Evelyn
The site is so slow tonight, so I have just emailed you instead, and will add to post when I can.
I find that now we have some bit of a routine as she has started on solids, on the other hand we are having trouble introducing a bottle, she had been taking bottles of ebm, but when I decided to institute a set daily bottle she has refused ever since... the haberman landed in the post today, so hopefully this problem will be resolved!
How did you get on with the Haberman, I used it when DS was younger and still do sometimes for smaller feeds. If that does not work you need to either; find a teat that is shaped the same as your nipple, this may be easier said then done or try using a sippy or straw cup instead.
She generally goes to sleep by 8.30, usually while being nursed(big booboo i know) and usually has 2 feeds during the night but goes straight back to sleep. As long as she isn’t nursed ALL the time for every nap there should be a problem, by the sounds of it she isn’t.
she wakes between 6am and 7am, although there have been a few 5 am starts. she wakes up full of the joys and has a good feed. My DS id the same, but when he wakes at 5 or 6am I listen to his cries and it took me a while to realize they where not feed me cries, just moans, I would leaving him moaning for a few minutes and he would fall asleep again. Ant other times I use shush / pat to get him to sleep or if he is wide awake, I leave him and he falls asleep. Can you LO fall asleep independently? For EASy to work you need to pick a wake up time and stick to it.
How long should i persist in trying to settle her for a nap? When on EASY Tracey says to use pu/pd until the next feed cycle, if she falls asleep just before the next feed is due, then you wake her to feed her, have you’re a time then try to get her to nap when the next nap is due, she will some get the hang of the naps.
we havent been using the PU/PD method (ashamedly) would it not be too much to try and implement lots of changes at once? I think I would try and sort out the naps first, try the first one and build from there, from her wake up time, look to have her in her cot 1hr 45mins after, so you have 15min wind down time so you can start the 4 S’s.
Set the stage - prepare you LO room for sleep; remove stimulation, darken room, lullaby....
Swaddle - (I used to swaddle now I use a gro'bag with his arms swaddled)
Sitting - Quietly without any stimulation, and when necessary..
Shush-pat
Is there anyway you can start the 4 S's 15 -20min before a nap?
She has lots of feeds throughout the day, I know she would get into the swing of 3 hourly feeds...but i am afraid of leaving her too long for the first few times, i cant see her napping if she is hungry. – Evelyn I will also post a planner to get her from 3hr feeds to 4hr feeds over the course of 2 weeks. You did mention she isn’t that hungry when out and may just need distracting to edge it closer to 3 then 4hrs.
it can take a while for her to bring up wind sometimes and the feed can drag on, would this disrupt the EASY method? My DS regularly takes an hr to feed and it doesn’t disrupt his routine.
Hope I have answered all your questions, feel free to ask any more…. I have also added information on cluster and dream feeding if you need that.
Evelyn I don't personally d/f, but DS does cluster feed sometimes. Just had a look in TBW secrets of the BW page 184-5 and Tracey has this advice for you....
Tank them up. This might sound like a rather crude expression, but one of the ways we get babies to sleep through the night is by filling their tummies. To that end, when an infant is six weeks old, I suggest two practices:
cluster feeding—that is, feed her every two hours before bedtime—and giving what I call a dream feed right before you retire to bed. For example, you give her the breast (or a bottle) at six and eight in the evening, and the dream feed at ten-thirty or eleven.
With dream feeding, literally nurse or bottle-feed). her in her sleep. In other words, you pick your baby up, gently place the bottle or breast on her lower lip, and allow her to eat, taking care not to wake her. When she’s finished, you don’t even burp her; just put her down. Infants are usually so relaxed at these feeds, they don’t gulp air. You don’t talk; you don’t change her unless the night she’s soaked through or soiled. With both these tanking-up techniques, most babies can sleep through that middle-of-the-night it, teach feed, because they have enough calories to keep them going for are some five or six hours.
Hope this helps as a starter
Lauren x
