EASY with a 6 week old-not so easy from 5pm-9pm!

[mommymadden]

I've tried to implement EASY with my little gal from about 4 weeks but we are having some problems that seem to occur every day between 5-9pm.  Here is our routine so far:

6-eat
630-7 activity time (diaper, playtime etc)
7-9 sleep (usually in car carrier while I drop off big brother at school and do errands)

9-eat
930-10 activity time (diaper, playtime etc)
10-sleep (in crib)

12-eat
1230-1-activity time
1-Sleep (in crib)

3-eat
330-activity time and pic up brother from school
4-sleep (in carseat during pic up and ride home...and then things go down hill...)

At this point when I get home she wakes up-5ish and is fussy and seems hungry so she gets her first cluster feed at 5pm.  After this feed she generally does not go to sleep she is up and fussy.  I feed her again at 630 and then again at 730/8ish after her bath.  In between these feedings she is awake and is quite if being held otherwise is crying in her crib/swing etc.  I try to put her to sleep at 8 but she fights me until I feed her again at 9 and then she will finally go to sleep after that.  She seems to be struggling with gas/bowel movements at the end of the night and didn't know if this could be related to the cluster feedings?  Anyhow shes asleep by 9 and I'm too tired to do a dreamfeed so she sleeps until she wakes up between 1-2 to eat and then again between5-6 to eat and then we are up for the day.

So not sure what is happening between 5-9 when she is basically not sleeping at all and is super fussy.  Would love to do the dreamfeed and get more sleep at night but it just doesn't seem to be working.  Any help would be sooooo appreciated!

V.

[~Sarah~]

First I want to give you some {{{HUGS}}} sounds rough.

I also want to say I did not get a very good EASY going before 8wks with either of mine and it really took until 12wks to really get something good going.

Having said that-you look pretty good.  The most important thing at this point seems to be keeping an EAS routine and you are doing that.  You also are keeping A time right around 1hr which is also good.

The only thing that pops out at me is the you are doing her bath and BT quite late in respect to your day.  If she is waking at 6 we would have you shooting for her BT to be 6-630 pm so something like this:

A  500 Feed
  545 bath/BT routine
  615 last cluster feed
S  630

DF @ 1000 or sometime between 9-11

Here is a link to common routines around your LO's age.  You are coming up to a point where you could up A time by 15 min, but the rest of your day looks good and 2NW at this point is good too so I would not muck to much.

Also, the time frame you are talking about is the peak colic time and if you are already suspecting gas. If I remember right (and I honestly can't believe I have forgot already) but colic peaks at 6-8wks.  (DD had it awful, maybe I am just blocking it )

So I am not sure if this helps you, but it at least gives you some things to think about and also some things to try.

Let me know what you think!

Sarah
 

 

[mommymadden]

Thanks Sarah....good to have someone elses perspective on the whole routine.  I'm going to try and get her bedtime routine to be a bit earlier...I'm just trying to balance her schedule with my 3 year olds...its such a balancing act!  Especially since my hubby isnt home until 530ish.  On the bright side my baby gal slept 6 hours straight last night so I was absolutely delighted about that!  I'm gonna keep trying EASY and see where it goes.
Thanks again!

V

[~Sarah~]

6 hrs!!  That is awesome!!  My DD was able to do that but DS never did that at this age.

Sorry, I also realized I did not include the link!!!

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164027.0

HTH
Sarah

[mommymadden]

Just a little update....so far so good.  We are trying to do things a bit earlier but its still a bit of a struggle with my 3 year old on the go! Our last cluster feed is around 8-830ish.  This seems to work out well because my lil gal will NOT dreamfeed.  Tried a few nights in a row and she is just zonked! Even breast milk on the lip-trick resulting in nothing...maybe a sleepy smile!  So what happens at night now is that her last cluster feed is 8ish and then she is up at 3-330am and then up for the day at 630 or 7.  Should I keep trying the dream feed?  It worked so well with my oldest but not so much with my lil lady! 

V

[~Sarah~]

WOW!!  Sounds like things are going fab!!  DD was BF and I could not get her to DF until about 4mo (I think it was then, maybe 3mo) and I cluster fed until that point.  She too just would not wake even a bit to latch at all! You can just keep cluster feeding and trying the DF in a wk or 2 and see how it goes.  DD did fine on cluster feeds until that age, and if I remember right she started to stir and wake around 11pm so I started trying the DF at 10pm and it worked.

[~Sarah~]

Also, just in case you wanted to look at this:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54662.0

Hope things keep going smooth

[Mrsgoat]

Hi there - I've just read your first post and I could have written that.  That is the problem I'm having with my 10 week old twins (but I don't have the perfect day time routine going yet either that you seem to!)  Some days it works, other days like today they are feeding around 2 - 2.5 hourly - not sure if it's a growth spurt or gas issues - they are fairly smelly today!!  So I will keep checking on how you are going with interest

[mommymadden]

So an update!  Evenings are going a bit better I'm feeding her at 5pm, 630 and then at 8ish then she sleeps sleeps until 330am so that is wonderful!  She continues to be crabby in the early evening but our doc said that that is very typical among babes.  We were attempting to put her upstairs in her room for the naps that occur around this time but have given up as its hard to watch my 3 year old, cook dinner and run stairs!  She seems content to sleep on and off in her baby swing and I hope that eventually she will do a full nap there!  The new  bump in the road-the morning nap that usually lands around 10ish each morning.  She seems to be fighting this nap for the past few days and not sure why.  Hmmm....well hopefully that will sort itself out!  I will keep you posted!