bigger 4 & 1/2 month old schedule needs a schedule that fits.

[Hilary69]

Hi,
My 4&1/2 month old is trying to do a 4hour easy (just like in the book) but I'm not sure that it fits him. He was 8lbs. at  birth and is now almost 17 lbs. I was feeding him five times during the day, with the fifth feed in the evening to try to "tank up" and giving him closer naps but I read that at his size/age he should eat more but less more frequently and that he should be able to go longer between naps.

What I'm finding is that he can hardly make it til the third cat nap and even after the cat nap he gets grumpy before the bedtime and that even with the dream feed at 10:30 he still wakes during the night.

We have tried this schedule for three nights but he is still waking (4:30 and I'm pretty sure it's hunger because a soother will not help, he continues to cry and he eats very well if I give in a d feed him).

Is there any way that considering his size/age that eating four times plus the dream (five total) is not enough?
What about naps. Shouldn't the two plus a cat nap be enough for a 4&1/2 mo. old ?
What can I try with his eating and sleep schedule?

Thanks, Hilary

[sprinke]

Hi Hilary, I don't have an answer for you but we are trying 4-hour EASY with my 18 lb 5 mo LO and I am consistently finding that we can't make it 4 hours. He can really only sustain being up 2 hours after waking and only will take 1.5 hour naps so our EASY schedule always ends up sliding forward. He does get loopy at nighttime too.

I am feeding him at 8, 12, 3:30, 7, 9 and then only sometimes around midnight, and then again at 4 am.

As you can see I'm still cluster feeding at night. We haven't tried the dream feed yet.

[*Mona*]

are you breastfeeding? if so then the answer is pretty simple- most BFed babies never make it till 4hrs between the feeds and you just need to accept it and adjust the routine. it gets easier once you introduce some solids [no rush!].

if not- could you post your last two days? E, S, A times and how the night s looked like.

monika

[Hilary69]

Thank you sprinkle and Monika for your responses.
Srinkle. I'm not sure if I should keep him up to make up for the "sliding" like you mentioned. Sometimes I try to keep it low key activity wise and keep him up but I am afraid to miss his window and create a bigger mess of the day.

Ben is mostly breast fed but with one bottle a day. I just introduced the dream feed bottle and will be starting to phase out to all bottles by the time he is six months or so.

Monika here is last two days.
Monday
7:00 am wake and feed-boob, eats in 10 mins. both breasts.
8:50 - 11:00 am nap d/a. (woke him)
11:00 am ate-boob
1:00 - 1:40 pm nap d/a (tried shush/pat, pu/pd to lengthen when woke-nope just lots talk and eventual crying)
3:00 pm ate-boob
4:45 -5:25 pm cat nap (started at 4:20 tried on his own after drowsy, cried after 5mins. so back in to pu, down in 3mins.)
5:30 pm 3oz. bottle (this is the cluster feed I'm phasing out in favour of dream feed)
7:30 pm ate-boob
8:00 pm bed
11:00 pm dream feed-6 oz.bottle
2:45 am woke crying-put him back with soother after a few mins.
5:45 am woke and fussed way to a cry. Went in and tried to resettle with soother, shush/pat but he would not stop, figured he was hungry.
6:00 am ate boob-full feed and back to sleep, him anyway.

Tuesday
7:00 am woke him for day-no eating, trying for 11am feed.
8:45 -11:00 am nap d/a (woke him)
11:00 am ate boob
12:45 -2:20 pm nap d/a
3:00 pm ate boob
4:40-5:15 pm cat nap d/a.
7:30 pm ate boob
8:00 pm bed d/a
10:30 pm dream feed 6oz. bottle
2:30 am woke & ate-boob (I might have resettled without feed but then I am afraid he will be up for day after he wakes at 5/6 am which he has done a few times when I resettled him earlier in the night, want him to sleep through)

Here is some more info that may be useful. Ben was only waking once to feed during the night at between 1:30 and 3:30am. This started to move to 5 and 6 am and a few times he wanted to stay up for the day after he ate. Since I did not want this to become a habit and he has gone as long as 10 hours between feeds I figured if I added the dream feed that would allow him to skip the early  morning wake-up and make it til 7am when he gets up.

Hilary