wants extra feed in the afternoon

[aimee238]

hi, my little girl is 17 weeks and we have been following EASY since she came home from hospital at 2 weeks old (she was 6 weeks premature)

everything has been going really well, she goes to sleep on her own,sleeps through the night etc, but for the last few days getting her to go to sleep in the afternoon has been a nightmare.

her day is -
6.00 wake and eat
7.00 nap-she can't stay awake longer than an hour at this point
9.00-wake/activity
10.00 eat
11.00 nap
1.00 wake/activity
2.00 eat
3.00 nap
5.00 wake/activity
6.00 eat and bath
7.00 bedtime

since friday she has been refusing sleep at 3pm but she is not contented and seems tired. i tried to get her to sleep for a few days using pat/shussh which as worked before but with no success.
yesterday she went down at 3 and was asleep within minutes so i thought we'd cracked it but then she woke at 3.30 and was incosolable. i tired to get her to go back off but she wouldn't so i thought she might be hungry (she'd had 6.5 oz at 2pm) offered her the bottle and she had another 3.5oz. i have tried upping her feed at 2pm but she won't take it all. she then had another 5oz at 6pm and 6oz at 10pm.
after she'd had the extra feed at 3.30 she was quite contented and happy to stay up and play until her next feed at 6. at all other feeding times she will quite happily go to sleep after activity time.

i'm not sure what to do, should i keep giving her this extra feed. my health visitor advised to hold off solids as she was prem and corrected age is only 12 weeks,she also said as she is still sleeping through the night then the milk alone is probably still enough.

Aimee

[LŠuren]

aimee

It sounds like a growth spurt she is going through, my friend also had her DD 6 weeks early (that was a shock  ).

You definitely need to continue that bottle if she is hungry and it will probably wear of stop again, that is probably why she can't sleep (unless she is overtired when you try to put her down for a nap  but you will know her signs.

How is she doing on a 4hr EASY, developmentally speaking she is technically 11weeks, my friend only changed her DD last week to 4hr feeds (she is now 6months) - but every baby is different.

HTH

[aimee238]

hi, she just woke again after only half an hour of sleep so i was wondering if it could be a growth spurt but she has gone off again now. she's been fine on 4 hour easy, she's very laid back generally and takes most things in her stride. i took her dummy away last week as was getting up 5 or 6 times in the night to put it back in as she cried when it fell out and she hasn't really bothered about it, although it was easier as she didn't have it every nap time so i knew she could sleep without it.
when i first read about easy i thought about putting her on 3 hr but hospital advised 4 hourly feeds and she's been averaging 1lb a fortnight weight gain since birth. she was 4lb 14 and is now 13lb so she's doing well.

aimee

[LŠuren]

Thats a brilliant weight gain in 17weeks - well done