Author Topic: Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?  (Read 1512 times)

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Offline AdelaidesMom

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Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?
« on: October 27, 2015, 20:08:09 pm »
Hi!
I have a little girl 4 months and 24 days old today.
I'm new to this forum and to E.A.S.Y.  Just got my baby whisperer books in the mail yesterday but I've been reading alot online about E.A.S.Y and schedules. We had to wait to start because Adelaide had reflux and wasn't eating enough or gaining enough, I wanted to keep her on breast milk so I pump and fortify the breast milk and bottle feed it to her and because she took such little amounts we had to feed her very often, or basically whenever she seemed hungry just to make sure we got the calories into her.  She's doing better now, although still in the 1st percentile, she is slowly but steadily gaining and luckily avoided any feeding tubes and was able to stick to the bottle.
Anyway - we're finally starting a schedule and I really like E.A.S.Y but I was wondering if the times are flexible? Adelaide's dad doesn't get home from work until 6:30 or 7 most nights and he would like to spend more time with her. Could we shift the 7am schedule to an 8am schedule? I wrote it out and the main problem I see it that the sleep feed would be at midnight and it says never to do a sleep feed past 11pm. Is there a reason for this?
Here's what we are doing now

8-10 wake feed play 
10-12 sleep
12-2 wake feed play
2-4 sleep
4-6 wake feed play
6-7 cat nap
7 play/bath
7:30 bottle, story
8 bed
11:30/12 sleep feed 

Does anyone have any suggestions or does that look ok?

Thanks so much! Excited to be here on babywhispererforums.com

Offline Martini~

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Re: Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2015, 22:57:43 pm »
Oh Honey - hope that your DD will soon recover and gain more weight.

In theory - yes it's flexible and I would say you can aim anything between 6 and 8 am/pm, and 12-13h day. The case is that many children because of circadian cycle (and exposure to light) will wake in the morning between 6 and 7 am and putting them down later in the evening will not help but only make them overtired. But yes - you may try - especially now, when it's winter and it's generally dark outside.

If not - did your hubby considered spending time with your DD in the morning? That's what we did with my Ds from 6mo. Mornings were with daddy, evenings with mummy as I could be back from work at 3/4pm and DH couldn't make it till 6pm at least so he was home only for bath and nigh-nigh.
~Marta

Offline creations

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Re: Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2015, 23:07:11 pm »
Hello and welcome to BW :)

EASY is absolutely flexible to your family and LOs needs, that's why we like it.

I see from your post you are aiming for the 4hr EASY because your LO is 4 months old.  The first thing I would be flexible on is the E times.  It takes a while to read through the book and all the various info but somewhere along the line Tracy did mention that some babies can't stretch to 4hrly E until more like 6 months (prem babies, some BF babies, small babies with small tummies for example).  If your DD needs to eat more frequently than every 4 hrs this is totally fine.  My own DS needed milk every 3hrs until he was 6 months old when he naturally extended his E time himself (and because he had solids between which helped him extend to 4 hrly milk).  You probably read about not letting a LO 'snack' but a regular routine of say 3hrly E is fine, BW is not about leaving baby hungry.
So, if you need to feed more frequently you'll wonder how the rest of the routine fits in because you still need a reasonable length A time and a good length nap.  It's not a hard and fast rule that LOs eat the moment they wake and it is possible to work out a suitable sleep routine to include the shorter E times (just leave a little A of a few mins between E and S to avoid a feed to sleep prop).

It would also be fine to shift the routine to 8-8 if that suits your family.  I would probably do the DF at about 10.30/11 anyway (roughly 3hrs from last E time) but you can try 12.
From what I understand the reason for not doing the DF past 11pm is because you want the shorter night sleep to come before you go to bed, and the longer stretch to come after you've gone to bed to give you the best sleep possible.  If LO is fed at 7pm and then at 12 the long sleep might be coming in that first stretch (5hrs is considered sleeping through the night) which would then mean 3 or 4hrly E following the DF.  There might also be something to do with babies natural sleep rhythms but tbh whilst I would be respectful of LOs need to sleep and have routine I would also highly rate bonding time with Daddy. It's about a balance.  If your LO does better on the shorter E times then a 7.30pm BT feed followed by a 10.30 DF would be fine.

Did you read the section on observing for a few days before you begin?  It's really useful, you just write down what happens, what time she wakes, eats, sleeps throughout the day. This will give you a good idea of a suitable routine. And we can always help you out here too.

Hope this helps


Offline AdelaidesMom

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Re: Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2015, 14:26:09 pm »
Thanks so much for the replies!
Part of the problem is she won't normally eat sooner than every 3.5-4 hours, she's just not hungry which is what worries me. Even if I offer it to her she refuses, she's been doing that since the beginning. So as much as I worry that she's not getting enough to eat the 4 hour E.A.S.Y. seems to work for her. I think I'll keep her on the 8am for now especially since daylight savings is next week and she'll be switched to the 7am just from the time change and then we'll figure out what to do from there.
If I dream feed at 11:30 like last night she'll still sleep till 7:30/8am which I guess I should be grateful for I just worry about her calorie intake. We see the doctor again Nov. 5th so we'll get a weight check and make sure we're doing ok. Until then I guess I'll just enjoy the sleep while I can.

Offline -Maya-

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Re: Does E.A.S.Y have to start at 7am?
« Reply #4 on: October 28, 2015, 17:10:18 pm »
Hello dear, BTDT. For our family 7-7 was always too early. More unacceptable if you consider that sometimes we needed to have EBTs. The fact of circadian cycle has always let me puzzled because dawn & sunset are so different around the world, but this is just me.

As a matter of fact I targeted an 8-8 (better 8-7 because DS is a 11h night little boy) and it quite worked. I spent a lot of time doing EBT at 7:30 or even 7 in case of emergency. DH was not able to see him in case of EBT, but imho most important thing is an happy and healthy baby. And note that DH still now is out of home in the morning before DS is awake.

EDIT: forgot comment on DF.
We always did the dreamfeed around 11pm, that is when DH goes to sleep. We targeted DF as late as possible wrt to our habits, otherwise its purpose was lost. Anyway with this DF (formula in our case) DS still needed to eat something at 5am. Always a hungry little boy, so no good comparison with your LO.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2015, 17:12:29 pm by -Maya- »