Cluster Feeds - Activity and Sleep too?

[Mom2katiebug]

We've had some success with CF our LO, but with the 2 hour cycle (and sometimes 1.5 hours depending on the day, our schedule and how tired/overtired she is) instead of her normal 3 hours, should we be trying to fit Activity and Sleep in too?  What should be condensed to meet the 2 hour time frame?  It's usually Sleep, as our LO is quite alert in the evenings.  If she does get sleepy, it seems she only has 15-30 minutes before the next CF.  Whether we wake her, or keep her awake (miserable!), it seems to start an overtired cycle which means less food intake, fighting feed to sleep, and a much harder wind down when she finally does go to bed.

Any thoughts?  Thanks!

[Noelle]

Hi!

How old is she?  Also, could you post what your routine/"schedule" looks like on an average day? 

Thanks! 

[Mom2katiebug]

My LO is 4.5 WO and the schedule that we're working towards and seem to come close to on most days is:

E: 7:00am - 7:30am
A: Diaper Change, then right back into
Sleep

E: 10:00am - 10:30am
A: Diaper Change, then right back into
Sleep

E: 1:00pm -1:30pm
A: Diaper Change and about half the time, right back to sleep.  The other days making faces with mom, taking pictures, etc. for 15 - 45 minutes.
S:  Anywhere from 1:35pm to 2:45pm

E: 4:00pm - 4:30pm
A: Usually quite a bit of awake time - like 45 to 90 minutes or more.
S: Anywhere from 5:00pm to 6:00pm.  This is where it gets weird.  If she's sleepy at around 5pm, we'll try to get her to sleep.  If she's awake until 5:30 or so, we try to kep her awake for a 6:00pm CF then she'll go right off to sleep. 

E: 6:00pm - 6:30pm
A: Diaper change and she's usually ready to go right back to sleep - especially if she didn't sleep long enough during the last go-round.  However, we try to keep her awake because the time is so short until her bath time.   

Then, on bath nights, we change it around a bit for the nighttime routine,
A: 7:15 - 7:45pm - Bath, lotion, jammies
E: 7:45pm then off to sleep for the night

Otherwise, we just do a quick diaper change and bottle at 8pm.

Like I said, sometimes our schedule gets off and we end up on a 5pm, 7:30pm, 9pm feeding time and that make the sleeping times very, very short. 

We haven't started a DF, but she'll sleep from around 8pm until sometime between midnight and 2am, when she's up for a bottle and diaper change.  Then, we have another bottle and diaper change one more time (no set time, but almost exactly 3 hours after her first waking.  DH and I are each taking a nighttime feeding.  Am contemplating introducing a DF so that we can start alternating nights.)  Then we're good until our wake-up at around 7am.

[Noelle]

That's looks like a great routine so far!  As far as the clusterfeeding goes, if it doesn't quite fit in (it can be spaced 1.5-2.5hours) that's ok too.  EASY needs to be tweaked ALOT, especially in the early days.  Clusterfeeding and the dreamfeed can both be done but if one doesn't seem to work or fit in (i.e. the clusterfeed), it is recommended that you concentrate on the other (dreamfeed).

At her age, it isn't uncommon for the diaper change to be the "acitivity".  It sounds like you are doing well watching her cues 

HTH