Q on snacking & nursing to sleep

[Animom]

My DS is 6 weeks old and is a sucky baby (doesn't like the pacifier, takes it but cries after 5 mins)...he likes to comfort feed...he is a terrible napper and doesn't nap more than 40 mins..i try to extend his naps but have a 50% success rate and when he gets really worked up I have to nurse him to sleep...

My question is since he is so young i cant stop him from comfort feeding but am i creating a prop...when should try to break this habit and how...any thoughts/ ideas.

Also since he is a bad napper and his A time is just 1 hour (sometimes much shorter after short naps), how do i try to get him on a feeding schedule (of say 2.5-3 hours)...as i am tying I'm thinking am i expecting too much from my baby...its just that i don't want him to get into the habit of snacking and nursing to sleep...

I am visiting my parents for few days and because of bad naps he has nursed to sleep at all naps today as a result he has not taken any big feeds today and is snacking every 1.5 hours...he can otherwise go 2.5-3 hours if he has a good A and nap.

Any thoughts ideas are welcome...

[michaeljacknnugg]

I didn't have a sucky baby but when he was really young I used to offer him my little finger to suck on if he looked like he was wanting something in his mouth. He would progress to crying if he was really hungry.

If you can, separate the E from the S with something, even just a nappy change. Maybe the visit to your parents could be useful in that they could distract him for a while?

I would try to space feeds at least two hours apart and work on sleep separately, myself. He can be held or rocked to sleep etc but the feeding to sleep is a harder prop to break.

[Animom]

Ok...that makes sense..i'll try the finger...DS does like being rocked..will try to space out E and S even if it means a change of diaper. Just wanted to know...is nursing to sleep at BT also a problem...in the sense will it become a prop later on? Should I feed him n then try to put him to sleep some other way ( off late shah pat doesn't seem to be working for naps n BT)...

[michaeljacknnugg]

We never put much in between feeding and sleep at bedtime and it didn't seem to cause any problems!

[*Ali*]

When are you actually feeding him then? If he feeds immediately before a 40 min nap is he then having another feed when he wakes up? What about trying to only feed him at the end of each A time to separate the feeds a little and then you could work on moving the feed away from the nap a bit? If you could also stretch his first A time by 10 mins or so you might get a better nap. Or having you tried wake to sleep?

He's really young so habits will still be relatively easy to change.

[Animom]

Thanks for your replies...lets take the first nap...he takes a feed at WU..then has an A of around 1 hour and then wind down and sleep..then he gets up anywhere between 30-50 mins into the nap..i try to resetlle and sometimes it takes half an hour with no success...at this point he gets very worked up and cries a lot..so i feed him and then he falls asleep immediately...then if I hold him...he will probably sleep for 1-1.5 hours but if not will get up again 30-40 mins into the nap, wake up crying take a small feed and sleep again...so this is how E schedule goes for a toss E and S come so close...

[Animom]

Have not tries WS because awake time during naps really differ...he wakes up anywhere between 30-60 mins..also what counts as a restorative nap at this age...i know he should take a 2 hour nap but when he sleeps say 1 hour 15 mins...should i try hard to resettle or have a small A?

[*Ali*]

I personally wouldn't try too hard to resettle any nap over 1hr.

Can you try to keep him up another 10 mins to see of he will do a longer nap? 

Wrt spacing of feeds, some LOs won't make 3hrs until older.  I'd be happy with anything over 2hrs now.

[Animom]

Thanks for your reply Ali..i did try to extend A time a wee bit today...though DS started to fuss around ...he went down exactly at 1 hr 10 mins..but he has started to stir and moves his head a lit when in light sleep (guess its ok as long as he doesn't get up)...we're approaching the 40 min mark so keeping my fingers crossed..
good to know that managing  anything over 2 hours feeds is ok at this age..

[*Ali*]

FX. It may take a while for him to adjust ft o the new A time.

[Animom]

Hi..just wanted to update..i got my period 2 days back (milk supply got affected) n guess that's the reason why naps n feeds were all over the place..hope things get better

[*Ali*]

Yes could be.