Little Emilia is 22 weeks and has been having 2 meals a day (at 11 and 5.30) for nearly two weeks. All was OK (happier than normal actually) until a few days ago when her mood and readiness for her naps deteriorated sharply. She now seems quite irritable constantly, gets very upset for at least 30 mins leading up to her feed times (esp. 11am) and screams when put down for her naps. Her routine is like this:
7am wake and 6oz formula
9am nap (she will only take 40 mins and is up grinning at us)
11am 6oz formula and 2/3 oz rice/puree
12noon nap (anything from 45 mins to 2 hours - typically around 60-90 minutes)
3pm 6oz formula
4.45 15/20 minute catnap
5.30pm 3/4 oz rice/formula and 1/2 oz formula (she is very upset without her mlk here - we have tried water with no success!)
7pm 6 oz formula
10.20pm 2.5oz formula (we have been slowly cutting this down)
Any ideas? Is the introduction of solids causing any of this? Is her pre-11am crying a sign that she wants solids at breakfast (perhaps a hangover from reducing the dream feed)?
Worth mentioning two things:
1. We suspect that she is trying to push her naps back as it has been difficult to get her to take her late afternoon catnap for a while and she is now screaming for up to 30 minutes at 9am and 12noon. We are now trying naps at 9.15 and 12.15 to see if she is less likely to scream the house down. She has always found it difficult to get much daytime sleep but has managed OK on 2 to 2.5 hours. She sleeps well at night.
2. She is a very big girl (nearly 21 pounds) and is continuing to increase weight rapidly. This is despite having had a reasonably modest milk intake of around 31oz per day for some time. This is now down to 27/28 with the introduction of solids. Our health visitor had advised introduction of solids before 5 months as a way of reducing milk intake further in order to slow her weight gain (I was never too sure about this as her intake hasn't been excessive).
