wake baby from nap to eat? (2 mo old)

[eyenosquat]

My 2 mo baby takes long naps during the day (since I discovered the escape proof swaddle... and only if I put her down at the right time, not under- or overtired.)

My question is... if she's on the 3-hour EASY, does this mean I have to wake her up from her nap to eat and keep on the 3-hour schedule? She sometimes can sleep with 3.5 or 4 hours between feeds... sometimes 4 hours pass and I do wake her up, not knowing how long she'll stay sleeping and not eat. (Naps end up being 2 or 2.5 hours, sometimes could be longer... instead of 1.5 according to schedule.)

Her wake time is about 1 hr 20 min to 1 hr 30 min.

[Florena49]

Hi and welcome to BW

Congratulations on your little one! It is generally upto you whether you want to stick to exact feeding timings or not.  Personally i did what you are doing now, waking if it gets to 3.5 hours. Is she putting on weight ok, plenty of wet and dirty nappies? How often is she eating at night?

[eyenosquat]

she's gaining weight, but not very fast. she was born 7lb 2oz and was up to 9 lb at her 2month (went from 50th percentile to 10th percentile), but both my husband and I are slender, small people. Doc says that if she stays at 10th percentile by 4month appointment, then we're fine.

she seems to be developing fine, eating fine, pooping and peeing a good deal...

She eats once at night, sometimes twice... for 3 days she woke at 4am (longest sleep yet)!!! and other days she wakes somewhere between 1-3am, and again early morning... what do you do when they wake so darn early, but it's an hour or so before you really want to start the day?

[Florena49]

It all sounds pretty good to me, especially the long stretch of sleep at night. Would she settle after an early morning feed for a couple of hours of more sleep?

[eyenosquat]

Thanks for the reassurance. Even though this is my second child, breastfeeding/pumping at work when i went back did not go well with my first.
I'm still very anxious about going back to work in a few weeks (she'll be 12 weeks at that point), mostly because of having to have to pump. The office has a dedicated place to do it and there's lots of moms using it, but I just have bad memories. I don't even know how to start and how to build up a stash. When do I fit in the pumping with this breastfeeding routine...?

She only slept 6 hours for a few nights and now has reverted back to waking every 3 or 4 even at night.

How can you tell if the dream feed is doing anything useful?
When she wakes in the morning (5:15 this morning), I held her off with the paci and she slept for another half hour, about. So then I fed her then since it was close to 6am (optimally she'd wake between 6 and 7 am).

Was that the right thing to do? *sigh*

[Florena49]

I dont have much experience with pumping, Im still at home with my 9 months old. I would suggest posting on the breastffeding board the ladies there will give you great advice and help with a bit of a plan that will work for you.

What you did was absolutely fine, I would imagine you would want a bit more of a structured routine when u are back at work. do you want to post your EASY routine either here or on the EASY forum and we can have a look at what might need adjusting so your LO has a longer night.