Confused! Any thoughts?

[Sharon P]

HI,

My son is 8.5 weeks old and has been on EASY since he was about 3 weeks old. Our routine is something like this.

7am Eat
8am Sleep
10am Eat
11am Sleep
1pm Eat
2pm Sleep
4pm Eat
5.30 Sleep
6.15 Bath
6.45 Eat
7pm Sleep
10.30pm Eat (a semi dream-feed, but with nappy change at end)
3-4am Eat
7am - Start again.

Within this routine things generally strech out a little and we often end up feeding at 4.30pm, which I don't mind as it is very hard to manage to entertain my LO at the end of the day. Also, he is fully breast fed. He has also started to suffer from reflux badly in the last few weeks, though we have begun to get that under control with medication so I am back to this routine approximately.

My questions/dilemna are as follows.

1. How do people manage to sustain their LO between 4-7pm. My LO is a spirited child and voices his needs very loudly! Which are usually the need for sleep. I also wish he was more cheerful at this time of day because that's when Dady gets to see him and he is just so grizzly, even during his bath.

2. My LO has started to be barely interested in his 7am feed. He may feed for 5 mins and then just want to chat/gurgle at me! As gorgeous as this is, it seems to a have a flow on effect to how long his first sleep is, as he tends to wake earlier, hungry and then get a bit grumpy before the hour of Activity time is up, I assume due to tiredness. His is feeding very well at 3-4am though, and I feel he stiil needs the feed despite my desire to get him to sleep longer (for my needs, which I don't want to guide what I do for him). He also feeds well at 10.30pm. I have tried tanking him up, in my own variation. That is, I have tried feeding at 5pm and then 7pm, but that only seems to put him off his 7pm feed. I am reluctant to tank him up with a 6 and 8pm feed as he is very happy sleeping between 7pm and the dreamfeed, so it would seem like we are moving backwards. Any thoughts on what's going on with the the 7am feed? Does this mean he is almost ready to drop the 3am feed? Should I try feeding him for a shorter amount of time at 3am. He weighs over 12lbs. Should I try using a dummy at 3am and then feed when he next wakes (eg. once he woke at 2.10am and I just popped in the dummy and feed him when he woke at 3.30am).

Would love some advice.

Cheers,

Sharon.

[HeatherC]

1. How do people manage to sustain their LO between 4-7pm.
How long are his naps during the day?  Is he sleeping up until each feed time?  It is very common for lo's to be completely worn out by the end of the day, even though they've had so many naps.  It's purely exhausting for them just to be woken, fed, changed, and held, not to mention taking in the world around them.  As he ages, the evenings should get easier for him.

2. My LO has started to be barely interested in his 7am feed...Any thoughts on what's going on with the the 7am feed? Does this mean he is almost ready to drop the 3am feed? Should I try feeding him for a shorter amount of time at 3am.
This is also very common.  There are two things I can think of to try:  1.  feed him, give him a break, and try to finish the feed 15-20 mins later or give a quick top up before the nap without feeding to sleep, or 2. lessen the night feed and see how long he lasts.  However, I would venture to guess that at his age, he still needs that night feed.  If you try the dummy, and he still wakes an hour later, he's genuinely hungry.

[Sharon P]

Thanks Heather for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it. As far as his day sleeps goes, he does generally sleep till his next feed, or there abouts. I find he gets tired around an hour after the start of a feed and put him down easily at that point. Therefore, he often has 2 hour naps about 2-3 times per day. Just lately he has started to be able to stay awake longer after his mid-morning feed, up to 1.5 hours, but this is new for him.

I do think your right about the exhaustion though. He is a big chatter and you can literally see how much effort and thought goes into getting out each sequence of coos. He also studies things in the environment, so he is clearly using his brain a lot!  I wondered if I should try to make his mid-morning sleep (after 10am feed) a little less deep (eg. a sleep in the pram rather than in his cot) and then ensure that his afternoon sleep is back in his cot to give him more stamina between 4-7. What do you think?

As far as the 7am feeds go, I have tried the feed him, give him a break then try again and a top up before sleep, but he just refuses. I did give him a dummy 2 nights ago (woke at 3.40am then re-woke at 4.10am). I then feed him at 4.10am. I wondered though, if stretching him out another 30 mins was a good thing in terms of moving the 3am forward and working toward merging the feeds in time? I will try giving him a smaller feed at the 3am feed and see if that helps.

Thanks again,

Sharon.

[HeatherC]

I think you should keep things as they are for now, and see if he changes on his own over the next few weeks.  Often times, the first nap is the best as it's almost like an extension of the night sleep.  1-1.5 hrs of A time is right on target for his age.  I'm afraid if he doesn't get a good morning rest, then he'll be overtired for the rest of the day and find it harder to sleep as the day goes on.
That's some good ideas about stretching out his night feeds.  However, don't fret if he continues to eat in the night, it's very common for his age.