Waking early from 3 hour easy routine to eat? And one more..

[larz]

Hello
I have my 4 week old on the 3 hour easy routine. If she wakes half hour early for feeding, 1. Do I feed her or try to get her to last for another half an hour, 2. If I do feed her do I then bring the rest of the routine forward half an hour ie if she was due for a feed at 11am but awoke at 10.30am if I feed her at 10.30 do I then make her next feed at 1.30pm, or keep it as 2.00pm?

Also in the night she usually wakes at 1.30am and 4.30am for her feeds, for the last couple of nights she has woken as normal for the 1.30am feed, but at 4.30 she has woken not wanting her feed, but just bit unsettled and I have tried to feed her, when she wouldnt I would settle her and put her back to bed till she would wake up for the next one at about 7.30,, as she isnt actually hungry I assume she is almost waking out of habit, how do I handle this? How can I get past the 4.30 slot now she is not actually wanting to eat? Do I just keep getting up and settle her and then she will eventually sleep through this feed? Advice would be great.

Thanks
Lara :?

[Mariek]

Hi Lara

I'd try to get her to go to the full 3 hours if you can (if she's not crying to be fed) and then stick to your 3 hour routine.

On the night time feed issue, if you're certain she's not hungry then I would try to settle her without feeding. You could try introducing a dummy/paci when she wakes at this time but they you have to think about weaning from it at some point as well,

HTH

love

[Noelle]

Hello!
If she wakes hungry from the nap, then I would feed her.  Otherwise I wait til the 3 hours.  If you do feed her early, I would then just monitor her for the next feed.  If she was showing hungry signs at the 3 hour mark, I would feed her...if she can hold out until the normal time which would be 3.5 hrs later then I would do that to keep closer to the routine.  It's no problem at all though to waiver 30 minutes here and there.   

It sounds like you are on the right track for the 4:30 feed..do you go in right away when she wakes? If you don't already, you might give her a few minutes to see if she'll resettle herself.  Of course if she's crying, go to her  :wink:  Alot of babies when they are little wake between 4:30-5:30.  Zoe still does, but goes back to sleep after 5 or so minutes.  If you can resettle her, that is great.  Though if not, she is probably hungry.  This also might go back and forth at this young age.  Do you do a dreamfeed?

Congrats!!! 

[larz]

Hello again
I am going to try and stretch it till the full three hour for feeds then, as when she awakes early she never takes her full bottle that she would normally take. I do dreamfeed her at around 10.30, so I will try and ignore her for the 4.30 wake up as she isnt usually crying to be fed, just making alot of noise, I probably go in too early and should just leave her and see how we get on,,

Thanks so much for the advice
Larissa + Tahlia x