EASY by age or weight?

[TB9]

I'm having such a tough time with DD2s easy and I'm starting to think that she needs more time between feeds...

She is 11weeks old, but was over 13lbs at her 2month checkup (some where in the 75th-100th percentile).  Since she's gotten over her 2month shots, she's started going  a LONG time at night and also started eating less or refusing feeds during the day.  For example lastnight she ate at 9:30ish then woke at 6:40am so I tried to feed her and she ate 1oz and fell back asleep...this is our day so far today

E 6:40 (1oz)
S until 9:10 didn't seem hungry until 9:30

E 9:40 (5oz)
S 10:35 - 1:05

E 1:15 (3oz)
S 2:50 - 3:20

E 3:30 (7oz) didn't eat enough at 1:15 so could only sleep 30min???
S 4:55 - 5:15 (DD1 may have woken her up, couldn't get her back down, obviously very ot at this point)

E 6:30 (5oz) but it seemed like a battle, maybe not hungry, maybe ot so she just didn't want to eat?
S 7:30-8 DH said he couldn't get her down in crib so she was in swing and woke after 30min

E 8:30 (4oz)
S 8:45

So obviously a horrible day caused by a rotten feed where she only took 3oz...this pretty much sums up our every day, one small feed at some point in the day causing a 30min nap and ot the rest of the day   Some days I can add an E in before S to get enough food into her, but it doesn't always work since the time it takes to get an extra feed in can easily cause ot...

Do you think she needs to go 4hrs between feeds?  Even though she isn't quite 3 months old, she seems gigantic for her age (my DD1 wasn't this size until over 4 months old, lol)  This isn't just a one day thing, we've been having these troubles for a few days now...so any advice is appreciated!

Forgot to add that I also have no clue what to do about her a time if we move to 4hr feeds, since she can really only stay up 1.5hrs some days, would just let her sleep longer?

[jessmum46]

It's possible that she might want to go 4h between feeds sometimes, that's ok and not unusual for bottle-fed babies.  She may not want to go 4h all the time, possibly just at one point in the day.  But I don't think your 30 min nap was feed-related - it's a classic OT length nap and looking at her A time before it, it was 1h45 which is pretty long for 11 weeks.  Then did another 1h35 mins A time after only a 30 min nap, so was (as you said) very OT by that point.  Normally you will need to reduce A time after a short nap.  There's a link to age-appropriate A times here: Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

There would be a couple of ways to approach longer spacing between feeds - yes you could allow her to sleep longer in between, or (probably better) you could just do an AEAS pattern sometimes i.e. feed her in the middle of A time.  As long as you're not feeding to sleep that's fine

[TB9]

She's always been on the higher side of a times, just like my other spirited DD   I usually go by yawns for her sleepy signs,  if I go by time or try for a nap before a yawn I get major refusal   I can try starting to chill her out aafter  a certain a time and try to force a yawn maybe If I go into her room too early though it's a huge fight so I will have to think of things to do outside of her room to try to get a yawn out if her...

After that first 30min nap I kept her in her room and tried to get her back to sleep the whole time, she just won't go to sleep until after a nearly complete a time, even if her previous nap was only 30min long...not sure what to do about that...

She actually ate at 6am today so I'm going to see if she wants to go until 10am for her next feed

Update:  She woke at 7:30 still hungry and still tired and her first nap was 30min long...I'm starting to think I'll never get this kid figured out, and I'm just so wrecked by it all 

[Ima shel Alon]

Did you try and put her back to sleep at 7:30 or started the day then? It's just that the night before that she did a 12.5h night and did a good first nap, maybe she needs a longer night? Are you aiming for a 9-9 day?

[TB9]

So I think I may have figured out what is going on!  Katherine I think you are right about her eating at different intervals through the day.  I think she likes to get a certain about of food in before taking a decent sleep.  So if I try to space feeds a certain length of time through the day she doesn't get any good naps.  This is our day so far today

E 5:15 (5oz)
S until 7am

E 7:45 (5oz)
S 8:30 - 9:15

E 9:45 (5oz)
S 10:30 - ?

She woke after 45min from her first nap, but was happy until 9:45 when she was ready to eat again.  Yesterday she got a good feed in after the rubbish start to the day and did a monster nap then didn't want to eat until the 4hrs mark...she tanks up like a bear before bed (last night she ate 10oz in the hour before bed  )  so im guessing that she will start doing the same for naps.  DD1 was similar, i had to feed her twice every A, but with dd2 its looking like she will just take shorter naps while she tanks up because she wont always take a top up feed. 

I'm hoping that now she will take a decent nap since she's had three good feeds, I may have kept her up a little too long after the 45min nap, but I shortened her wind down so she got into bed quick once she was starting to act sleepy...as long as she's well fed I can get her through any ot wakeup so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that even if I missed her window by a bit I can help her through for a good nap 

Ima - I like to have a 7-7 schedule or similar but bedtime got pushed back last week because of her two month shots and it took awhile to recover...she was in bed at 7:30pm lastnight, so I'm hoping we can keep it around there until something else throws a wrench in our schedule

And just to make things more confusing this little lady yawns when tired AND when she's hungry 

[Ima shel Alon]

LOL, DS was yawning throughout his entire A time!

Sounds like you may found what helps, that's great. Let us know how you are doing.

[TB9]

I found the magic number ladies!  It seems DD needs to get 14-15oz in before she settles for a good morning nap...no idea how I'm going to make that happen while avoiding short naps in the am    The last two days have been almost identical: nightfeed around 5am, wakeup 7/7:30 with feed sometime during her A , then a short nap followed by another feed and a longer nap.

Am I just stuck with this short am nap until she can stay up longer and take two feeds?  I tried topping her uo today before her first nap but she wasn't hungry, only took an ounce or so then short napped.

Our afternoon yesterday was kinda nutty, I let her sleep because of the short am nap and she ended up doing short pm naps until bedtime   I'm going to try waking her today to get her fed earlier and hopefully avoid short pm naps too.

[Ima shel Alon]

Could you wait longer with the morning feed or she is real hungry when she wakes up?

[TB9]

She isn't hungry when she wakes, I wait until she starts to get cranky.  I could probably give her a change of scene tomorrow morning and see if that keeps her occupied for a little it longer before needing to eat   Even when she wakes at 5am she's pretty laid back and talking and smiling while you get her bottle ready...if you wait too long watch out though, lol.  I'll just have to find the magic time to feed her

[Ima shel Alon]

My DS was similar, he had to go down with a full tummy . I gave a feed straight away when he woke up but he didn't take much and then a full feed before the nap. It's not ideal (and it will help if you have a nappy change or something in between) but I knew that if I don't do it I am just going to get short naps.