Brainstorming---3hr easy

[maddiemommy]

Hi! My lo will be 4 months in just a little over a week. I've just been implementing EASY this week. I BF and she has been a snacker so we're doing a 3hr routine. It's going pretty during the am and afternoon.

E 730
A
S 900
Y

E 1030
A
S 1200
Y

E 130
A
S 300
Y

E 430
And here is where things start getting dicey. I want to start cluster feeding at this point because of very frequent night wakings and also cause I'm BF and don't want to lose supply. It's a big adjustment . I'd like to feed her again at 630, 830 and then DF at 11. Problem is that between the feeding at 430 and the next feed, she doesn't really get tired...at least not till about 630 when I'd like her to eat.  If I let her sleep between the 630 and 830 feeding I'm afraid she'd never go down at around 900 and then we've got a really loooong evening.

Should I forget about the cluster feedings? I'm already finding that I don't have much milk in the evenings and it would BREAK MY HEART if I lost my milk supply. Supplementing with formula is not an option.

We're also struggling with 45min naps...I know she's still tired when she wakes...I can walk with her for the rest of her nap and she'll sleep but of course that's going to turn into a bad habit.

Anyway, I guess I'm just talking outloud, kinda thing. Can ya'll brainstorm with me and help me come up with a solution or tweak the schedule??? I'd really appreciate it.

[Noelle]

You can give the cluster feed at 6:00 if you like, it doesn't have to be at 2 hr intervals.  Also, with a later bedtime, I think a 30/45 minute catnap would be fine.

I'll just throw this out there....but she may be ready for an earlier bedtime (7-8pm)...unless your goal wake-up time is 9am  :wink:    (wish mine could be!!)

As far as the 45 minutes naps go....if you don't already, I would give her up to 20-30 minutes to fall back asleep (unless she's CRYING of course). Or you could try to extend them.  Or, if she doesn't fall back asleep on her own, I just get them up and tweak EASY a little bit.  This might mean putting her down for another nap before eating, thus pushing back the time for her next feed.  You may want to check out the nap forum...lots of good info there.   I always just try to go with the flow....

[Little Bear's Mum]

Hi - I'm no expert, infact I have problems of my own implementing EASY. But I have a suggestion for your naps. Perhaps when you can extend out your lo's awake time it may help extend the sleep time. This helped tremendously for my ds. He used to be a 45min napper, he's currently been asleep now for 2 hours! Yay!

Basically, he was in a vicious cycle of short sleep, so too tired to stay awake more than 1h 15m when he woke. So one day when he was about 3 months old (he's now 4 1/2 months) I decided to keep him up 1h 45m. Well, as you can imagine, one very tired boy. But it worked. Since then he mostly stays awake 1h45 and sleeps at least 1 - 2 hours. More often now it's 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Just a thought.... good luck!