Need help with a schedule please...

[Smilee]

I have an 11 week old who has been consistently eating every 4 hours.  I would like to start an EASY routine with her as soon as possible but am not sure how to start.  She doesn't really have a bedtime at this point (ideally it would be around 10:00pm) so I put her down when she shows signs of being tired (anywhere b/w 10 and 12 at night) but then wakes again for her last feed before sleeping until around 4 or 5 am.  She typically keeps her 4 hour feeding schedule for 24 hours so she's getting up in the middle of the night for her feedings.  I haven't been waking her for feedings so there are times when she will go 5-6 hours without a feed b/c she has a 3 hour nap.  However, during the day, she often has trouble falling asleep for naps and may only nap for 20-30 minutes and won't go back down.

Can anyone give me suggestions on how to get started and what a reasonable schedule might look like for her?
Also, what do you do if she won't sleep for 1.5-2 hours for her naps?  Do you just give her more activity time until her next feeding? 

Thanks for any help you can give!!!!  I'm desparate to get a little predictability here!!!

[Smilee]

Anyone?

[vadensmommy]

Welcome to the boards!  I hope you meet some great folks and get lots of info!

First off - BW usually recommends a 12hour day and 12hour night.  So if your little one (lo) wakes around 7am then their bedtime would need to be 7pm.  At 11 weeks most babies can't handle a 4hr routine yet because they need to be able to stay awake 2hrs at a stretch comfortably, and most aren't able to do that till around 4mo.  Not getting enough calories in during the day may also be contributing to some of the night wakings (nw).  If I had to be in your shoes I would probably go back to a 3hr EASY.  Also when your lo only naps 20-30 min that typically indicates that they are overtired (OT). 

So let's pretend that 7 will be your ideal wake up time (you can adjust to whatever time she does wake) so your easy might look like this:

A 7
E 7-a few minutes after A
A 7-8:15 or 8:30 - most babies that age can only handle 1.25 or 1.5hrs of A time
S 8:30-10

E 10
A 10-11:30
S 11:30-1

E 1
A 1-2:30
S 2:30-4

E 4
A 4-5:30
S 5:30-6:15 - this would just be a short nap to get her till night time

E 6:15- the can be a kind of cluster feed if you like
A 6:15-7 this would be where you would do the established sleep routine - whatever you already do
S 7 for the night

DF at 10 - let me know if you need more info on this.

I hope this give you some of the guidance you are looking for - post back with any other questions and let us know how things are going!

[Smilee]

Thanks so much for your reply.  My only concern would be going back to 3 hour feeds when she's been used to 4 hours for quite some time.  I wonder if, like you said, that may be part of what's contributing to poor naps, sporadic naps, and nightime wakings.  Maybe I can try 3 hours and see what happens.  It seems she can only stay awake for about 1-1.5 hours like you said so maybe that's why we're doing more like EASA insteady of EASY

[vadensmommy]

That would be my guess, and she may be having the night wakings because
1) she is hungry and needs the feeds closer together to get more calories in during the day
and/or 2) she is overtired and that contributes to the nw's as well.
And yes, she may be waking early from naps due to hunger as well. 
I would fiddle with it a bit and maybe try going back to a 3hr routine for a few days - and you'll probably need to do it for at least a few days until she gets used to it before you're going to see any results.  If that still doesn't seem to do the trick you might try 3.5hr EASY, but it still seems a bit soon for that.  I think we did 3.5hr EASY around 13 or 14 weeks.  HTH!  Keep me posted.