eveninings are awfull don't know how to change them!

[travis's mum]

I have a 2 month old angel/textbook with a little bit spirited son. The thing is our mornings are quite good as in he wakes and sleeps quiet normally the thing is in the evenings things seem to go potty :?

now I can't give you an exact routine for the day because to be honest we don't really have one  :oops: it usually strts at about 6/7am which is way too early for me so I'm always tired when I wake.  We then try our best to stick to a 3 hr routine but sometimes my DS still insists on eating earlier. (Any advice on how to make him wake later would be great.)

Now because we have no exact routine feeding times vary. By the time 4 pm comes round I start aiming for cluster feeding ie. feed every 2hrs. Also I don't know if this is normal but lately my LO has been at times refusing bottles or drinking only one ounce and fussing even if he has had nothing for 3 hrs,This happens alot tin the evening but occasionally during the day and for no apparent reason :? .

I aim for bath at 7 bottle and bed by 8 (is this ok?) Should he be napping between 4/7? for how long? He seems to get very restless and fussy. sometimes takes ages to nap and even if he does somestimes it meens I won't have time to squeeze in an extra bottle before bath. Or otherwise means I feed him just before bath and straght after which is pointless as he doesn't eat so close together.  How many ounces should he be drinking when I cluster feed?

He then sleeps quite easily I then dream feed him between 11/11.30 (he prefers 11.30, I don't!) I then go to bed (knackered :shock: ) I wake around 3ish to feed him and then again at 6 :shock:  :shock: . Both of the last two feeds he drinks a full 4oz sometimes 5! So he obviously needs them he seems to drink more during the night than in the evening :? By the way this is not enough sleep for me :shock: .

 why are things like this please ladies can you tell me what i'm doing wrong and how I can change things! My DS is so easy going usually so way am I getting it wrong(and wasting alot of milk).

Ps. when will he start dropping night time feeds and sleeping for longer during the night. By the way every one comments on how big he is and that he looks older then what he is.

[dkjokisch]

You've brought up alot of questions, and I'm going to do my best to answer them all.

If you're tired, my best advice would be to go to bed when your lo goes to bed, because waking for the day at 6/7am is pretty normal.

If he is refusing bottles during the cluster feeds, it may just be that he is not hungry just yet.  For a few days, try to stick to a three-hour interval during the early evening and see if things improve.

At this age, a catnap between 4pm and 7pm is appropriate.  We used to walk around the neighborhood with dd in a soft carrier.  She would get a short nap, and it made her bedtime feed much easier.

I can't comment much on the dreamfeed as we did not do it.  I was so tired that I would just go to bed when dd did and ket her wake me up when she was ready to eat.  By two months, she could go 6-7 hours at night, so I was only doing one night feeding, then getting up for the day around 6:30-7:30am.

It would help if you could track your schedule for a few days and post back with some rough EAS times.  Be sure to include how much he actually eats at each feeding.

[Mom to M&M]

So you didn't dream feed? I am wondering if we should cut out Marisa's DF as well (8 weeks). She does eat a good amount at it - with a lot of prodding, but she is so out of it and seems to wake up at 2:30/3 regardless. DH and I are wondering if it would be better to let her just go after 7pm bottle and 7:30/8 bedtime and see what time she wakes and feed her then. Or does this make things too inconsistent? I am guessing she would make it until at least 1 - and if she did, if I could just get her to 7am that would be great...

[dkjokisch]

No.  Dd had an extreme case of colic (she was fussy from 7am to 9pm daily, with spikes in the late afternoon and evening), so we would put her to bed as soon as we got her calm each evening (usually around 8:30-9:30pm).  We were so exhausted, we just went to bed.  And it took so much effort to get her down some nights that there was no way I was going to wake her up.

By 2mos, she could go 6-7 hours, and by 3.5mos, she was sleeping from 8pm to 6am.

[bheemeryck]

We did not do a dream feed either... honestly my lo was not the sort of little guy you could wake up, and then expect to go back to sleep very easily, and with the 3 hours of crying before bed(very fussy littel man in the evenings!!), I was happy to wait until 3:00 am to feed him. He was also a good sleeper, and seemed to have no problems going 5-6 hours, so I figured why mess with a good thing. However, if you are looking to try dropping the DF, perhaps give it a try for 3 nights, and if she sleeps the same, great, if she consistently gets up earlier, consider bringing it back? Hard for me to say since we did not do it, but the only thing I have learned that works since I've become a Mom is you'll never really know what works for your baby until you try it... if it dosen't work, change it!!