No regular time for night feed - help!!

[Han]

Hi there,

I haven’t posted before but I have been reading the boards for a while and I am always impressed with the advice given so I was wondering if someone might be able to help me. I don't know if this is the right board to post on

I have a 9 week old DD and although I read Tracy’s book while I was pregnant I have only half-heartedly followed the EASY plan since she was born. I have a few problems that I know need adjusting but I will take them one at a time!!

DD has always been good at sleeping at night and since 5 weeks old we have kept to the same bedtime routine at the same time – she is ALWAYS has a feed at 6.45pm and is asleep in her cot by 7.30pm. My current problem is that her first wake in the night for food is very rarely at the same time each night – she will wake anywhere between 12.30am – 4am and will take one breast before going back to sleep straight away. If she has woken earlier she will wake again around 3-4 hrs later and I’ll feed her again, she’ll go back to sleep. And then she’ll wake to start the day. For example if she wakes at 1am she will probably then wake again between 4 & 5 am and then will sleep till around 6-6.30. I always try and soothe her back to sleep so we never start the day before 6.30am. Sometimes she has slept thru from 7.30pm till 4am when I feed her and then she’ll go back to sleep till 7am and I don’t what has been done differently to make her sleep for so much longer (ie. feeds the previous day have been as normal and no real change in naps either) there just seems to be no pattern. For the past 3 weeks I’ve been writing down all naps and feeds and can’t find a consistent pattern. I’ve tried giving her a dreamfeed but she WILL NOT take anything and I don’t want to fully wake her at the risk of her not going back to sleep.

I am fully breastfeeding and trying to stick to the 3hr EASY plan but we also have a problem with daytime naps – she usually has 4 naps a day, most are no more than 45 mins, occasionally we will get up to 1.5 hrs but this is very rare. I also add in a cluster feed in the late afternoon before bathtime.

I have outlined our current routine below:

Anywhere between 5.45 – 7.00 – Wake (depending on when she’s fed in the night)
I never get her up until at least 6.30am

6.45am – Feed
8.00/8.30am – Nap for approx 45mins
9.45am – Feed
11.00am – Nap for approx 45mins (although sometimes 1.5hrs)
12.45pm – Feed
1.30pm – Nap for approx 45 mins
3.15pm – Feed
4.30pm – Nap for approx 45 mins
5.00pm – Feed (usually just 10 mins on one breast)
6.30pm – Bath
6.45pm – Feed, followed by story, song and then bed (always asleep by 7.30pm)
Sometimes only one night feed if it’s around 3/4am and sometimes two night feeds (eg. 1am  & 4.30am)

If someone can give me any guidance as to how I can a) get a regular time for the night time feed and b) get a regular wake up time sorted I would be very grateful.

Sorry if this is really long-winded!! Thanks in advance,

Hannah xxx

[Katet]

Hannah you are doing fantastically well & with a 9 week old you would not expecta a regular night feed time... infact the irregularity of it says she is waking due to the need to feed & not habit. The day start time will also probably be irregular for some months to come.
Infact the only thing I can say you should work on is resettling to get those 45min naps to at least 1.5 hours as they may cause lots of waking as your lo gets older.
If she is going until 4am somedays from 6.45pm ... I think most mothers would love to be where you are. the 2 night feeds are also great, at 9 weeks going more than 6 hours is a bonus!!!

[Han]

Hi Kate,

Thanks for your reply. I guess I was really just looking for some reassurance that things are going ok. And I know I'm really lucky to have a good nightime sleeper - at the moment anyway, I guess it could all change!! Last night she slept till 4.30am - 10hrs without food!!!!

I'm going to work on the daytime naps over the next week or so. We are at the moment in the process of moving her from Moses basket to cot (in her own room) for the nightime sleep - at the moment she has slept for 3 nights in the Moses basket while it's in the cot just to get used to the new room and it seems to be working. We also have never actually 'put her down' for daytime naps ie. in the same place or with a wind down routine, she just naps wherever she falls asleep (on playmat, in car seat, in pram etc.).

So for the daytime naps I will start a wind down routine and then put her down in the cot and see if we can start to make them a bit longer.

Thanks for your help,

Hannah xxxx

[Lucysmom]

Hannah -

Just want to congratulate you on your daughter!  And, as a total coincidence, my daughter is also named Lucy and she is also a miracle IVF baby!      We had 11 embryos, 2 were transferred to me, but neither attached.  So we had 9 embryos left, and only 2 made it to day 5.  So those 2 were frozen and then were later thawed and put in me.  Lucy is one of those frozen embryos!  So she is an incredible miracle!!!!

Again, congratulations on your little Lucy!

[Han]

Melissa,

Thanks for the message and big congrats to you on your little Lucy too!!

We were really, really lucky as it was our first try at IVF and we thank our lucky stars every day for bringing us our gorgeous daughter.

I hope your Lucy is doing well.

Love,
Hannah xxx