19 weeks old - need a new easy

[natashalil]

hi there
DS is 19 weeks old and in the5th percentile.dr and nurses are recommending i feed him 8x in a 24hr period.  this is the easy we were trying to follow -


E - 7am
A - 7:30
S - 9  (usually a short nap, 30-45 min)
A - till next feed
E - 10:30
A - 11
S - 12:30 (this nap can be 1-2 hrs)
a till next E, if nap is short
E -2:00
A - 2:30
S - 4 (catnap, sometimes)
E - 5 (to tank up)
A till bed time routine starts at 6:30 (bath, massage, pjs, feed, then bed at 7:30)
at night he use to wake up once nowwakes 4x!!!!


the problem is his naps tend to be short and erratic sometimes the morn nap is 1.5hr most times only .5 hrs.  What is a better EASY (or EAEAS, for more feeds )  for me?  He has also been waking at 5am. 

[mommytogabriel]

My son is a little older then your DS and from my experience with him, at 19wks he was barely making it to 2 hours max. The only thing i can think of is to decrease to A time slightly, even by 10 mins. I found this worked for us very well.
It really wasnt until he was about 5.5mnths that he started to go 2.15hrs of A time. He stood at that 2hr max time for a few weeks.

magda

[creations]

DS is 19 weeks old and in the5th percentile.dr and nurses are recommending i feed him 8x in a 24hr period.

Could you expand on this, I'm not sure I understand.
It looks from your EASY you are doing 5 day feeds so are you doing 3 feeds at night too?
Has your LO lost a lot of weight recently is that the reason the docs have advised 8 feeds per 24hr?

[natashalil]

hi yes 5 during the day, plus however many times he wakes at night. i would like to get back to one night waking, which means i need 2 more feeds during the day.

he went from the 50th at birth to the 25th at 2 months to the 5th percentile at 4 months, so that was the reco from the dr and nurse, to make sure he doesnt dip below the chart.

[natashalil]

also when you have an easy, do you follow it religiously, or do you modify based on a different wake up time or a shorter nap?

[creations]

Is he breast or bottle fed?
Sorry for so many questions. I don't think I can fully answer this for you but will see if I can get someone with experience in this to pop in.

WRT the EASY routine though it is flexible and yes you modify depending on the individual LO's needs and dependent on the day too. For instance a high stimulation day might need a shorter A time, after a short nap you would reduce the following A a little to avoid OT etc.

[natashalil]

bf

[creations]

Thanks

[creations]

OK, I really wasn't sure about increasing the number of feeds in the day hours because I thought this might stop LO taking a full feed so not really being better off but I had a quick look at your breast feeding thread and see Ali suggested you maybe do a top up an hour after feeds so maybe your day could look something like this:

WU & E 7.00
A currently 2hr
S 9.00 30 min
E 9.30 (2hr 30)
A 1hr 30 - 1hr 45 following short nap
E 10.30 (top up)
S 11.00/11.15 1hr-2hr
E 1.00 (2.5hr)
E 2.30 (top up)
A 2hr following full nap
S 3.00 2hr
E 5.00 (2.5hr)
A 2 hr following full nap
E top up before bed
BT 7.00
DF 10.00

I've based this on average A times for age and the EASY you posted for usual nap lengths.  It's not set in stone more of a guidance of how the feeds and naps could fit in across the day.  Some of the A times you posted were really long so I've reduced these to allow for age and short napping or longer napping. Appropriate A times, and an earlier BT could help with those early mornings you're seeing. If he is awake from 5am though you need to amend the times of the guidance routine as he won't be able to get from 5am to 9am without a nap.
I will say too though that I've seen lots of BF mums here say they do a DF and also have a NF too and I would have thought this would provide LO with more calories because of the spacing of feeds and able to take more.

What do you think?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

At that age we were doing EAEAS with the 2nd E being a top up feed, not a full feed (she has high A times so needed the extra feed to get through the nap before the next E).

Do you feed at the 5 am wake? 

[natashalil]

i am goinkg to give that a try thx so much!


yes i pretty much feed whenevr he wakes up in case of gs