so confused - need help with my EASY routine

[FiThomson]

Hello all

My lo is now 7 weeks (weighs 9lb 1 oz) and we have been trying to implement EASY for the last four weeks.  We have a reasonably good day routine where she has a 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 hour cycle.  I may be doing this wrong (and happy to take advice on changing it) but i tend to let her go as long as she wants up to 3 3/4 hours by which time if she had not woken to feed, I would wake her instead.  We have been CF but this sometimes does not go so well as the differing start times to our day can mean that CF at 6 and 8 does not fit in.  I also read that CF should be stopped after 8 weeks so I am not sure how to address this.

I have posted a semi-typical routine - the start time tends to vary but is generally sometime between 6 and 7 (more commonly 6) and I always wake her to start the day by 7.

E - 6
A - 6.20 generally only for about 15 mins after eating as she is generally pretty tired still
S - 6.45

E - 9.00
A - 9.15 for about an hour - this is her most awake time of the day really
S - 10.15

E - 12.30
A - 12.30 for about 45 mins before she starts yawning
S - 13.15

A - 15.30 wakes but is not hungry
E - 16.00
A - varies widely in timing
S - often struggle to get her down here and it will be after 17.15

E - 18.30 (wake her to start CF)
A - 19.00 bath and wind down
S - sometimes goes down straight away but sometimes struggle here - definitely not able to stay awake until next CF

E - 20.30
S - 21.00 although again someitmes will not go down

E - DF at 11.30

E - typically wakes after 3 to 3 3/4 hours so around 2.30am to 3.15am

then start over with her normally waking between 5.15 and 6 - I have found that when she wakes early at 5.00 she will often take her pacifier and go back to sleep for 40 mins or so

my questions are

should I always stick to 3 hours during the day or is it okay to have the variations up to 3 3/4 hours?

I often struggle during the CF stage - if her day routine means she has not eaten until 16.00, it is generally not until after 17.30 that I get her down for a nap and if I wake her at 18.30 she is grumpy and although she will take a full feed (about 4 oz) she will generally through quite a bit of it back up again.  same applies at 20.30.
should I cut out CF and if so how?  I want to still have a bedtime routine involving bath but if I feed her before 19.30 there is no way she will go past 11pm and then I know from experience that I will have to night feeds at 1.30/2am and 4.30/5 am.   how do I fit this in and how do I make sure dropping the CF does not mean she feeds less?
can I give her a bath/quiet play before feeding at this time so I could do bath at 18.30 and feed about 19.15 then wind-down to sleep by 19.45? or should I always try to stick to doing EA rather than switching it to AE here?

she has quite sensitive skin so I do not give her a bath everyday - how would people recommend establising a bedtime routine on the alternate days when she does not have a bath?

at this stage should she be starting to go longer at night or is she still too young for that - I think she is pretty kmuch a textbook baby and have read that they often start sleeping through at 8 weeks but Charlotte shows no signs ofdoing that! any tips?

Hope someone can help - I have been doing the above routine for 4 weeks but starting to struglle and not seeing any results.  the more I read the more confused I get and i have got to a point where I do not feel that I can make any decisions!!!!

thanks

Fiona

[Lªuren]

Fiona

my questions are

should I always stick to 3 hours during the day or is it okay to have the variations up to 3 3/4 hours? EASY is only a guideline if DD is not hungry at 3 hours but wants fed after 3.5 then yes allow variation.

I often struggle during the CF stage - if her day routine means she has not eaten until 16.00, it is generally not until after 17.30 that I get her down for a nap and if I wake her at 18.30 she is grumpy and although she will take a full feed (about 4 oz) she will generally through quite a bit of it back up again.  same applies at 20.30.  - I think you are struggling becasue of the 1730 nap, try make it earlier if you can and the rest SHOULD sort itself.

hould I cut out CF and if so how?  I want to still have a bedtime routine involving bath but if I feed her before 19.30 there is no way she will go past 11pm and then I know from experience that I will have to night feeds at 1.30/2am and 4.30/5 am.   how do I fit this in and how do I make sure dropping the CF does not mean she feeds less?  I remember back to when DS was this age and from 6pm every night he was tended to non-stop, bar 30mins for Dh & I's tea. You don't need to drop the CF, if it works, we fed at 6pm

can I give her a bath/quiet play before feeding at this time so I could do bath at 18.30 and feed about 19.15 then wind-down to sleep by 19.45? or should I always try to stick to doing EA rather than switching it to AE here? There are no hard and fast rules, try if for a while if it doesn't work - change it.

she has quite sensitive skin so I do not give her a bath everyday - how would people recommend establising a bedtime routine on the alternate days when she does not have a bath? you could try massage on alternate days?

at this stage should she be starting to go longer at night or is she still too young for that - I think she is pretty kmuch a textbook baby and have read that they often start sleeping through at 8 weeks but Charlotte shows no signs ofdoing that! any tips? Far too young as I said before DS still had 2 nightwakings.

just realised I have lost half of my reply!! 

[Lªuren]

My lo is now 7 weeks (weighs 9lb 1 oz) and we have been trying to implement EASY for the last four weeks.  We have a reasonably good day routine where she has a 2 3/4 to 3 1/2 hour cycle.  I may be doing this wrong (and happy to take advice on changing it) but i tend to let her go as long as she wants up to 3 3/4 hours by which time if she had not woken to feed, I would wake her instead.  We have been CF but this sometimes does not go so well as the differing start times to our day can mean that CF at 6 and 8 does not fit in.  I also read that CF should be stopped after 8 weeks so I am not sure how to address this.

You are fine to adjust the 3hr EASY routine, after all it is aonly a guideline.

Be carefull of the amount of time for naps in the future becasue she may get her days and nights swapped or she may end up getting too much sleep and it gets taken away from her night sleep, and don't allow her to sleep over a feed.

I still use a CF as such. When DS was 7 weeks we feed; 7,10,1,4,6,8 (no d/f) + 2am and 5am
We now do 7.30, 12, 1600/1630 & 1900

I would try and stick to a set wake up time, maybe try shushpat when she wakes at 6am and wake her at 7am??? (easier said than done)

E - 12.30
A - 12.30 for about 45 mins before she starts yawning
S - 13.15

A - 15.30 wakes but is not hungry
E - 16.00
A - varies widely in timing
S - often struggle to get her down here and it will be after 17.15

E - 18.30 (wake her to start CF)
A - 19.00 bath and wind down
S - sometimes goes down straight away but sometimes struggle here - definitely not able to stay awake until next CF

E - 20.30
S - 21.00 although again someitmes will not go down

E - DF at 11.30

I also think her 1730 nap is far too latem it looks like she is awake about too hours, this is too long for a 7 week old, she is hard to go down becasue she is over tired. I would also say the same for the naps/sleeps that follow that.

DF should be between 10 -11pm

HTH's - because I lost the top half of the post I may have missed a question, just give me shout. 

Lauren

[FiThomson]

Thanks very much for your responses - I will see how it all goes

[HeatherC]

I agree with everything Lauren replied.  If she wakes at 3:30 from a nap, then you feed at 4, I would try for the catnap around 5.  Even though that is an hour after feeding, she's already had 30 mins of A time before the feed, and even 1.5 hrs can be hard for a 7 week old.  So, then if you feed at 4, nap from 5-6, then you could have bath, then feed around 6:30-7, then off to bed and up the df to 10 or 10:30.  Like Lauren said, you don't want to df past 11.  On nights you don't bathe her, if weather permits you could go for a stroll, have a low key activity such as reading, or just some cuddle time.