Start of Day

[Jenifer]

Do you start your day at a set time regardless of what time your baby woke up to feed in the middle of the night?

My 9 week old daughter gets up anywhere between 3:30 and 5:30 am to feed.  So far I've been setting my clock to get up at 8am to start our day.  She may get up around 7 - 7:30 if she feeds around 3:30 am.  If she feeds closer to 5 am then I am waking her at 8 am and trying to get her to feed.  If this is the case she will only feed for a short period of time (I'm assuming because she's not really hungry yet) and then may want another "snack" 1.5 - 2 hours later.

How do you all do the night and morning feed?

[owelley]

hi Jenifer!!

Personally,  our last official night feed is right before bed.  So it's at 6:30 ish thn bedtime is at 7:00.  We df at 11:00 but bcuz we're on a 4 hr EASY.  Is your lo on EASY??  We had another 1 or 3am feed that I cut last night and dd slept longer so I know she does not need it anymore.  IN regards to your question about start of the day feed,  You would start the first am feed at 7am if you plan on waking up then.  Like a 12 hr day from 7-7 or 7- 7:30.  HTH!!

[Erin M]

According to the way that Tracy presents it in her books, you should wake your LO up at the same time every day, just to get them set in a routine.  Having said that, I never started my day at a set time, I just waited until she woke up and then did our first feed from there.  It doesn't keep you on the same schedule every day, but that never bothered me, we would just work from her wake up time.  As she got older, I found that she started to regulate herself a bit more and would wake and eat at roughly the same time every day. 

As for the early feed, you could try offering only one side to see if she's satisfied with that and will then take a good feed first thing in the morning.  When my LO was that age we would cluster feed around 5 and 7 before bed, do a dream feed around 11 and then she would generally wake at some point during the night.  We had the same issue for awhile where she would wake around 5 or so and want to eat and then not take a full feed later on.  I tried the one side thing for awhile which seemed to help, as she eventually phased out of that and just started sleeping through.

[Harvey and Theos Mam]

I don't wake Theo to start his day, i just follow him. He likes to sleep til gone 8am and that is when i start his day. But he has a feed anytime between 5-6am most days and goes back to sleep. His brother often comes in and wakes us at 6-7am and Theo tends to get up then, so no set times here.

We are on a 4 hr EASY and i will give him his last feed between 6-7pm and i will give that 3hrs after his last feed if need be. But he mostly goes to bed at 7pm with a D/F at 10:45pm.

If your baby is flexible with her routine then maybe you could follow her cues and not wake her. If you do and she isn't that hungry then maybe you could just give her a small feed or leave it a little longer before trying.

[MDHmommy]

I had a similar thing happen with my LO - if he woke to eat too late in the "night" (i.e. after 3am) he would not take his morning feed. To me, I took this late feed as an indicator that LO was ready to drop a feeding.
What's your EASY schedule look like?
I found that once I dropped a feed, the night time kind of regulated itself and he was back to getting up at between 6:30-7:00 and taking nice full feeds at that time.

[Jenifer]

Here's our routine.  Mind you it changes a bit, depending on what time she wakes up.  I've copied this from a sleep post I have - I wonder if her feedings could be related to her sleeping patterns (doesn't nap too well) ...

8:00 am - feed
8:15 am - activity (diaper, chatting, swing)  She gets tired pretty quickly and starts yawning around 8:30.  I try to keep her up a little longer otherwise she wants to get up around 10am (which throws of the eat, activity, sleep routine - turns it into EASAE)
8:45 - 9:00 am - sleep  She will get drowsy in the swing.  If I pick her up she will wake up and be a bear to get back down (in her crib).  If I leave her there she will sleep for 1 - 1.5 hours
11:00 am - feed
11:15 am - activity
12:00 - 12:30 pm sleep  For this cycle she is more awake and doesn't start to yawn until around 12:00 and won't go down easily either.
2:00 pm - feed
2:15 - activity  This is where we may run a couple errands or go for a walk.
3:00 - 3:30 pm sleep (either in the c!@!@at or the stroller)
5:00 pm - feed
5:15 pm - activity
7:15 pm - cat nap
8:00 pm - feed
8:15 pm - bath, story, music, bedtime
10:30 pm - dreamfeed
around 3:30 - 4am - night feeding


How do you get rid of the night feed if she still wakes up? 

I've never cluster fed because she was gassy in the beginning and that many feeds would have made her even worse (at the advice of a lactation consultant).   Another thing I've noticed is that her feeds have significantly shortened in the last 3 weeks or so.  She's gotten much quicker, resulting in 10 - 15 minute feeds (used to be 20+ minutes).  Little stinker still tries to get away with 5 - 10 minute feed once in awile ... 

[MDHmommy]

I just looked back at the beginning of your thread, and realized that your LO is just 9 weeks old, so she's might not be ready to drop a feed. Best way to tell is whether or not she's actually taking a full feed in the middle of the night or not. If she is taking a full feed, then just stick with it for a few more weeks. Since your schedule is so good during the day, more than likely she will just sleep right through one night, especially if you can fit in one cluster feed before bed.

If she is taking 1/2 a feed (one side only) or only for a minute or two before she falls back to sleep, you might try giving her a paci if she wakes up because she's not really that hungry. Look in Tracy's "solves your problems" book under habitual waking. There is good advice on this.

One of the moderators might have more to add. Good luck! From the looks of it, you're doing great!!!!

[lisi's mum]

Jenifer, your dd is so cute! Incredibly awake looking  I tend not to wake dd because I'm a lazy git and enjoy the lie-in, however, the rest of the day tends to go to pot. At 9 weeks I think it's great trying to establish a routine, but at that time I was still very flexible with it. I also wouldn' t worry about trying to resettle at night without a feed unless she's really not eating anything at "breakfast", there's plenty of time to get there.

Just a thought, at this age sleeping through would normally mean sleeping through a feed i.e 6 to 8 hrs in a go. dd did this, but as we didn't do a dream feed (made her wake even more) her "sleeping through" went from 7 to 2am 

Looks like you're doing great, don't stress! 

[RachelC]

Jenifer,
I would consider turning the 7:15 'catnap' into bed time and even feed her as one of the last things you do:

5:15 - activity, including bed routine
7:15 - feed and perhaps a book (so feeding is not associated with sleep)
7:30 bed
10:30 dreamfeed

It is also ok to have EASAEAS.  Both my dds did/do 5-10 minute feeds.  I also wouldn't worry about that night feed just yet... she's still young and might really need it.

HTH