help w/ Josie's FAQ posting

[soji]

I just read in the FAQ section How Tracy helped JOsie through her 45 minute naps and that sounds just like us!  Except that our LO is 9 week old and still on a 3 hour EASY.  Can someone give me a 3 hour EASY routine based on Josie's post?  Do you think it's appropriate to do a light feed for a 9 week old and what constitutes a light feed?  5 minutes, 10 minutes?  Jsut let her feed until she is done and then call it quits?

any advice would be great!

PS: tried W2S today and it worked pretty okay.  Got her to extend her nap to 55 minutes and then had to hold her down (pressure on her arms) for the next 20 mintue light sleep phase.  After that, she had a weird 20 minute phase of semi heavy sleep, follwed by a GREAT 20 mintues of deep sleep.  She slept for a total of 2 hours (with some assistance) but she never really fully woke up like she did before!  1 nap down, 3 more to go for today and we'll keep it for the next few days to try to get it to sink in.

[deb]

For a 3-hour EASY, maybe you can do 90 minutes up, 90 minutes down?

For us, a light feed was one breast; half the time Josie fell asleep nursing - which at that point suited me FINE. LOL

We didn't know about W2S then, so I won't be much help with that, but good luck extending the naps!

[soji]

Thank you Deb!
I've been trying to keep her up for 90 minutes, but she's such a sleepy head and it's so painful to try to keep her up.  She just gets sooooo tired and cranky!  But, like your post said, these are goals to work towards, right?  And yes, my LO likes to sleep at the breast too.  I think that's where she makes up for not sleeping during the second part of her nap!! lol! 

Her 2nd nap didn't go quite as well as her first nap did, but it's a learning process.  I just put her down for her 3rd nap and she went down w/o a fuss. I have 35 minutes before I do W2S and then I'll stay in the room until she stirs again. 

This is so much work.  How do you actually get anything else done during the day?  I barely have enough time to feed myself!  Forget about actually doing any housework.  I usually try to get out of the house at least once a day - a walk, or do errands, but of course it's usually during one of her naps.  But sometimes my mental health is more important than her nap.  I start to go crazy after being alone w/ her day after day - waiting until DH comes home to take his shift.  Anyways, I would be absolutely lost w/o this website and Tracy's books.

Thanks for all your help.

 

[soji]

oops!  1 more question.  We were doing cluster feeds in the evening and a dream feed. Do you think it's still necessary to do both the light feeds and the cluster feeds?  Our LO is 9 weeks old.  Our EASY looked like this before implementing the Josie plan:

E - 7 am
A-
S - 8-10 am

E - 10 am
A -
S - 11-1pm

E - 1 pm
A -
S - 2-4pm

E - 6:30 pm (first cluster feed)
A - bath
E - 7 pm (top off)
S - 7:30ish

E - 9 pm (2nd cluster)
S

E - 11 pm (Dream Feed)

wake up around 4 am
repeat the next morning around 7 am.

Under the modified Josie plan, it looks kind of like this:
E - 7 am
A-
E - 8am (light feed)
A - (try to keep her up until 8:30 but usually she's only up for another 5-10 mintues after the light feed)
S - 8:30-10 am

E - 10 am
A -
E- 11 am (light feed)
A -
S - 11:30-1pm

E - 1 pm
A -
E - 2 pm (light feed)
S - 2-4pm

E - 6:30 pm (first cluster feed)
A - bath
E - 7 pm (top off)
S - 7:30ish

E - 9 pm (2nd cluster)
S

E - 11 pm (Dream Feed)

Is this too much feeding?  The first day we did this our LO only took 1.5 oz at the dream feed. (I'm breastfeeding, but DH gives her the bottle at the DF).  Usually she will take 3.5 oz to 4 oz at the DF.  She woke up this morning around 2:45 am and we fed her then.  But she still made it to about 6:30 this morning, so we didn't actually have more than 1 middle of the night feed.  I don't have a bottle ready for her tonight (the 2nd day on the new schedule) so I'll be giving her the boob at the DF. 

