3mo EASY

[Kalikins]

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking for a long time, then upgraded to making an account and now here I am posting!

I have a 15 week old son who I have been trying to get on EASY since 4 weeks. We went through the whole he has colic, he's just a needy baby... blah blah blah to find out he has silent reflux! Thanks to all the moms out there on the babywhisperer forums who told me to keep PUSHING if I felt something was wrong because I know my little boy best!! So... now that he is on zantac and we have worked out the dosage, he is doing much better and is starting to form his own routine... but here are my issues: sometimes he won't take his full feeding at the 3 hour mark or even 3.5 hours, he only wants to eat at 4 hours, feed him before then and he eats 2 ounces, 3 tops. Wait until the 4th hour comes and he eats 5 to 6 ounces. He can only be awake a maximum of an hour and a half though... Lol. Another thing, last night he slept from 10:30 pm until 7:00 am (woohoo!). He ate last at 10:30 pm (3.5 ounces), but when he woke up this morning he had no interest in eating until 8:00 am and usually doesn't (what's that about??)

Here is how our days have been so far:

6:30/7:00: Wake up for the day, change diaper, etc.
7:15/7:30: Feed (usually he doesn't want to though, so we hang out and play for a bit)
8:00: Feed (usually he wants it at this time).
8:30 - 10:30: Nap
11:00: Eat (sometimes he has no interest and I have to wait a bit)
1:00 - 1:40: Cat nap
3:00: Eat
3:30 - 5:30: Nap
6:15/6:30: Bedtime routine begins

He is getting better at going down for naps and staying down since his reflux is under control... but do I try and stick him to a 3 hour, 3.5 hour? How do I work the awake times and feeding and sleeping if they all don't add up because he won't feed at the proper times? I'm worried about trying to force him into a different schedule when this one is what he's sort of settled into himself. I'm happy he's taking naps, hut I feel like the afternoon one usually messes with his sleeping at night (yesterday my mother watched him and he didn't sleep from 12:00pm (noon) until bedtime...... I'm happy he slept a good chunk in the night, but he cannot be awake that long in the day! That's a whole other issue with her, but yeah... Any suggestions and words of encouragement would be awesome. Thank you!!

Samantha

[jessmum46]

Hi Samantha and welcome!

Sorry you've had a tough start with reflux but I'm glad things are improving. 

A lot of bottle-fed babies will be happy to go longer between feeds than 3h.  In fact, I am EBF but my LO is happy to go longer too.  But obviously that can be hard to fit into a 'standard' EASY routine.  It's totally fine though if your day happens to end up more like AEAS than EAS - just try to avoid feeding directly before sleep as much as possible .

What kind of difficulties are you usually having with his night sleep?

[Kalikins]

Hi jessmum!

Thank you! I'm glad things have been improving too. I feel like I jinxed my LO the zantac isn't working as good again! We've moved to Prevacid and will be starting him on that tomorrow.

Exactly! I stopped stressing so much about the standard EASY routine to just get some sort of routine, so now I'm just trying to fine tune it to make sure he's getting the proper amount of sleep at the proper times to ensure his night time sleep isn't messed with! Phew!

Night time sleep is actually pretty awesome. He has been waking up between 3:30 and 4:00 am. for 6 - 7 ounces of food and passing back out until 5:30 am-ish. At this time he just seems really uncomfortable. He tries to comfort himself back to sleep for anywhere from 15 minutes to a full hour until he just gets frustrated and starts to cry, at which point I go right in. The day my mom had him and he was up for a whopping 6 hours he woke up at 10:30 pm for food and then slept until 7:00 am with no problem. I'm debating on trying a dream feed around 10:30 pm, but I'm also afraid with how well he does at night that it will mess him up!

Yesterdays schedule looked like this:

A: 6:50 am
E: 7:00 am (3.5 oz)
A: 7:15 am
E: 8:15 am (4 oz)
S: 8:30 am - 11:15 am
E: 11:30 am (4.75 oz)
A: 11:45 am
E: 2:15 pm (4.5 oz)
S: 2:30 pm - 4:30 pm
E: 4:45 pm (4 oz)
A: 5:00 pm
E: 7:00 pm (11 oz!!)
S: 9:00 pm (he had a really tough time falling asleep, but I have a feeling it is due to his reflux)

And today's schedule:

A: 7:30 am
E: 8:00 am (2 oz)
A: 8:10 am
E: 8:50 am (1.25 oz)
S: 9:00 am - 11:00 am
E: 11:10 am (3.5 oz)
A: 11:25 am
E: 12:20 pm (3 oz)
S: 12:30 pm - 2:30 pm
E: 2:40 pm (2 oz)
A: 2:50 pm
E: 4:00 pm (5 oz)
S: 4:10 pm - 4:40 pm
A: 4:40 pm
E: 7:00 pm (8 oz)
S: 9:00 pm (again a really tough night)

As you can see for today we had a really tough time with food. Whenever he only takes 2 - 3 oz, he is flaring up and crying, so I try to give smaller feeds more often until it gets better. I think today's naps were a bit more aligned with how long he should be asleep and awake... what do you think??

[jessmum46]

I've never done a dreamfeed so not much use advising on it I'm afraid.  But you could always try it for a few nights and see what happens?

Yesterday's routines some extremely long A times in in and although naps were good, I'm guess that was because LO was crashing.  He was probably OT at BT so struggled to settle, although reflux may not have helped.  Today's routine was much better A time wise (average at 3 months is 1h30, usually a bit shorter after a short nap) apart from the end of the day.  Did you try for another nap after the one that ended at 4.40pm?  What time did you start trying for BT?