10 week old problem solving early morning waking

[greensheepy]

Hi there - since my DD's birth I resorted to BW techniques but I am now struggling a bit particularly with early morning waking. This this may bleed into eating and napping it probably could go into one of many forums Please advise if this is the wrong one. HEre is the situation:

I've mostly been breastfeeding except for the dream feed bottle given by my husband at 11 pm. That is usually formula or a mix of formula and my milk. I have a scale to see how much BM she's getting in one go on average and it seems to be 3 oz.  The amount of time feeding has gone down progressively after 4 weeks to now about 15 minutes on a good feed. It's slowly getting to 10 minutes though she still seems to get the 3 oz even with that time.
On the baby: HEr weight has been progressing very well. She's in the 75th percentile weight wise now at almost 13 lbs and 61 cm. She also regularly spits up after feeds but not acid reflux (Since weight gain has been fine). She also tends to spit up more during the day than at night.

She used to sleep through the night as in 11-4 then 7/8 regularly but evening times were awful and eventually feeding put her down but around 10/11 pm. We fixed evening fussy times by starting a bedtime routine at 6 so she's usually down by 7:30 and a split feed at 6 pm and 7 pm. By split feed I mean I give her one boob and then the other.  I also read that my milk supply might be lower in the evening and that could also be causing it. Indeed, I did a 5-day expressing routine to increase my supply and we think that helped in tandem with the bedtime routine. THen we got our evenings back but she started to wake up multiple times after the middle of the night feed! and then this completely screws up the morning.

I'm trying to keep us on a 7-7 routine because beyond 7 pm she gets very cranky and she seems to be an early riser (preferring 530 or 6 rather than the 7 I'm trying to push for!)

E: 6:45/7 am
S: 8:00 - usually 1.5 - to 2 hours  she's a good napper
E: 10 am
S: 11 - through 12:30 or 1 pm
E: 1 pm
S: 2-3 pm
E: 4 pm
S: 5:30 - 6 (Cat nap)
E: 6 pm (Split feed 1)
BEdtime routine: nappy change, jammies, we've started to actually look at storybooks! bath only twice a week
E: 7 pm (Split feed 2 - though we changed this to a bottle of my milk because we thought maybe the early wakings are due to not enough calories) - changed this to a bottle just a few days ago to ensure she's getting enough in an effort to prolong the night
Dreamfeed: 11 pm (sometimes 10:30 but usually 11), formula of 5-6 oz depending on how much she takes
NIght feed: anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30

Also I tried to cluster feed at 8 but she doesn't last until then without being cranky and because she now gets a bottle around 7/7:30 that doesn't seem to make much sense.

Then hellish until 7 am when I want to start the day and the first feed. I either have to spend time getting her to settle (She may or she may not) or feed (but somehow that doesn't help her last the 3 hours she normally does). Either way I'm up and down for those early hours and that really screws up the morning and doesn't set a good stage for the rest of the day. Today she woke up at 5:30, I ended up feeding, she hung out in her crib smiling then in my bed hanging out. But didn't nap. Over the weekend she got up around that time too but clearly wanted to go to sleep. So I fed her, she slept but then woke, I fed her again ( I moved her to bed and succumbed to co-sleeping so she can eat whenever and I can get more rest rather than going between my bed and her crib).
Anyway - it's just unpredictable what it is she really wants at that time.

In summary - it ends up being about 6.5 hours of awake time, 5 and a half hours of napping, 9-10 feeds depending on how the morning goes.

So how is it that during the day, 3 hour cycles work fine with breastmilk and in the evening she can go up to 4 hours before the dreamfeed and at night with formula 4-5 but then afterwards, not settle?

So I"m trying to figure if I should
- bite my tongue and accept a 6 am wake time and go with the punches? feed her whenever it is after the night feed? If so should I force the 7 am AM time? I think so because that means a 12 hour day but maybe I shouldn't?
- When she wakes so early and eats at 5, I don't know whether I should stick to my 7-7 feeding routine anyway?

- CUt down naps? though I find that hard because her sleeping cues are obvious and when I catch them and put her down, she settles easily. Note that for both AM and PM naps she has a tendency to wake up once but then settle down fairly quickly

- Add top up feeds throughout the day? I calculated that with the 2 bottles of 10 oz or so in the evening + breast feeds, she's getting up to 30 oz in a 24 hour period which is enough so not sure if this is a good idea?

- Feed every 2.5 hours?

Tracy suggests that early morning wakings and hunger is due to not enough calories the rest of the day but i'm not sure if adding more food would be too much.

ANy advice on this one?
First time using this forum so looking forward to participating!

best,
MG

[lauradj]

Hi there and welcome to BW!  There's quite a bit of information here but I will try and answer all your questions. 
I can see your LO is awake for about an hour.  Many babies her age are awake for about 1hr 15mins to 1.5hr.  She's right in between the ages so I would suggest a gentle push in the A time to bring her up to 1hr and 15 mins and you will likely find that makes a big difference.  We don't encourage cutting back on naps, particularly at such a young age. 
One night feed is actually really good for a baby of her age.  Those first few months are so exhausting but what you're describing is pretty typical.  Regarding the DF, Tracy suggested it was best to ensure it took place between 10-11pm so if you're able to bring it forward just a little, even to 10:45pm you might find that makes a difference as well. 
I also did a 7-7 day with my babies and I tended to do the cluster feed earlier in the day because I don't like the idea of waking a baby once they're down for bed.  From memory I would say I did two cluster feeds around 4 and 6, and a final one at 7pm for bed time. 
I hope that helps a bit.  I'll keep popping in to check on you so keep asking questions.

[greensheepy]

Thank you for the quick and helpful response! I have thought that activity time is usually too short...but her sleeping cues come up quite soon.

Our activity time is usually singing, mat time (tummy time once a day) playing with rattles and hanging out in the bouncer while I get stuff done around the house.

Any suggestions for gently pushing awake time? Is it normal for them to be a bit cranky when the pushing happens and eventually they get used to it?

I'll also try bringing forward the dream feed. Sometimes our 7 pm feed is 7:30 so that's why 11 often works but we'll give it a go. She's always totally asleep when dh feeds her.

Will keep you posted.

[lauradj]

I find that when they're so little still, all you need to do is read one or two stories or just stroll around your home.  She likely will be a little tired the first day but with the better sleep that will hopefully go hand in hand, she'll be in better spirits within a day or two.  Fingers crossed for smooth sailing!