Just wondering if anyone can help? My 10 week old has been an Angel since day one. Went easily to bed and and put himself to sleep from the fourth week and went on a perfect 3 hour schedule with no struggles whatsoever. Until a couple of weeks ago it looked like this:
E: 7.00
A: 7.30
S: 9.00
E: 10.00
A: 10.30
S: 11:30
E: 13.00
A: 13.30
S: 14:00
E: 16.00
A: 16.30
S: 17:30
E: 18.00
A: 18.30
S: 19.00
E: 19.45
S: 20.00
Because he has reflux the df has never really worked for us (he's a happy spitter, but was bringing up pretty much his whole feed). He usually slept from about 8pm until 3am. Then things got a bit weird as he'd never really settle after the 3am feed. He'd usually sleep very noisily until 5am and then drift between sleep and wake (never crying but grunting and wriggling) until I eventually fed him at 7am.
I've always timed the EASY by the feeds because he's not a very regular sleeper during the day but was like clockwork for feeding, so some days he would have a tiny nap, and others a longer sleep at the same time he napped the day before, though the 2pm sleep is pretty constant at 1 and a half hours. He sleeps easily in the sling or pushchair so I always put this down to him getting the right amount of naps and self balancing when they were on the basis of us going out on certain days.
Anyway, this was all fine and easy to get along with until a couple of weeks ago he seemed less interested in his feeds at the set times, and seemed to naturally drift to a 4 hour EASY. So going with the flow, I started increasing the volume of the feeds and spacing them out a little longer. This also went fine for a week. Then suddenly last week it all went to pot. He seemed to need to feed urgently at strange times. My baby isn't a cryer at all and only cries when either in pain or hungry, but when he's hungry he needs to eat really urgently and lets me know about it! There is no way of calming him without feeding him, so I'm pretty sure he was hungry as he's not a baby that eats if he's not hungry. He's formula fed btw. I won't list the whole easy or the whole week but just a few days and just the feeds to make it simpler.
Friday: 3.00, 7.00, 9.30, 12.30, 15.00, 17.00, 19.30
Saturday: 2.20, 7.00, 9.45, 13.00, 16.00, 18.00, 19.45
Sunday: 2.30, 6.20, 9.30, 1.00, 16.00, 18.00, 19.45 (but was really really antsy from 5am. Had to keep putting dummy in mouth to try and calm him down until his 7am feed)
Monday: 12.30, 5.00, 7.25, 10.00, 12.00, 16.00, 18.00, 19.45
I had put it down to a growth spurt at the beginning, but its going on too long, and he's only taking very small amounts at some feeds so its not like he's increasing his calories, if anything they are going down. He usually eats between 4 and 5 oz at each feed, and some he was only taking 1 1/2 or 2oz. He's being really fussy at some feeds too - pushing the bottle away with his tongue or hands, arching his back, crying out etc. I tried a faster flow teat thinking that might be the problem, but he just choked so I went back to the stage 1 teat.
I'm not sure if this is relevant, but he was born a little early (at 37 weeks), but has been very ahead of his developmental milestones since day 1. Could hold his head up from the beginning, take the weight on his legs from 3 weeks, and is incredibly bright, alert and observant most of the time. These last couple of weeks he's still been very bright, and I have practically watched him learning new things every day - he's just discovered his legs when he plays, and now seems to hate been swaddled all of a sudden and keep trying to fight his way out (though if we don't he still wakes himself up with his hands). He's happy a lot of the time, but much more moody than he was before, swinging from happy and smiley, to upset in an instant. Another thing that could be relevant was that I was ill with flu last week and couldn't kiss him or hold my face near his face for a few days, but that's better now.
Sorry if that's way too much info, but I'd love some insight as to why my perfect, clockwork baby is suddenly crazy!
