Author Topic: 3 month old feeds every 2 hours!  (Read 2635 times)

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Offline seaflower

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« on: October 05, 2005, 13:53:05 pm »
Hi all, I just came across this web site today and hope someboidy can give me some ideas.

My girl will be 3 months next week and is exclusively breastfed on demand. During the day she wants to nurse every 2 hours, which usually takes about 15-25mins, plays for a while (including changing her nappy, etc.) and approximatelly an hour after she woke up she is down for a nap, which lasts an hour. She is pretty consistent with this routine until around 6-7pm, when she wants to clusterfeed and gets completely unpredictable.

She wakes up all hours during the night - some nights she will sleep for 6 hours solid, some nights she will wake up every 2 hours... I can manage feeding her every 2 hours during the day, but waking up during the night is a bit too much for me!!! I'm really desperate to put her on some sort of routine, got "The baby whisperer solves your problems" but have no clue where to start from.

So far tried to clusterfeed her every hour all afternoon/evening in case she is hungry, she still wakes up. Tried letting her settle on her own, usually she just starts crying really loud so it takes longer. At the moment I usually get up to give her her dummy, and if I'm very tired just take her to bed with me.

Sorry for the long post, I'm not even sure if this is a sleep or feeding issue, but seems most other babies her age will sleep for solid 6-8 hours, or at least for 4! I'm getting really, really exhasted from lack of sleep and tempeted to give her a bottle in the evening so she will last longer. Apart from that she is gaing weight and is a very happy smily baby.

Thanks for reading this!
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!

Offline Joey'sMom

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2005, 14:05:42 pm »
You have come to the right place.  I think a lot of the other moms here will give you much better advice than me, but I will say that I have a 3 month old too, and I also breastfeed him.

Just my opinion, but a simple starting point is correcting the clusterfeeding during the day.  My ds went through a phase where he would get hungry every 2 hours, too, and what I basically had to do was grit my teeth and hold him off for 1 more hour.  I didn't make him cry - I can't stand to do that to any child - but I did work my butt off to keep him distracted and pacified (try the bouncy chair, Baby Einstein music/videos, the swing, a walk outside,running to the grocery store).

If you can settle into the awesome EASY schedule, you'll find yourself much happier.  Like I said, the other ladies here are amazing and will give you far more detailed and helpful advice, but I hope my little bit helps.  :)
Mary Pat





Offline seaflower

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2005, 14:11:54 pm »
Joey'sMom, thanks for your quick reply. I wasn't sure if to increase the activity time or try and keep her asleep for longer.

So, what you are suggesting is, for example if she is awake at 7am, feeds and then nods off to sleep at 9am, wakes up at 10am, so I keep her awake till 11am for her next feed? Is it better to try and strech it to 2.5 hours first or to go with the full 3 hours? She is 13lb6 (6kg) at the moment.

Thanks again for reading my long post!
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!

Offline Joey'sMom

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2005, 14:16:31 pm »
Like I said, the other ladies here are better equipped to answer these questions.

Personally, I would START by doing whatever I could to keep the feeds 3 hours apart.  I would work on napping at the appropriate times next.  A lot of moms might say napping should come first, and they may have really good reasons. 

Once the other mom start replying, you'll have a better feel for this I'm sure, but always do what YOU are most comfortable doing.  I have found that EASY works best when you remember it's a starting point, not an unbendable formula for success.
Mary Pat





Offline Mariek

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2005, 14:37:52 pm »
Hi there,

I notice you said you've got Tracey's book. In the EASY chapter (chapter one) there's a section for 4 to 6 months with examples of 3 and 4 hour EASY routines in a box (pg 34 in my copy although it could be different if you have a US or other copy).

This is a good place to start, it will give you an idea about the kind of timings you should be aiming for.  At three months your LO should be able to go 3 hours between feeds. If she's been fed on demand it could be that she's getting less milk more regularly which is causing the problem with going more than 2 hours.

I'm sure some of the other breast-feeding ladies will be able to help you more on that issues (I had to bottle feed my DD so I can't really give advice on that).

I would try to get her to go 3 hours between feeds so you'd be looking at 7 feeds (7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm, 9pm, 10-11pm) and  3 x 1.5 hour naps in the day plus a cat nap in the late afternoon. The 7pm and 9pm are cluster feeds with a dreamfeed about 10/11pm. If she's getting really distressed about not being fed every two hours then try to get her to go as long as you can by distracting her. Don't worry if you can only get her to go 2.5 hours for the first few days, if she's used to 2 hourly feeds and being fed on demand then she's going to be a bit miffed if she doesn't get what she's used to (wouldn't you?). You'll be able to lengthen the time between feeds gradually so she gets up to 3 hours.

