My textbook, born-on-the-due-date 11 weeks ago, EBF DD has been on EASY since about 3 weeks. Like everyone we have good days and bad, but the pattern has been pretty predictable and I'm lucky she is a good night sleeper (1 or 2 wake ups a night, easy to resettle). But the last 5 days our routine during the daytime has just gone out the window. The first day didn't bother me too much but after five I'm starting to worry. For two days she wouldn't sleep more than 30-45 minutes until late afternoon when she crashed for 2 hours. On day 3 she had a proper first sleep (approx 90 minutes) but needed to eat more often and her other naps were a bit interrupted (still better than the previous days, so I thought we were back on track). On day 4 the morning started off ok but by the end of the day we were all over the place with both eating and sleeping. We are now on day 5. We started today at 6.30am when she ate. I put her straight back to bed once she was drowsy, she was grizzly/chatty (not crying) about 7.30 so I brought her in to bed with me (not interested in hearing whether this is AP or not as I don't consider it an issue right now
and we both slept until 9.30. She ate and I put her back down at 10.15. I had to pop her paci back in a few times but she was awake for real at 11.15, at which point I put her in the pram and after a while she slept again until 12.30. I fed her then and she was awake until probably 1.30 when she slept (in the pram) until a bit after 2. After that she was crying, I thought she was OT after her interrupted naps but instead she was actually hungry so I fed her. She was awake until about 2.45 when I put her back down for a sleep. I had to pop her paci back in a few times and she was awake again for real at 3.30 or so. I tried to resettle but not working - she's now on my lap as I type this at 4.10pm
I know I need to start extending her A times - right now we still aim for 1 hour, or even shorter in the morning, but that obviously needs to change given her age and these crazy naps. I'm nervous about making her OT (which she seems very sensitive to like her mama) but I think that's normal for a couple of days until she gets used to it? And I should extend one A time for a few days before extending another?
I read the thread on transitioning to longer A times and the only thing that makes me think she doesn't fit is that she is still eating so much - but this could also be related to the fact that I need to encourage her to eat more. She has always been a fast eater and is putting on enough weight so I know she's eating enough, but the fact she needed a full feed only 1.5 hours after what I thought was lunch shows that after she pulls off and is burped I need to really get her back on and see if she'll take more. I didn't do that today because we were out for lunch, plus I am an impatient person by nature
I suspect we may also be in the beginning of the 12 week development leap - so that is probably affecting things too. But any thoughts on how to make these transitions a bit easier for us would be most appreciated. Also, is there anything I'm missing or haven't thought of? I have two of Tracey's books but I don't think I have the original because I feel like neither of them quite give me enough information/detail on this stuff. My DD is a happy, calm girl most of the time but I feel like I'm struggling to be a good mother to her because I'm not getting enough down time and feel flustered by the unpredictability of it all when we'd been doing so well up until now.
