Author Topic: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire  (Read 1216 times)

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Offline ele

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Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« on: March 26, 2015, 23:42:04 pm »
my DD is almost three months old. I was gradually trying to put her on a routine (we were recommended Gina Ford but she never managed that, so it is closer to baby whisperer one). i EBF her.

7 E
8:30 S
10 E
11:30 S
2 E
3: 30 S
5 E (1/2 portion)
6:30 E (finish)

last few weeks she has been growingly having problems going for her lunch nap:lots of crying (holds her head, turns red etc and more recently keeps her eyes wide open) and can sleep for only 30 min may be an hour altogether. she gets very tired by an evening nap, but doesn't sleep too much. her night sleep is decent, she makes sounds when hungry, eats and goes to sleep after. Although she grunts/has tummy movement around 5. Wakes up at 7 often grumpy.

Her feeding also is getting very erratic, sometimes she began to fall off after 15 min (my let down takes time it seems and kind of slows at about 15min) and appears to be done and can last 3hrs, other days she gets off after 30 min and wants to suck right away. She has been a very sleepy eater since she was born and may be more so now, so she can dose at the breast. It can take so long to finish eating we may have no time for activities and waking her up is not really possible. But again more recently she also does these 15 min a feeding days.


Offline weaver

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2015, 19:39:00 pm »
I'm looking at both your routine and your comments on feeding - I think perhaps it would be good to move this one over to the BreastFeeding board, let me know what you think, it feels like most of your questions are on that.

I wonder if you've spoken to anyone about her feeding?  Of course small babies love to good long snuggle and a bit of a snooze, but at 3 mos I would be expecting her to have quicker feeds just about all the time.  It might just be that she's sleepy :) but from what you say she's having good naps.  if there's a breast feeding support group near you, or perhaps a lactation consultant, it could be worth having a chat.

If you feel you have slow let-down, and baby is hanging about for ages on the breast, a technique I was recommended in the early days with LO1 is breast compressions, where you encourage faster letdown and, because there's more milk coming, baby is more active and feeds faster.  Here is a good link about that: and if you look around the site there is a video too :)
http://www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-BC

This might also be useful.
Tips for Sleepy Newborns

Otherwise your routine looks good, though it looks to me like she's not having a catnap? Is that right?  Usually BW babies at this age would have a short catnap around 5pm.
*Anne*, loving mama to a honeybee (2010) and a sweetpea (2012).  BF for 4 proud years.


Offline ele

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2015, 13:57:45 pm »
Thank you very much. my original concern was with her sleep (whether she is getting chronically overtired b.c. no proper sleeps), so much so that we went to the Dr. finally. She is not overtired, thank fully. So it may be just learning to sleep. Although at times she can cry all through her nap.

I do have a question about a 4hr routine. Seems like its appropriate to move by about 4 months to it. how does it change? Baby sleeps 2 hrs and is awake 2 hrs? Surprising, because baby sleeps more daytime as he gets older...(vs only 1.5hrs three times plus a short catnap).

Thank you for comments on feeding, I didn't realize, it's been getting longer because she is either distracted (looking around, at me or having a poop) or sleepy....

Offline weaver

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2015, 14:28:47 pm »
From what you've posted, hun, it looks like she's doing three 1.5 hour naps - so you'll need to say a bit more about what's really going on there for us to help.  What are the actual lengths of her naps rather than the ideal?

3mos would be very early for a 4 hour routine, I'm sure you're just planning for the future!  My EBF two didn't quite manage a full four hours between feeds - so we'd do a 'big' feed at E time and a top-up at some point during A.  Just to note.

You could have a look here:
What are A times and how do they fit into the EASY plan?
and here
Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

and come back with any questions!
*Anne*, loving mama to a honeybee (2010) and a sweetpea (2012).  BF for 4 proud years.


Offline ele

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #4 on: March 31, 2015, 14:57:20 pm »
Thank you. She has been crying through her noon naps a lot and not sleeping almost at all (30 min max cumulative sleep time), but it has just started getting better. So I need to monitor for a few days now...

however more generally she may skip a nap (crying  through and impossible to calm, sometimes eyes wide open, sometimes closed but not calming with many ways I use to calm her). Other times (if we go for a walk in the park in a stroller) she just can't close her eyes, even if she doesn't cry she is not asleep. This applies for all naps but the first, when she settles down easily and sleeps through 1.5 hr most of the times.

The evening catnap we just introduced after reading BW here, but she doesn't go to sleep yet at all either.

Many times she has red eyes by her night pre-bed routine and feels tired, so she didn't get enough nap daytime I surmise. in the end I shorten the pre-bed routine somewhat (shorter massage and bath).

Offline weaver

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2015, 19:18:03 pm »
Ok so I would suggest shortening her A time to the second nap, knock 10 mins off what she's doing now for a few days and see how she does. Sounds like the first part if the day is going fine but that she's OT by nap number two. If she does a short second nap, shorten the next A time as well, by 20-30 minutes, just to help her avoid OT.
*Anne*, loving mama to a honeybee (2010) and a sweetpea (2012).  BF for 4 proud years.


Offline ele

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Re: Baby's sleep and feeding gone haywire
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 00:53:34 am »
Thank you very much!