Any thoughts?

[deb]

I had to LOL at "the Josie plan." So far she's already a verb - last year before she could make it dry through the night but we couldn't get her up to pee, we'd literally carry her to the bathroom and she'd pee in her sleep, so someone on here also said they "Josied" their kid. Now we have "The Josie Plan." This kid is notorious - thank Goodness she doesn't know it!

OK, had to get that out of my system.

When we did the "snack feed," I did it at the point where Josie could barely hold her eyes open any more. So instead of feeding her at the 1-hour mark, I'd be in her room then, play with her till she was patently exhausted, and then feed her. I'd been having so much trouble getting her to GO to sleep before her reflux was diagnosed and treated that frankly I didn't CARE if she fell asleep at the breast - a nap was a nap at that point, KWIM?

Anyway, we phased out the extra feeds one nap at a time after maybe a week. The extra feeds had the effect of boosting my supply so that when I was feeding her she was REALLY getting full feeds and didn't need to wake in the night for extras. We handled most of the 4-5AM stuff with a paci; I'd send DH in to do the dirty work since he didn't smell like milk and we'd give it maybe 15 minutes and if she still wouldn't settle I'd go ahead and nurse, but that only happened once or twice.

Gotta run, but HTH! Let me know if you have any more Q's!

Oh, yeah, the cluster feeds: I honestly don't remember how we figured it out, but I must have fed her more often since I was in the habit of doing it. I suspect we didn't follow EASY so much toward the end of the day!

[soji]

Thanks deb!

I understand how you used the light feeds now.  We also have a reflux problem.  We found out at about 5 weeks and she's doing so much better!  Now, she goes down very easily - especially when I watch her sleepy cues.  Do you think that since she doesn't have a problem going down for her naps that the light feeds aren't necessary?

Also, do you think that at 9 weeks old that trying to phase out the 4-5 am feed w/ a paci is too early?  She eats pretty well at that feed, but I'm concerned that she's always going to want it out of habit.  If it is too early to phase her out at what age would you start phasing it out?

Sorry to keep asking so many questions, but I'm just trying to figure it out.  Why don't babies come w/ sleep manuals?!    It would make it so much easier!

Thanks again for answering all my questions!

PS: I see that you are in MD.  We're neighbors!  I'm in No. Va! 

[deb]

The point of the snack feeds was to increase her calorie intake during the day, so she wouldn't wake at 5AM, so she wouldn't wake then only to fall back into a half-sleep, so she'd be able to stay awake more than an hour and be properly tired and take long enough naps. If she'll be getting more calories during the day, the hope is that she'll be able to do without the 5AM feed and stop bothering to wake for it.

Where in No Va are you? I have a friend in the Sterling area!

[soji]

I'm in Great Falls. My husband works in Sterling.  It's just a hop and a skip away!
Thanks again for all your help!  Over the weekend, she had some really good naps - and she even got through the 40 minute naps!  BUt alas, they are back again.  THat's okay, tho.  We'll keep working on it!

[Duckie]

So far she's already a verb - last year before she could make it dry through the night but we couldn't get her up to pee, we'd literally carry her to the bathroom and she'd pee in her sleep, so someone on here also said they "Josied" their kid.

That was ME!!!  I "Josied" Andrew until about 4 months ago (would do it after J's feeding).

[deb]

So far she's already a verb - last year before she could make it dry through the night but we couldn't get her up to pee, we'd literally carry her to the bathroom and she'd pee in her sleep, so someone on here also said they "Josied" their kid.

That was ME!!!  I "Josied" Andrew until about 4 months ago (would do it after J's feeding).

Ah, thanks - I couldn't remember who it was. After that, for the longest time, I'd ask DH if he had "Josie'd" Josie that night yet!!!!