How to stretch feeds?

[Jakes Mommy]

Hi, I'm tired  I'm not sure if this is the right place for this. My little guy is just 7 weeks old and I've been trying to start EASY for the last week. I'm finding it a bit of a struggle at times for a multitude of reasons, but the hardest part at the moment is getting him to feed every three hours. I can just about do it during the day.. on a good day, but at night it's impossible. I try to hold him off with soother but he gets SO upset and he's rooting for feed. I would like to try formula as Tracy suggests as the dream feed (which I haven't mastered BFing yet!) but we've tried formula (when I was sick) and he's been getting really ill from it. He has a touch of reflux and it ends up that he vomits every feed for the next 12 - 24 hours after we try formula. He is stacking on the weight anyway which is a good thing and would suggest that my milk supply (which is a possible reason he's not lasting during the night) is good and he certainly feeds well at every feed. He feeds one side only but always seems to empty it. What are you supposed to do? Of course with the BFing not lasting 3 hours it throws everything else out of sync as well.

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

Hi Jakes mommy, the first couple of months are really hard but you've done so well and you will start finding things much easier in the coming weeks.

Don't know if your aware but EASY doesn't have to be 3hr+. At your lo age it might be better doing 2.5 in the day, which gets in an extra feed and hopefully not as many nw'ings. I did this and my lo only had 2 nw'ings, one at 2ish and the next 5ish.

Don't know if this is the soet of thing you was hoping for, just what i did.

Kate

[momofgab]

Hi Jakes mom

Hard work isn't it? My lo is 8 weeks and, well, we are not there with a good routine...

My first lo (now 3) was on EASY and I was really worried about keeping him on schedule which made me a  stressed mom . Now, with all my grey hair, I am more relaxed with all this . My new baby is on EASY but on a flexible routine. They are still so young, we are just learning to know each other. I mainly concentrate on avoiding sleep right after feeding (especially with a "refluxy" lo) . Feedings are about every 2.5h, sometimes more, sometimes less, he will eventually regularise himself. Anyway, I rather him feed during the day then at night!!! His naps are anything from 20 min to 3hours! But around 3 mo they are better with all of this.

So don't be too hard on yourself, take care of yourself, you need to be rested to have a good milk supply!

[Samuel's mum]

I totally agree with Kate. TONS of people don't start with a 3 hr EASY. Please don't continue to force it if it's making you both miserable. Easy is a routine - the timings can vary enormously between babies and also during the day with ONE baby. So perhaps 3 hrs might happen once but then the next cycle isn't more than 2.5hrs.
It's actually good for your milk supply to respond to his hunger cues. EASY is a routine and at the heart of it you are adapting it to fit your baby

[*Nicola*]

((Hugs)) Just wanted to add that at almost 5 months our EASY varies greatly.

Sometimes we are 4 hourly, others 3.5 or even 2.5 hourly in the evening.  As Emma says it varies from day to day, and also within the day.

We mostly stick with the EAS pattern but often have EAEAS if Callie is hungry again, or sometimes we even have some ES 

((((Hugs)))) You'll get there 

[Jakes Mommy]

Thanks everyone, I was starting to realise this myself and stopped watching the clock! Don't know what got into me with trying to start with getting three hours between feeds. The pattern of EAS is most important to start with right? We'll work on the times a little later. I suppose you can't help wanting things to fall into place straight away!

[Mum of 3 + 2 stepkids]

It will soon come. But for now just the routine makes it feel like you have a normal life

[Samuel's mum]

Yes, that's right. Just an EAS pattern is enough.
It's all a fine balance between investing time so a routine is settled BUT avoid getting so wrapped in it you forget to enjoy each precious day. It flies past.