Bed Time Feed

[jay2yay]

Hello!

Haven't been here in a long while....did BW with DS1 and now have DS2 finally! We've been doing a flexible EASY routine since birth really, and now some things are coming back to me that I had forgotten about. I've been having a heck of a time with the cat naps/bed time/cluster feeds, and it dawned on me this morning that I recalled somehow changing up the cluster feeds and doing a a bed time feed instead of 2 cat naps, I THINK. Does that sound familiar? I thought I kept all my logs, but I can't find them. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[jay2yay]

Something like, dropping one of the cat naps and adding a bed time feed instead of a second cluster feed. Anyone?? What does that do to the A time?

[creations]

Sorry not sure what you mean but bumping your post, hopefully some support will be your way soon.

[weaver]

Not sure either what you mean about two cat naps?  I only ever had one for both LOs - around 5pm and aiming for BT around 7, maybe you have a different structure going on!

Maybe post rough timing for your day and let us have a look?  I generally clusterfed in the evening, so after that 5 pm CN, and that included the BT feed around 7. I also introduced a dreamfeed pretty early too, in an attempt to have some sort of structure.

[jay2yay]

Sorry, I always saw them as two cat naps. In Tracey's EASY sample for a 4 week old in BWSAYP, there's the 40-50 minute CN around 5:15 I think, and then bed time is around 7:30, but then she says to wake the baby after 30 minutes and feed at 8 pm. So, I saw that as 2 CNs. I recall somehow getting around waking DS1 after putting him to bed by doing a BT feed which Tracey doesn't "recommend", but many moms on the forum saw a BT feed differently from other feeds.

Basically here's what we've been doing:

E 7am
A
S 8:15

E 10 am
A
S 11 am

E 1 pm
A
S  2/2:15

E 4 pm
A
S 5:15

E 6 pm
A
E 7 pm
BT 7:15/30

Some nights the DF is at 11 but some nights I can't get him to take it, and if I can get him to take it, I can only get him to BF one side. He's still waking around 2 am and 5/5:30 am

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi Justine, just wanted to wave hi! We were together in the birth clubs, remember?
Congratulations on your new LO!

[Martini~]

Hi!

So you are right about Tracy recommending cluster feeding in the evening after BT, but I think not many mothers do it as settling LO for BT is not that easy:))) so after you finally got baby asleep you are not eager to wake him.
What many mothers do is cluster feeding before BT so let say 4pm, 6pm at 7/7:30 top up or 4pm, 5:15/5:30 and 7:00/7:30. Or if the 3rd nap ends before 4pm you can feed at 3:30,5:30 and 7:30pm. So whatever suits you and your LO. You have to make your own timings. Some LOs are not hungry after 1-1,5h, some could eat every hour from 4pm:). The ideas are to tank him up but also to make enough milk for LO as some/ many mothers find their supply slightly lower in the evening after exhausting day and constant frequent feeding during day.

When to end? Depends on you. Tracy recommends up to 8wo not longer. Mothers from here usually continues slightly longer, for example I was cluster feeding up to around 4mo. I decided to stop as LO was used to take full feeds and if not hungry, didn't liked topup's. So I fed at 3pm, then tried around 5:30/6:00 (LO was not interested in feeding earlier...), but in the end DS was not taking any feed at 7pm as wasn't hungry. So observe your little one and try to choose what's better for you!

HTH

[jay2yay]

Hi Ima!!! Yes I do remember!! It's been a long time!

Thank you Martii, that does make sense. This early for us, I guess our struggle is his A times still aren't very long, so yea I don't feel like that 7 pm is as substantial as it should be. I like possibly trying to do the 5pm feed, before his CN- will have to try that tomorrow

Sometimes his 7/7:30 BT-11pm DF sleeping is great. But other times he wakes frequently and honestly I can't tell whether it's because of a wonky day/OT/UT/whatever or from hunger since I don't feel like he's eating much the BT feed. But we're also dealing with pain/gas issues as well so it could be different depending on the evening I guess!!

Thanks again