Just starting 3 month old on EASY and need some help!

[KerryH]

Hello

We've just started trying to implement EASY with our 3 month old baby - she is literally just 3 months old but was 6 weeks early, if that's relevant to any of the following!

We have a few problems to contend with - the main one is she has reflux, which she is on medication for but whilst trying to get through feeds and nights I think I've encouraged some accidental parenting that I now need to get rid of  as that's our other big problem   Due to the reflux being bad at night and also bad congestion in her nose, we had been holding her upright a lot of the time while she slept.  I have been using shh/pat to get her to settle in the cot on her own and am managing to settle her but often she just wakes up again 10 - 20 minutes later so it's very frustrating.  Is this normal and is there anything I can do to encourage her to sleep for longer periods?

Due to the reflux we have to try and keep her upright for 30 mins after a feed, which means she often starts going to sleep on us when we don't want her to!

Also food wise she seems to have become a snacker - this started during breast feeding and although we have now moved to purely bottle feeding she's still doing it.  She often won't take all of her feed at the E time and then wants to pick up where she left off an hour later.  At night time she's waking a fair few times and wanting food.  Should I just feed her when she wants it or try not to give in, as feeding her at 5/6am for example will then throw off our daytime routine.

Any advice would be very gratefully received as we're literally just a few days into this, so far easier to correct things now I should think!

Thanks

Kerry

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi kerry,
welcome to bw.

first of all, could you please post your current routine like this, as it makes it easier for us to see what is going on:

E when, how much?
A when (from minute she wakes until she falls asleep)
S when and for how long?

regarding reflux, is her crib raised at one end and what medication is she taking? also is she still swaddled?

my LO is a refluxer too. i used to pop him in a bouncer seat to 'keep him upright' or popping him in the baby carrier helped. or i would sit him on my lap to play. soon she will be old enuf for a 'bumbo' seat too, this puts LOs in a seated position even when they cant sit up yet (wish i got one of these earlier with my son).

post your routine and we'll see how we can help

[KerryH]

Hi

Our routine for the past few days is as follows.  Not put in A times as I only log E and S times at the moment, so it's in between the two.  Part of the E/A though is keeping her upright for half an hour after each feed to help with the reflux.

Wed:

E  07.00 - 180 ml
S  09.00 - nap 1 hour in bouncer chair

E  10.00 - 150 ml
S  11.50 - nap 10 mins in cot

E  13.15 - 180 ml
S  15.15 - nap 30 mins in car seat

E  15.50 - 180 ml
S  17.40 - nap 20 mins in bouncer chair

E  18.00 - 110 ml
A  19.30 - bedtime bath
E  20.00 - 140 ml
S  21.50 - finally settled in cot, slept 3 hours

E  00.45 - 200 ml
S  02.10 - slept 30 mins
    02.40 - tummy pain noises so held upright 10 mins
S  02.50 - slept 1 hour 20 mins
E  04.10 - 120 ml
S  05.00 - slept 45 mins
S  06.45 - slept 30 mins

Thurs:

E  07.15 - 150 ml
S  09.30 - nap in cot 30 mins

E  10.00 - 100 ml
S  11.00 - nap 40 mins held (while we had visitors)
S  11.40 - nap in cot 1 hour 50 mins

E  13.30 - 120 ml (had to be woken to feed)

E  16.00 - 120 ml

E  18.00 - 90 ml
A  19.10 - bedtime bath
E  19.20 - 120 ml
E  20.00 - 30 ml
S  21.10 - slept in cot 4 hours

E  00.15 - 180 ml
S  01.30 - slept in cot 15 mins
    tummy pain noises so held upright 15 mins
S  02.00 - slept in cot 2 hours

E  04.00 - 190 ml
S  05.30 - slept in cot 2 hours


Even just writing it down like that rather than in my notepad I can see how completely all over the place we are!!!!  It's still our first week of trying this out and we have made the big changes of moving to completely bottle feeding and moving her into her own room in a cot last weekend, so I suppose it's bound to be a bit unsettled at first.

Any advice on things that I could improve on would be gratefully received, as well as what to do with the snacking, when she wants to feed mid way through a cycle - should I try and hold her off or top her up a little?

The other main thing I'd love to try and sort out is the waking up to feed twice at night.  I know she can go with just one feed from when we were holding her upright pretty much all night due to the reflux but she just doesn't seem to do it when in her cot!  I tried a DF but couldn't get her to take it at all so just been trying to do cluster feeding instead.

She is on gaviscon for her reflux and her mattress is raised.  The gaviscon seemed to be working really well but just had a few really bad days again - sometimes it is definitely one step forward and two back it seems!

Anyway, I shall stop waffling on but any advice would be very gratefully received.

Thanks

Kerry

[huntersmummyinoz]

kerry, so sorry for the late reply, i havent been able to get online for a few days.

looking at her routine, i think her A times could be too long, especially since she was 6 weeks early. here is a link to average A times, her times would be between her real age and 6 weeks younger than that. most of the times you had were closer to 2 hrs, try cuttting it back to 1.5hrs and see if that helps. the 1.5hrs includes feeding and also wind down, so start wind down at about 1hr15.

regarding your snacking Q, it actually doesnt look too bad. aim to put her on a 3hr EASY routine so this means feeding 3hrly too (on a typical routine feeds would be 7, 10, 1, 4, 7. if you want to do the cluster feed for now, try it at around 6pm after a catnap, follow with bath, baby massage, pjs, etc and then final feed at around 7pm and settle for bedtime. after you start to get her routine settled you may wish to try a df again, and then drop the cluster feed. will she take a dummy? as you can use that to try and stretch out her feeds to 3hrly. by the way, i could never get my LO to take a bf for df, i had to express and use a bottle and then it worked great. the df would definitely help get her onto one nw for a feed too but keep tackling the daytime routine first. often once daytime is sorted, nighttime settles down too.

also is she swaddled?

HTH