Sorry it took so long to reply! (busy days!)
So here is what a typical day looks like (this is january 16 starting at midnight):
Woke at 3:30
E: 3:35 to 4:00 (wonder if he was really hungry)
down around 4:00 and asleep around 4:30
woke at 6:45
E: 6:50 to 7:30 (interrupted by poopy diaper change)
A: looking at me
started winding down around 7:40-45
S: around 8:30
E: 10:00 to 10:30 (interrupted by poopy diaper again!)
A: 10:30 to 10:45 looks at me for a little then lays quietly on swaddle on bed before swaddling him
Down 10:50 asleep by 11:30
Woke at 12:20 (decided to feed since half an hour only before the 3-hour mark)
E: 12:30 to 13:00
A: looks at me
Down: 13:30-45 (hard wind-down and to put to sleep)
S: 14:30
Woke at 15:50
E: 16:00 to 16:25
A: probably looking at me and diaper change
D: 16:40
S: thought he fell asleep by 17:15 went back in 17:30, then 17:50, then 18:10 by which time I stayed 15 min.
Woke at: 19:00
E: 19:05 to 19:30
A: probably none since hard nap before...
S: Hard to settle and wind-down, finally fell asleep by 21:00
Woke at 23:15 (either by himself or me to dream feed, I can't recall)
E: 23:20 to 23:40
D: 23:42
went back in at 20 after midnight to pat and stayed in 20 min. to make sure he was asleep!
So this is pretty typical although sometimes there are more hard to settle nap times, or he wakes after anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.
I exclusively breastfeed Nathan (with a bottle of expressed milk once in a while to give me a break). His feeding times take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to 30 minutes. After that amount of time he usually start to suckle only and deforms and hurts my nipples. Sometimes he will just have one breast and sometimes two (that's either when I want to make sure he's had enough or because he starts bobbing on and off the first one angry that nothing is coming out anymore and not patient enough to wait for a second let-down that sometimes comes after more or less 5min.) Is this o.k? I know Tracy says to only do single side feedings... Sometimes if he is done on the one breast in 10-15 minutes and I try to put him on the other to make sure he is not hungry anymore, he will take it but then end up spitting up most of that extra milk!
I'm very perplex! There are so many questions running through my mind sometimes that I think it will explode!!!
Enough milk, not enough milk!
Hungry, not hungry!
Tired, not tired!
Overstimulated or just tired!
Pain or no pain, or just overstimulated!
HELP!
My wind-down routine for naps and bedtime is as follows:
-Put soft lullaby music on
-sometimes a diaper change if I haven't done it before the music was on
-Swaddle and offer pacifier
-switch soft light off (keeping only soft nightlight on)
-sit in rocking chair (not rocking) quietly (that's usually when he starts fussing and fighting)
-try to calm him with sssh-pat (both or either one) or put him in crib and sssh-pat there depending on what I feel
-sometimes we use a heartbeat or wave sound machine
And the rest is history: it either works, takes a long time to work or both with him waking up later on...
(for bedtime, he will sometimes have a bath, maybe every 2 nights. We don't always give it since we sometimes think it's too much for him after a hard day of bad nap times)
Also, we tried cluster feeding at 5 and 7 or 6 and 8. But that turns out really bad since he is so hard to put down! So we basically spend the hour he should be sleeping putting him down to get him up to feed right after! Do we really need to put him down or could we just do E at 5 then bathe him, then go straight to nursing again after his bath and then bedtime?
Is there anything I need to change or start doing??? Sometimes I think I put him in bed too soon and that he is fighting me because he isn't ready to go down quite yet. Could that be possible?
Being a mom is soooo not "EASY"!!!
Thanks for taking the time to read me and to help! It will so greatly be appreciated!
marilyn