Starting the day off right

[AngelaF]

Fellow whisperers-in-training:

A few times a week my 3 1/2 mos. b/g twins wake up in the morning and they just aren't hungry yet. They're happy to play in the crib and just hang out. This happens anywhere between 7-8. My dh and I have tried feeding them right off to try to "set the day" but they eat maybe 2-3 oz. Other times we just wait until they let us know they're hungry, but that makes the routine wacky for the whole day--they end up eating right before the nap and they're tired and cranky and their A time comes before their E, which really defeats the whole purpose of EASHY and it's a vicious cycle that lasts pretty much all day.

Has anyone else encountered this? They still wake once in the "middle of the night" before our day starts, usually between 3 and 5. We give them a DF at 11 and the amount they eat varies every night. They are on a 3 1/2 schedule, not quite ready for the 4 hour, but definitely not hungry if we feed them at 3 hours (unless it's in the evening when they just seem to want to cluster feed on their own before bed). They eat BM in a bottle for every feeding except the DF and the night feeding when we give them formule (just b/c I can't pump quite enough for every feeding to be BM).

Thanks for any feedback.

[vadensmommy]

This happened with dd a lot.  She has never been interested in her early morning feedings, and for a long time I thought it was due to a late night waking - like 5am with a feed, and so she just wasn't hungry at 7.  But now she is a week shy of six months, and is sleeping through from a 10:30 dream feed, and STILL doesn't want her first bottle of the morning.  And the second bottle can sometimes be difficult to get her to take as well.  I try really hard to get that first bottle in her, just because you're right - if I don't, the whole day is thrown off.  You can try to limit the late morning feedings a little if you want, so that they will be hungrier for the first official feeding.  It can be hard though, because when dd was waking early for hunger, she was REALLY hungry and wanted that whole bottle. 

Unfortunately other than to try limiting the early morning feeding, I don't have any good practical advice.  I have basically decided that dd is just not a breakfast kind of girl, because after noon she is a ravenous little piglett.  She can't stay on a 4 hour easy - she does more like every 3 hours.  But it works for us, so it's what we do   Good luck!  Maybe others will have more practical suggestions.