The most important thing if you decide to try to extend her to a 3 hour routine is CONSISTENCY! You need to be 100% sure you want to do this and see if through (even though you might have a few tough days) because if you start and then go back to the old way it will be twice as hard to rectify it when you decide to try again.

As I said at the beginning make the EASY routine in the book your first port of call so you know what you're aiming for.

Good Luck!

HTH

love
Marie



Offline GraceKellysmom

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2005, 19:29:05 pm »
I love Marie's advice, but I have to pipe in that Max was on a 2 hr EASY until 4.5 months old. BUT he slept through at night, or only woke once. I was willing to feed him that many times in the day. He wasn't capable of staying up more than 1hr15min, and if I did try, he'd only sleep 30 min.

The other thing to think of is that you are approaching a big growth spurt. If this has been happening for more than a couple weeks, then it is an issue. If the 2 hrly night wakings are very recent, she may be g/s early.
Stacy, Mama to
Grace Kelly 01/03, Maximilian Alexander 07/04, Faith Noelle 03/07, Henry Patrick 12/08
and my angel babies

Offline seaflower

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« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2005, 19:47:21 pm »
Thank you for the advice! I tried to extend the peroids between the feeds today to 2.5 and kept her longer nursing (25-30mins instead of the 15mins beforehand).  She keeps nodding off while eating, so I have to wake her up again and again.

I was wondering how do you dreemfeed when bf-ing? She is a very light sleeper and usually wakes up. I also use a dummy to get her to sleep and it works wonderfully during the day - goes down in her cot on her own and asleep in 5-10mins. May have to go in two-three times to pop the dummy in her mouth. During hte night when she wakes up that doesn't work, she keeps spitting it out and the only thing that works is feeding her (and sometimes keeping her in bed with me) Tried not to feed her last night, but she ended up screaming so loud I gave in and fed her. She never cries during the night, but again I usually feed her and put her back in her cot.

Thanks again, and will let you know how do I get on with the feeds!
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!

Offline chubec3311

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I have the same issue
« Reply #7 on: October 06, 2005, 12:47:14 pm »
I hope that it is okay that I just add to this.  I don't have any advice as I am going through the same thing with my almost 4 month dd.  I was coming online to post for advice for the same matter.  My dd will go for three hours during the day except for recently she has been about 2- 2.5.  She takes about 3 naps varying from 1-3 hours.  I will admit that I don't have her on an EASY schedule.  I lent my book out to a friend that is due in Januray not thinking about needing it for my own.  must go get a new one :)   
Anyway.. For the last four nights my DD has woken up about every 2 to 3 hours to nurse.  She was doing great giving me 4-6 hour stretches if not all night.  Now...UGH!!!        I guess my question is how long do growth spurts typically last?  When is it okay to let her cry (to an extent) instead of feed her.   Last night I cluster fed her and then gave her a dream feed at 11.  She still woke up around 1:30, 3:30, 5:00 and then at 7.  At this point I am just tired.   

This is my second child but with my first he wasn't nursing correctly so he was on a bottle by 3 months so this is my first time going through this in a sense. 
I hope that it is okay that i replied on this post. 

Thanks
Becky



Offline seaflower

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #8 on: October 06, 2005, 16:51:53 pm »
I started the 3-hour EASY this morning and so far so good, wasn't too painful :D

Just wondering, if the nap is supposed to last 2 hours, she wakes up after one, and takes 40 mins to shush-pat, do i let her sleep only the remaining 20 mins? I have Tracy's book but havent had time to read it fully.

Becky, I read somewhere that the growth spurt can last anything between 2 days and 2 weeks. Have you tried using a soother?
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!

Offline CaedensMama

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #9 on: October 06, 2005, 17:13:55 pm »
What has already been said is great advice and I totally agree with it -

My DS didn't get consistent at eating 3 hours apart till after his 3 mo growth spurt, maybe about 3 1/2 months or so - just in the last 10 days or so. But along with that his naps got better too. So they kinda seemed to go hand in hand for us. We usually do A time before and after E, unless he takes a GREAT nap to keep the feeds 3 hours apart. He is pretty good at 45 minutes and takes longer naps once or twice a day. He now goes the full 3 hours without much problem and sometimes closer to 4 without me trying so I am thinking we may be trying for the 4 hour EASY mark pretty soon here.

