Difficulty getting to 3 hour routine

[taygensmom]

I have an 8 week old son. I am having difficulty establishing a consistent routine, and he frequently appears to be hungry prior to the 3 hour mark. I always start his routine at 7 to 7:30 AM. He typically eats for 30 minutes, with activity time for 15 to 45 minutes after that depending on how tired he is. When he gets fussy or is yawning I put him down for his nap, but he is waking up often after only 30 to 45 minutes, even when I give him time to settle back down. If I help his settle back down he just keeps waking up again and appears hungry. I sometimes then end up feeding him 2 to 2.5 hours after his last feed. At night we always put him to bed around 7:300-8:00. I give him a dream feed at 10:30 or 11:00 and then he usually wakes to eat around 3:00 AM and sleeps until 7:00.

I have tried to stick to a consistent routine, but it is very difficulty as he is so inconsistent. Any suggestions?

[corrina01]

With my DD, I fed her on a 2.5hr EASY until about 11 weeks.  You say feeding takes about 30mins give him about 10-15 mins play time and then put him down to sleep.  A time is including the feeding time, so your DS is probably overtired by the time he goes to sleep
and only ends up sleeping about 30mins.


HTH

[mysterymia]

Hi girls,

Corrina, I have just read your post here where you say that A time includes feeding. Did I understand that right? I must have misunderstood as I have a similar problem. My LO is almost 7 weeks and feeding 2 hrly during the day. I have been adding A time to give her looking around time and to try and 'read' sleep cues. She sleeps well at night (4 hrly approx) and I have just added a DF the last four days and it seems to have worked half the time. (she is so sleepy but if I can wake her she then sleeps longer).

The 3 hr EASY semed a long way away from 2 hrly but I may be able to get to 2.5 ( I have found a example in 'Sample EASY Routines for 0-3 months).

Would you mind just clarifying about the A time please? Currently my LO takes about 40 mins to feed but can vary from 30 mins (generally at night) and 1 hr although I am trying to keep her to 45 max. She doesn't settle well and I suspect that she would be better with a dummy but she refuses. (We are trying a 'white noise' CD which seems to help and she has just resettled herself for the first time after a period of sleep.  In fact her unsettledness is improving but she may have a bit of reflux for which we are visiting the dr tomorrow )

Thnanks heaps

[corrina01]

Yes just to clarify, A time does include the feeding time too.

[taygensmom]

Thanks for the advice. The update is that part of the problem was my LO was getting sick and this was part of the reason he wasn't sleeping well. He is now feeling better and I have figured out that when he is waking up early from his naps I have been misreading him!! He is not really hungry (even though he is rooting)!! He just is having difficulty transitioning to the next sleep stage. When I help him to calm down (PU/PD, patting, or pacifier) he will after a short time stop rooting and usually fall asleep until closer to his 3 hour feeding time!!!

[corrina01]

Thats good to hear