3.5 hour EASY tweak and going back to work

[abstar333]

Hello!

I started a 3.5 hour EASY with my 12 week old lo about a week ago as she fit all the transition criteria I’ve seen.  She’s doing pretty well    She just started daycare and is going a couple days this week and next before going full time on Nov. 30.  I’ve been trying to get her EASY E times in line with my work schedule so that I have the opportunity to feed her before I go to work.  I wanted to be able to BF at 6:30 am but she isn’t hungry or naturally starting to wake at that time.  I have started to accept the fact that I may need to just bottle feed her my pumped milk around 7:00 instead as it takes less time and I can more easily hand her off to DH to finish the bottle and take her to daycare.  I have to be out the door by 7:20!  However, the past few mornings, she isn’t really hungry (spitting up and taking forever to eat) even at 7 AM.  This morning I tried waiting to feed her until 7:45 and it went much smoother…  so, my question is, should I continue to try to wake her early in the morning to work with my schedule or just leave her to sleep until around 7:30 or so and let my husband/daycare provider give her the first feeding?  I am sad I won’t be able to interact with her in the morning if I let her sleep in but perhaps it’s for the better as it's following her cues/rhythms and I will get to spend my time with her in the late afternoon???  It would be nice on the weekends if she keeps the later wake routine for me to sleep in too! I guess there are pros and cons to both…so just looking for opinions and an EASY tweak.

Here’s her general EASY over the last couple days.  Her A and S times are a bit screwy due to the daycare transition and we were battling 45 min naps the last few weeks too but she seems pretty happy and one can only control so much so I’m just focusing on the E for now and letting the A and S fall where they may.  ;-)  Basically she can handle about 1.5 hours of A time and will nap anywhere from 20 mins to 2.5 hours (I just woke her from a marathon 2.5 hour nap this afternoon-she seemed to be catching up since she didn’t sleep much more than 20 mins a couple times today at daycare!)

E: 7

E: 10:30
 
E: 2

E: 5
A: bath
S: 6:15 catnap

E: 7
A: read a story, cuddle and back to bed within 15 min. of finishing feed
S: about 7:45

DF: 10

Nightfeeding, she usually wakes around 3 AM to eat

I’m wondering too if maybe I stop the DF if she would wake earlier for her overnight feed and then be able to wake earlier in the morning…?  I am afraid to try that in case it will make her wake twice in the middle of the night and I need to sleep since I’m going back to work.     And I don’t want to change too many things at once!

Thanks in advance for any advice you can offer!

[*Liz*]

Most lo's like a 11-12 hr night, so if you want your lo up at 6.30am and hungry I think you will need to bring bedtime forwards a bit as well ie readjust your day.

I don't know what time you get back from work though, so don't know if you could fit a 6.30-7pm bedtime in?

I must admit I don't see much of DS when I am at work. He always wakes with the noise of us getting dressed in the morning though, so I adjusted his routine to a 6.30am wake-up. If often does mean I rush home from work to get him back in bed at 6.45pm though  .

[abstar333]

Thanks for your thoughts LizJ!  I will try moving up her bedtime a bit as I can get home from work by 4 and definitely do a 6:30/7 bedtime.  LO threw another little quirk in the routine today by showing that she can easily go 4 hours between E and have 2 hours of A without getting fussy!  So, today I tried jumping right into the 4 hour even though she is a little bit younger than what BW reccomends for a 4 hr EASY and it went really well!  Her naps were short so she was kind of EASAS but she was happy and ate really well every 4 hours!  Fingers crossed she takes to the earlier wake time AND the 4 hour!