could my 11 week old be ready for 4 hour easy?

[bigsize9foot]

HI

My LO is 11 weeks old and has been quite settled on 3 hour easy. He is a big baby for 11 weeks- 14lbs.

I have noticed some changes in him recently. I would say 50% of the time he doesn't take his full nap- but usually he will play till his next feed and doesn't seem out of sorts. Sometimes he does take his full nap- but usually just once in the day- the other two would then be shorter. Hes been doing this for a few weeks now.

Over the last few days his feeding has been a bit erratic. yesterday and today he was crying for food long before his 1pm feed. At times it seems to be that he is not taking a full feed. I noticed this especially today at 10am- he fed for only 6ish mins and he normally feed about 10 mins. By 11.30 he was starving and I had to feed him some more. He then took another full feed at 1pm. It is difficult for me to say if his feeds are smaller as I am BF. Because of this he missed his nap at 11.30. He has just gone down now at 2pm.

Night times are hard for me to spot any changes as he has never slept through the night. Sometimes he will wake once for a feed but more often twice- he takes a full feed. At a rough estimate he used to wake every 3ish hours for a feed but its stretching to 4.

Are these signs I should phase him to 4 hour easy?

Thanks
Fxx

[KellyC]

Hi

It doesn't sound to me as though this is a 3/4 hour EASY issue as, even though your LO only took a short feed at 10am, he was hungry again by 11.30am.  There's a growth spurt at around 12 weeks but I'm not sure if this is what you're dealing with - the short feed is a strange one.  Can you post your routine from today (eating and sleeping) as this may help us to figure out what's going on.  Sorry I can't be anymore help at this point but please do come back to me.

Kelly x

[bigsize9foot]

Hi

Thanks for your reply. As it turned out I think LO was poorly this day as he was quite sick later on. The next day he was okay again. However, I have started to try and implement the 4 hour EASY on a very gradual transition. We did great yesterday but are a bit off track today as never woke till 7.30 so need to start setting the alarm! After some thought I decided that LO is ready to make the transition. He is 3 months next week and is a BIG baby- 15lbs so should be able to make 4 hourly feeds with a bit of perseverance- I'm notlooking forward to this transition! I am also thinking of making my own plan as having looked at Tracey's in the book- I don't think it will suit us. Need to get my head down and start working on it....

Fxx

[LŠuren]

Let us know how you get on and shout if you need more help. 

[KellyC]

Hi

Sorry your DS was poorly, I hope he's better now.  We didn't follow the plan for the transition to a 4 hour EASY either but just stretched the A and E times whenever we could.  We found that Zander was ready to go longer between feeds way before he was ready to lengthen his A times, so quite often we were feeding in the middle of his A times making it more like EASA.  It's fine to feed in the middle or even at the end of an A time so long as it's kept separate from the S part of the routine so they don't learn to associate one with the other.  Good luck!

Kelly x