4 week old and forgotten EASY routine

[Monijaye]

Hi!  This is my first post and I love the look of this message board.  I just have a few questions. 

I have a formula fed 4 week old DS.  We used EASY with our daughter who is now 2 but we started when she was older.  I seem to have forgotten how the process works and although I am frantically trying to find the time to read the book it seems to be a very slow process between caring for a newborn and a 2 year old.  I was wondering if someone could help me out with the basics.  That is, should he be on a set feeding time - at the moment he generally goes 4 hours between feeds but once or twice a day will go over 5 hours.  How much activity should a 4 week old have?  He seemed to be going to sleep well in his bassinet last week (within 15 minutes) but now he is lying awake for up to 1 or 2 hours, we don't nurse him to sleep at all but will sometimes rock the bassinet.  We have started using a dummy today and he seems to like this.   Also what about tired signs, am I just looking to see when he yawns and then take him to his bed? 

Sorry for all the questions and the long post but I am worried if we don't get this started soon we might be starting bad habits. 

Thank you in advance

[deenz]

Hi there,  Hopefully I can help with some of your questions.  I too started EASY when dd1 was a bit older, and now have a nearly 6wk old that we are trying to implement it with.  I think at this young age you can just be very 'loose' with the EASY - as long as you aren't feeding to sleep, which you aren't, you're starting off on the right foot.  Now, my dd is bf, so I'm not sure if it's different if you're formula feeding, but I am aiming to feed her every 3hrs during the day.  Maybe with your ds you could aim for every 4hrs.  This means waking them from a nap sometimes.  In the evenings Tracy suggests every two hours for a couple of feeds to 'tank them up'.  I have not had success with a dream feed yet, so I let her sleep as long as she likes once she's gone to bed.  At this age I don't think you need to worry about set times for feeds, but at some stage I plan on waking dd up at 7am every day so that the feeds start to happen around the same time every day.

I am not sure yet about tired signs (apart from the obvious yawns, but they seem to happen too late), so aim to have dd back in bed by 1hr after waking. 

I have also found dd likes a dummy, and we also rock the basinet at times (at night only now, when I don't use the dummy).

I think that's about all - hopefully someone else can add more!  Good luck!

[Monijaye]

Thank you so much Denise for your response.  It is so nice to find out what others are doing and that what we are doing is OK.      We weren't sure about waking him for feeds but now I am sure we should.  He seems to be having 2 x 6 hour naps during the day and then waking 3 - 4 hourly overnight.  Today we are going to start by waking him 4 hourly during the day. 

He seems to like a dummy sometimes also. 

We are also a bit confused at the moment because he seems to be a little constipated and I think this is blurring some of his cues because he seems to be disturbed and straining to go sometimes.   :cry:

Thanks again

Adele

[deenz]

Hi Adele,

Wow - did I read that right that your ds is having 6hr naps during the day??  Sounds like he definitely has day/night mixed up still.  I am sure that waking him from naps during the day will eventually move those nice long stretches (lucky you!) to night time.

Sorry to hear about the constipation... hope this comes right very soon.  I have no experience of this myself.

[Monijaye]

Yes Denise you read it right!  He is sleeping sometimes twice for 6 hours during the day.  He was very quiet during the day when I was pregnant and active at night so I am wondering if this is his natural pattern.  He has gone down well this morning so I intend on waking him after 4 hours  and seeing how he goes.  Wish me luck!! 

Thanks again for you help. 

Adele

[Tori]

Hello - this is my first post but I've read your thread and it was really helpful. I've got my 4.5 wk old DS on EASY, and so far she's doing well (she's a textbook/angel I think) but the past two days she has been REALLY sleepy. I've struggled to wake her for feeds so they've all stretched out to 3.5 hrs.

She goes ok at night though with a 3.5 hr and a 4.5/5 hr stretch.

She was 3 weeks early but weighed a healthy 3.9 kgs so I'm wondering if she is wanting to transition to 4-hourly? Is she too young for this? How do I do it?

Thanks so much - I love this forum as I think I've read every page of Tracey's first book at least 3 times and I still have some questions...! :wink:

[Monijaye]

Tori

I'm not sure if I can be of much help but here goes.  The waking of DS every 4 hours has worked really well over the past few days and he no longer has 6 hour sleeps during the day and overnight he is going 4 - 5 hours.  We also started the dreamfeed at 9PM which means we only have to get up once overnight instead of twice.  Our daughter wakes at 5AM so it suits us really well.  With your DD I expect it depends on whether or not she is breastfed.  If she is breastfed she may only be able to go 3 - 3.5 hours between feeds.  I think a 3 hour schedule is what is recommended.  I'm also not sure what difference it would make that she was 3 weeks early, I expect if wouldn't be a large difference because 37 weeks is considered term and she was a very good weight.  I hope that helps a bit, good luck.

[Tori]

Thanks v. much for the advice. I worried that she was mixing up night and day a bit even though she doesn't sleep for long stretches during the day. And sure enough last night she was wide awake and alert at 12 midnight!! I kept her going til 1 then fed her and she lasted til 4.30. I think she is still needing 3-3.5 hourly feeds and the last few days were just a sleepy blip.

I plan to persevere with the current plan I think!
Best wishes
Tori

DD - Tilly born 6 Oct 05

[deenz]

I found dd hard to wake at times, so sometimes her feeds were 3.5hrs apart.  As they get older they are not so sleepy.  Now dd is pretty easy to wake up at 3hrs (nearly 7wks old).  Hope EASY continues to go as planned!