Still waking at Night

[thewoods]

Hi Guys,

Not sure if you have any advice? We have started trying to implement EASY routine for our 6 week old son who is formula fed.

The historical problem we have been having is that he has been sleeping nearly ALL day between feeds(with regular feeds every 3/4hrs). At night he has been waking up for feeds around 2-3am and then again around 5/5.30am - which is why we've started to try EASY. The additional challenge is that he might have reflux, sometimes he will spend an hour or 2 being upset after the 2/3am feed and it is often hard to get him back to sleep. During the day he can be left in his Moses basket and will sleep soundly/deeply on his own. At night he sleeps in the Moses basket in our bedroom, but he seems to have lighter sleeps and is much more restless.

We started EASY on Saturday, the first night he slept from 11.45pm - 3:45am (this is progress for us!) but woke for a feed and then was awake continually from 3.45am onwards. We worked really hard on EASY on Sunday night we; had a good bedtime routine, did all of the activity and sleeps during the day and he slept quietly during the periods from 7pm to his dreamfeed which we gave at 11pm. Unfortunately he woke up for more feeds at about 2.20am and again at 5am last night.

Two main challenges I think we have; 1 he seems to feed quickly (bottle) usually 15-20 minutes to finish 130ml (Dr Browns Bottles, first size teats) AND 2. we think he gets some reflux although this hasn't been diagnosed.

Yesterday (Sunday's Routine):

E - 6.45AM Feed (130ml)
A - 7.15AM - 7.45AM Activity & Nappy Change etc
S&Y - 7.45AM NAP

E - 9.45AM - Feed (130ml)
A - 10:15am 10:45 - Activity & Nappy Change etc
S&Y 10.45AM Second Nap

E - 1.00pm - Feed (130ml)
A - 1.30pm - 2.00pm Activity & Nappy Change etc
S&Y - 2pm Third Nap

E - 4pm - Feed (130ml)
A - 4.30pm - 5pm Activity & Nappy Change etc
S&Y 5pm Nap

E - 6pm - Cluster Feed 1 (Would only take 90ml)
A - 6.30pm - 7.30pm - Bath, Nappy Change Bedtime relaxation
S&Y 7.30pm NAP

E- 8.30pm - Cluster Feed 2(Would only take 100ml)
A - None went straight back to Sleep
S&Y This was more of a dream feed.

E-11pm - Dream Feed (Would only take 90ml)

He then woke at 2.20am and 5am for feeds. He had about 70ml and then 90ml for these feeds. It's difficult to get more into him in the evening. In total he had about 920ml Sunday and 950ml Saturday but part of this is made up for the feeds in the early hours.


Any advice warmly received!


 
An afterthought: the standard template allows about 45mins per feed, Ben only take 15-20mins per feed. If I add up all of this time it is probably 2-3 hours extra sleep during the day he is getting. It's quite difficult to keep him active for the extra time because he is so young.

[jessmum46]

Hi and welcome

I'm not totally sure what your concern is (sorry for not quite understanding) - is it that your LO is waking for feeds at night?  That's pretty normal for a six week old baby.....otherwise routine looks good, 1h awake time is about right for his age.  Could you be more specific about what is worrying you?

As far as I can think there's no issue with him feeding quickly, at least none that should affect a routine.  My LO is breastfed but at that age would be done a feed in 10 minutes.  Have you had anyone check him out regarding your reflux concern?

ETA - in response to your additional comment about feed length - A time includes everything from eyes open to eyes shut.  The length of feed therefore shouldn't affect the routine at all because eating is included as part of A time.  So if LO can manage an hours A time, a 45 minute feeder would have 15 mins "activity" before sleep time, a 15 minute feeder would have 45 mins.  Does that make sense? 

[weaver]

Totally agree with pp. everything looks perfect for that age, night feeds are perfectly normal, and healthy.