I too EBF and though we are doing good at the 3 hour plus between feeds, occassionally when he wakes up early and really wants to eat, I won't refuse it either...... and then I just start the routine over again.

I found too once he was eating more regularly and further apart, he ate better too - makes me feel good that he is not snacking!

Hang in there - you are doing a great job! And it really does get better and well worth the effort!
Jen
Mama to:
Caeden (6/05)
Colm (3/07)
Alannah (11/08)
Tadhg (8/10)
and Ailish due Sept 16, 2011

Offline seaflower

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #10 on: October 08, 2005, 10:48:43 am »
I really need some encouragement  :(  This is the third day I'm trying the 3-hour EASY and don't think we are doing that well. Streching the feeds to 3 hours from 7am till 4pm is OK, she doesn't really complain. She would only nap for 40min to an hour in between though, instead of the 1:30 hours, which means ocme 6pm and she is very, very cranky. She hasn't cried that much (or at all really) since she was 6 weeks old. I can see she is tired during the day, and try sh/pat but she can't seem to go to deep sleep.

I also think she is hungry in the evenings as I used to cluster-feed her from 6 till 9pm every hour. Yesterday I ended up feeding her at 4pm, 6pm (then bath), 7pm, got her to bed at 7:30pm, and then she woke up at 10:45, 2am, 5:30am and finally at 7am. All the times part from 2am she really gulped down the milk. she wouldn't take the soother during the night either, spits it out after 10 sec, so really think she is hungry and overtired. She also has eczema, so guess very itchy during the night :(

I guess I was hoping somebody can tell me it's ok the way I;m doing it, and that it will get easier! I feel/look like a ghoust last week... Sorry for the long post...
My little princess is 2.5 :) Textbook/Angel/Spirited toddler
My little munchkin is few weeks old and doesn't understnd EASY!

Offline GraceKellysmom

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #11 on: October 08, 2005, 19:08:04 pm »
Quote from: GraceKellysmom
I love Marie's advice, but I have to pipe in that Max was on a 2 hr EASY until 4.5 months old. BUT he slept through at night, or only woke once. I was willing to feed him that many times in the day. He wasn't capable of staying up more than 1hr15min, and if I did try to extend it past that, he'd only sleep 30 min.

The other thing to think of is that you are approaching a big growth spurt. If this has been happening for more than a couple weeks, then it is an issue. If the 2 hrly night wakings are very recent, she may be g/s early.

Hon, I'm going to say it again because it's worth repeating. If your near 3 month old isn't ready to have her feeds stretched to 3 hrs, then she isn't ready. By her wanting to nurse more frequently, she could be trying to up your supply. Having 45-60 min naps until they can stay up longer periods of time is very normal and ok.

And the second thing I want to say is that all EASY cycles don't have to be the same length. If she can go longer between feeds during the morning, say 3 hrs, and wants to eat every 2 hrs in the afternoon, then do it!

And the third thing - once again - she is about to GROWTH SPURT on you! She'll eat around the clock and be out of sorts. But - Hip hip hooray, after the 3 month growth spurt they usually settle down and your milk supply increases and everyone is happy!
Stacy, Mama to
Grace Kelly 01/03, Maximilian Alexander 07/04, Faith Noelle 03/07, Henry Patrick 12/08
and my angel babies

Offline Isabella

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #12 on: October 20, 2005, 13:17:38 pm »
hello there, here I am another one with a three month old. But how long does this growth spurt last? After being so wakeful at night ast week I was so pleased James was sleeping 8pm to 5am for five days in a row and then all of a sudden is madness! He wakes up at 2, 5, 6 and gulps down the milk. But he's been doing that for more than 48 hrs, like tracy says...what do you think about that?

thanks. I am so sleep deprived because toddler sister wakes up 2-3 times at night too and only wants mamma!!
Isabella, mother to Stella 6 years, James 4 years, Nicholas Angel baby born on 04/14/2009

Offline Erin (redstarfalling)

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3 month old feeds every 2 hours!
« Reply #13 on: October 20, 2005, 23:30:30 pm »
Growth spurts can last SEVERAL days - I don't think we ever had one last only 48 hrs!  :roll:
Erin
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