back to sleep straight away and slept through. Well she woke a couple of times, but settled herself and I didn't need to go in  .  So today has looked like this so far

E  7.10 breast and bottle
A
S  8.40 - she fell asleep on my bed whilst playing and then I had to wake her to take my little boy to school. Luckily a friend walked past the house so she took him and she went back to sleep at 8.55
woke at 9.40 but settled with just a bit of smiling and chat from me
woke at 10.20

E  10.40 breast and bottle

This is where I am getting confused with the 3.5 hr routine. Do I keep her up for two hours and she has a 1.5hr nap or A for 1.5hrs and try and get her to sleep for two hours as she had a broken nap? Another problem today is she has a hospital appointment at 1pm.  Not sure how to fit that into timings

Any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[lilisuze]

hi there and welcome to BW!

Is she managing about 1.5hr A time most times? In the early evening its normal for things to go a bit haywire, you might find she does a short nap in the late afternoon and feeds more regularly, which can all lead to a bit of OT! which would explain the early night wakings, probably after each sleep cycle.

I think your routine looks nice, the tranisition from 3.5 to 4 hr EASY will come when the A time stretches a little more. If she can handle more now, then add an extra 10-15 minutes onto each time (you may have to walk around with her for a bit, go to each room, have a look round, do nappy etc to strect out the time before bed) and try to get longer A. if not, wait a week on this A time and then try 10-15 mins extra. That way she will go to 3.75h EASY and soon on to 4hr.

HTH a bit

Lili xx

[nicetoeslee]

Thanks Lilisuze

She can do longer, how about over 5 hours!!!! She would NOT fall asleep this afternoon at all and has just fallen asleep in the car on the way home. we had a hospital appointment at 1pm. She fell asleep as we were leaving at 12.40pm and woke at 1.20pm. We didn't get seen until 2pm by which time she was due her feed at 2.10pm. However, although I've been out and about she didn't fall asleep once either in the pram or the car and has been awake since 1.20pm! However, she hasn't been tetchy or crying once and showed none of her usual signs, usually rubbing eyes.

She has though just fallen asleep as we were two minutes from home, so do I leave her to have a 'nap' or do i wake her and get her ready for bed and cancel today out and try again with easy tomorrow?

Thanks

[lilisuze]

sorry i think i missed your post yesterday...where in the world are you? its never too much of a bad day to go with EASY....some days its morphs in to more like GWTF (go with the flow!) by the end of the day. as long as she doesnt nap after 6pm you can still get her down for a decent night.

lilixx

[Yazzie]

Hey there hun, lili gave you some great advice about the 3 to 4 hrs transition & about what age to use, you'd be dealing with her as 13 weeks old, hence using her corrected age.

How are things now?

[nicetoeslee]

We're in Cardiff, Wales.

Well although yesterday was a bit of a weird day, she had little sleep but she didn't seem OT at all. She woke up quite soon after my last post so slept for about 15 mins in her car seat and she seemed fine. So I gave her a bath and bottle. She took 6 ozs (she had 4ozs at 5pm) at about 7pm and then slept through! She woke up at 6am, had a chat with her elephant and fell back asleep.

Today I decided to leave her a bit longer and start the day at 7.30am. This way I can get DS to school without her getting OT. So today so far is

E  7.30am
A
S  9.15 - 11

E  11.10
A
S  12.30 - woke at 1.15 crying and didn't settle properly again until 2.20 and she is still asleep. I tried to wake her but she was in a deep sleep and didn't move at all! So I will leave her another 10 mins and try again, but will make sure she has her next feed by 3.10.

So looking at BWSAYP it says to not have a catnap, not that I think she will have one anyway, is this right? I'm just going to play it by ear. As she seems to have done the last EASY cycle at 4hrs, I hope we can get close to it. It will be so much simpler when she's on it!!

[nicetoeslee]

Thanks Yazzie, for some reason didn't see your post.

So trying to put her on a 4hr easy may be too soon?

She had her hospital appointment too yesterday and she is only weighing 12lb2oz at 17 weeks although she seems fine and has lovely squishy legs and cheeks but I have decided to stop breastfeeding now and bottle feed. Hopefully this will help things even out too.

[Yazzie]

Well, from your posts it looks like she's handling 2hrs A time well, or @ least for the first portion of the day and you guys are doing 3.5 hrs EASY. BW is all about following your lo's cues, so I would suggest playing it by the ear for a while, especially as you are switching to bottle feeding and this may make a difference.

About the second nap, maybe she was UT, so you could extend that A by 10 mins and we'll see. Here are 2 good links with sample routines to give you ideas:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164029.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63161.0

So, how is/was your day