Author Topic: EASY for newborns?? Lots of Q's!!!  (Read 1276 times)

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Offline Loriwil

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EASY for newborns?? Lots of Q's!!!
« on: February 26, 2006, 08:34:02 am »
Hello

I am pregnant with my first child and having read Tracey's books, would like to implement EASY from day 1... however I am a bit confused about a few things, hopfully someone can help me out!

* What is a typical daily routine for a baby which is only approx 1 week old - do you clusterfeed when they are this young or do you just go with the average feed of 2 1/5 to 3 hours whether it is day or night?

* When do you start cluster feeding your baby?

* Tracey also mentions that by about week 8 you should turn the two cluster feeds in to one?  Why is this done?  From reading other posts re routines I don't think anyone has really done this..

* I am also wanting to BF but also express so my husband or mother is able to feed our baby for at least one feed a day - probably an afternoon and the dream feed - when is the best time to express?

* When do you start the dream feed?  If you use a bottle for this is it possible to leave them in their cot whilst you do this?

I think that is all for now, thanks   :D

Offline estherofi20

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Re: EASY for newborns?? Lots of Q's!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2006, 17:41:13 pm »
Hello Loriwil!

Congrats on your almost arrived baby!!!!
Ok... let' see:

1- when Paul was born i didn't do a schedule per se, only tried to keep to the order of things. ex: never feed to sleep, if he fell asleep during a feeding I would change his nappy so he woke, and then if he wanted to sleep again i just left him, and i didn't wake him from his naps. Didn't rock him or walked him to sleep either. But he usually woke hungry after 3 hrs or so. i didn't do the cluster feeding until about 3 weeks, and that's when i started with the schedule, because i knew he was usually hungry after 3 hrs, it was something like this:

7:30 feed
8:00 activity
8:30 sleep
10:30 feed
11:00 activity
11:30 sleep
1:30 feed
2:00 activity
2:30 sleep
4:30 feed
5:00 activity
5:30 sleep
6:30 cluster feed
7:00 bath
7:30 bedtime
8:30 cluster feed
11 Dream feed

then he woke up at 1 or 2 am for a feed (didn't talked to him and kept the lights extremely low)
then he woke up again at 4 or 5 am to feed again (didn't talked to him either)

2- so i guess i started cluster feeding him at 3 weeks and also doing the DF, wich only started working when he was like 2 months old, and then he didn't wake for a feed until 4 or 5 am.

3- i did cut the cluster feed at 8 weeks... just because the Tracy said so... so i dont hava any other reason to do it... MMmmmmhhh.

4- Paul is formula fed, allways have been so i got no answer to that...

5- i allways gave him a DF, but at the beginning it was just part of him acctually being hungry every 3 hrs, and it fitted right on his appetite. Then i just waited until the clock turned 11:oo pm and gave him a bottle without waking him up, and now i just give it to him in his crib asleep and i dont even burp him.

I hope this helps, any questions, feel free to contact me!!!
Good luck!!!!
 

Offline Deb_in_oz

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Re: EASY for newborns?? Lots of Q's!!!
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2006, 23:57:47 pm »
your best bet for breast feeding / pumping questions is to ask directly on that board to get the best BF advice possible.

about the DF - it is not recommended to give babies (especially young ones and those that are asleep) their bottle in the crib laying down. for safety reasons it is best to lift the baby out of the bed and give the bottle same as you woudl when they are awake (same location / chair in their room etc) just woithout actually waking them up. no need to burp as they are so relaxed, sometimes they will burp anyway when you stand up, but amazingly it does not do anything to wake them up.


in the BW solves...book there is a chart on p.29 which gives feed schedules for babies from birth-3 mo based on weight levels and whether they are BF or bottle.

not sure exact reason for stopping cluster as i have looked in the books and cannot find a dspecific so can only speculate that it woudl just be that baby is old enough to go longer without food and between a bedtime feed and DF that is enough food as their tummies are bigger and hold more food so you don't want to overfeed. having said that, when you do have your own baby you will be able to decide when to stop the clustering based onh their weight gain issues/size, how much he or she is taking at the feeds (if goes down easily after 1st cluster there is no need to necessarily get him up again)  I woudl also speculate that this encourages them to start sleeping better as you are letting them get into deep sleep without interrupting the sleep cycle until DF (which Tracy says is more important than CF anyway - she says that if baby is not taking a lot at DF to cut the clluster out to encourage a better intake att he DF time)

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Offline Loriwil

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Re: EASY for newborns?? Lots of Q's!!!
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2006, 02:18:00 am »
Thankyou both for your replies...

Debinoz - I have read the chart on pg 29 of Tracey's book but it was confusing with her other chart (not sure of pg no.) for a 4 week old as the one for a 4 week old went over cluster feeding and dream feed however the other one for newborns just said feed every 2 /15 to 3 hours and that they should be able to last longer of a night time.  This is why I was confused as I didn't know when to start the cluster and dream feed.  ???