DF dropping? 3-2 transition? 5hour EASY?

[Francessantos]

Hi ladies,

We've been having a little bit of trouble with our routine for the last couple of weeks and i'm really lost at where to focus on.
Our DS will be 6mo next week and EBF (until next week where we'll introduce his first solids). We've past the 3-2 naps transition recently and have been on our way to dropping the dream feed. So you can see there's a lot going on and probably why I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Ever since the 3-2 nap transition we've been stuck on a very early start of the day and I'm not sure how to push the routine forward without tweeking the A duration which is already at 3h and getting us two good naps.

Here's what our routine looks like:
E: 5h30
S: 8h30
E: 10h00 / 10h30 (naps are between 1.5h or 2h)
S: 13h00 / 13h30
E: 14h30 / 15h00

Here's where I don't know what to do.
I have been giving a top up before BT and trying to keep BT within his A and a 12 hour daytime.

His Df was at 23h00 since he was 2mo old, but the problem now is that he has been waking to feed once between  20h00 and 23h00, then in the morning he wakes up and stays happy and quiet in his crib and doesn't seem hungry. He still breastfeeds on both breasts like he normally does but I think that's just because he's used to it.

Is he not having enough E during the day? Is it normal for his EASY to be in the 5h range? Are these the signs that he's dropping the DF?

Any suggestion will be helpful!

Thanks in advance!  

[becj86]

You can shift your day slowly by just increasing that first A time a touch - just to encourage him to sleep a bit later, maybe 15min at a time.

By this age, a 12hr night may not be a reasonable expectation - 11-12hr is probably more reasonable, so BT could be as late as 6:30 with WU at 5:30 and that will also help shift WU later.

Can I confirm he's feeding once in the night, between 8pm and 11pm, then sleeping through? If he's feeding once in the night, that's absolutely normal for his age and I'd just feed that time and not worry about the DF. If you want to test out and see if reducing the feed is reasonable (ie. he will still sleep through and he'd be more interested in WU feed in the morning), you could feed just one breast at the NF and see what happens - don't be surprised if he wakes in the night wanting a feed though.

His EASY is bang on average for his age, no worries with that routine there.

[Francessantos]

Thank you so much for your reply, becj86!

I have started to stretch the first A like you suggested... so far so good. And we also managed to stretch the last A a bit tonight after you mentioned the 11-12hr night! Thank you! So, BT today was at 6pm, which is the latest we've managed in a while! Let's see how that goes...

Yes, he only feeds once in the night. After the 8pm-11pm feed, he sleeps through. I have been giving one breast for 2 nights now, but still no big difference in the morning feed.
 
If he's WU at 5:30am, is his 8pm feed considered a dreamfeed? (like a normal 10pm DF for a baby that WUs at 7am?!)
Should i be waiting for him to wake? or should i treat it like a DF and go in at 8pm?

[becj86]

I would just let him wake for it if you're not otherwise planning on being asleep in bed yourself. That way if he doesn't wake, he can drop it on his own - sounds like he'll drop it soon from the issues with the first feed of the day. Are you cluster feeding towards BT?

I think he's probably just one of those babies who wants his night feed earlier in the night rather than later and that's possibly been due to the dreamfeed. If he's happy with one breast only at that time, you could reduce feed time by a minute every few nights and see if he stops waking for it, though don't expect he won't necessarily wake in the early hours of the morning for a feed (he may not, of course). Basically the idea is that he gradually transfers the calorie intake to the daytime hours therefore doesn't need them at night.

[Francessantos]

Thanks again becj86!
I have started to just wait for him...and yes, i am cluster feeding.

but things have started to go a bit too wonky during the day and im scared they are starting to affect his night!

All of a sudden we started getting 1h15/1h20 naps. And that led to an OT BT   i was actually hoping that it would finally get us out of the 5:30am wake up, but DS STILL woke up at 5:30am, even with a 7:30pm BT    Is it because im giving his DF too early?

So... we extended his A, thinking his shorter naps were due to him being UT. We went as long as 3h25 A time! Even though that gave us a 1h50 nap (give or take), is that normal for a 6mo lo? His second nap is only being 1h long..

Should i be cutting his second A time short, to get a longer nap?

[becj86]

No, naps that length indicate he's undertired at nap time and needs a touch more, you did the right thing and increased the nap length, that's great. Generally LOs of this age are getting about 3hr daytime sleep, so 1:50 and a 1hr nap is actually pretty close and I'd just run with it.