What's going on???? Everything's a mess...

[The Vern]

I need some help from you guys!  All of a sudden, after being on a 3-hr EASY for a while, my 7 week, 5 day old dd has turned everything upside down.  She has turned EASY into AESY!!! She wakes and is alert before feeding (no hunger signs when waking) and then after feeding at her regular time she falls right to sleep at the bottle and is soooo difficult to rouse.  Also, I have to admit I hesitate to wake her just to have to fight to put her back down after 15 minutes, as she would become too tired from being awake too long before the feed. 

And today she has screamed almost the entire day.  If she could, she would scream with the bottle in her mouth.  When feeding her, she would pull away and push at the bottle and then go into a crying fit.  She'd calm for a second or so when the bottle was put back in, but then do the same thing over again.  She has seemed to be hungry sooner than the 3 hrs as well, and earlier today took almost 5 oz (her usual is 4oz), but then this last feeding, she hardly took anything, but fussed and fussed, so I burped, etc and swaddled her to calm her down and she went right to sleep.

I'm so confused. I thought I had everything on a really good routine; I felt fairly confident reading her cues, and now, it didn't take me long to feel completely insecure and have absolutely no idea why she's crying and what she wants next.  Could this be a delayed 6-week growth spurt?  If it is a growth spurt, how long do they usually last and is it hard to get back to the EASy afterwards?

[Lªuren]

Just a quickie reply...

Can you post your recent routine?

[The Vern]

Calum's Mum,
You've been busy on the boards I see!  Here's my routine as of late:

8 am - wake/feed
8:30 - activity
9:30 - sleep
11 - wake/feed
11:30 - activity
12 pm - sleep
2 - wake/feed
2:30 - activity
3:30 - sleep
5 - wake/feed
5:30 - activity
6 - catnap
7 - wake/bath/feed
8 - in bed for night
11 - dreamfeed
2-4 am - wakes to feed; goes right back to sleep; then wakes for the morning as above or around 7:30ish

Sometimes A time is not quite as long, as she gets overtired easily, but generally the above is what I aim for and have been able to stick to fairly well, except in the past couple of days.  Today has started out great, E at 8am, A for a while, S at 9:30.  She didn't seem quite as hungry this morning as usual, she took about 3 oz instead of usual 4. I'm wondering if all her fussing and erratic eating is due to the need to change the routine from 3 to 3.5 or 4???  Seems a tad early though at only 8 weeks.  Now that you have an idea of my general routine, feel free to offer any advice. Thanks.

[The Vern]

I wanted to update today thus far.  After eating at 8 as normal, I woke her at 11, but she wasn't interested in food at all.  No until closer to 12 would she take the bottle and finished with good appetite.  I have to question, even though it seems early, could she be ready for a transition to a 4-hr routine, or at the very least, a 3.5 hr routine? What do you think?  Thanks in advance.

[Noelle]

Hello!! 

To be honest, not quite sure why she would be having the crying fits.  The first thing that comes to my mind is being overtired or in some type of pain.   

As far as moving to a 3.5-4hr routine, every baby is different and if she eats better on that "schedule" and it works for you, then I would do it.    As mentioned, it will probably turn your EASY into AESY, which is normal and OK.  The main thing you want to avoid if possible is the feeding to sleep so that doesn't become a habit.   

I've known growth spurts to last from a day or two up to a week.

As far as the morning bottle goes too....Zoe used to take the first one well but after a while I was lucky to get 4oz in her...it was usually only 3...and this was after going to bed at 7pm with no nightwakings.  Just not a big breakfast eater I guess.  So I just fed her next bottle a little sooner and the rest were more spaced out.

Hope this helps some, let us know how it goes. 

[The Vern]

Noelle, Thanks for your reply.   A question about AESY - if that's ok, what would you recommend I do to avoid the E to S, which seems to happen quite often?  As she quickly becomes overtired and can be very difficult to soothe even when not, it would be frustrating to keep her awake just to fight her to get to sleep!!!  Remind me again why E to S would be so bad!? 

[Kimberly®]

the only way I could stop my LO from falling asleep on the bottle at 7 weeks was to constantly talk or sing to her while she ate. Having it AESY isn't the bad part, having her dependent on the bottle or boob to sleep is. If your LO trully does better with AESY then work with that. WE had to due to our LO not wanting to sleep. Just do what you can to keep her from falling asleep on while eating. A damp cloth also worked wonders for us, I'd rub it gently on her forhead to rouse her. For A to seperate the feed from sleep stick with a diaper change after feeding for the time being then right to bed. 15 minutes is probably to long for her since she is doing her activity before eating. Also if you think it will help try the 3.5 hour routine and see if that helps.
The reason that you don't want them to fall asleep while eating now is that as they get older its harder to brake that habbit. Better to nip that habbit in the butt while you can.

HTH