4 week old is a very fast feeder, should I shorten the EASY routine? (newbie)

[dsfong]

Hi all,

I am a first time mum from England to baby Louis who is exactly 1 month old today 

I have started the EASY routine but haven't been able to do any of the cluster feeds or dream feeds, just establishing the EASY for now.  I have a few questions, I hope someone can help me?

My baby feeds very quickly, he can finish in about 15 minutes, so then I burp him and change his nappy which doesn't take long at all.  Looking at the sample routines, the E part is around 45 mins before A starts so I'm a little confused how this will work for me since the E part for me is on average 15 minutes.  Also does the A include the eat time? 
Sometimes after I've changed his nappy, I put him back on the breast before putting him down and try not to let him fall asleep at the breast.  Sometimes he takes more but sometimes he's done.  I know that these routines are flexible, but I'm not sure whether to extend the A time for my baby to make the 3 hour routine or just feed him, burp him, change nappy, wait for sleepy signs and put him down?  He tends to sleep for around 1.5-2.5 hours in the day so this sometimes makes up the 3 hour EASY routine if the E and A have been quick!

Also, a question around the cluster feeding and cat naps?  Are you supposed to wake your baby to make it a cat nap as my baby sleeps longer in late afternoons e.g yesterday he slept from 5 to nearly 9pm and I wasn't sure whether to wake him?  I'm not sure I will be able to do the dream feeds as I think I would end up waking him when picking him up or he won't open his mouth to take my breast.  Is it okay to just let them wake naturally and then feed them?

Thank you all in advance
xxx

[michaeljacknnugg]

It sounds like you're doing great!

For the feeding, just let him go as long as he wants. And then, like you say, just watch for sleepy cuesbefore you put him down. At this age there tends not to be a lot of activity time but it (for us) suddenly lengthened out as he became more alert.

When are you feeding currently? If he's sleeping between 5and 9pm it might be that he still has his days and nights a bit mixed up (my DS did at that stage, too). I would aim to feed him every three hours through the day and wake him to do so, in order to set his body clock. At night just feed when he wakesand put him right back to bed.

I think for us the cluster feeding came a little later, but essentially we were feeding around 7,10,1,3,5,7

[dsfong]

Thank you so much for getting back to me

Yesterday I fed at:

8:30am, 11, 2, 5, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, 8:30am

I'm kind of led by him and when he wakes up and it does sort of follow a 3hr pattern, but sometimes he sleeps longer or sometimes he takes a short nap and then I feel like i'm out of sync.  Maybe I need to relax a bit on this!  Right now he's awake after only a half an hour nap so I'm keeping him awake till 6 for his next feed as he just fed at 3:30pm.  When you say every 3 hours, is that 3 hours from the start of each feed?

I will wake him for his feeds during the day the next time and see if that helps   Are you waking your baby for feeds between 1-7pm?

thanks again x

[michaeljacknnugg]

You made me laugh - my baby is now a strapping six year old  

So a lot of this is from memory! There's a lot of good advice on the breastfeeding board if you want to consult there too.

The start of each feed is where you start counting from, yes. If he's asking for one after anything two/two and a half hours after the last feed, I'd just go ahead and feed him.

You look like you have a big gap in the early evening. If you wake him to feed during this period, fingers crossed he will shift it to the nighttime and let you get your sleep when you need it most.