This little girl is completely unpredictable.
I have been trying like a mad person to get her on a schedule so she knows when she is supposed to sleep, eat, be awake, and such, but to no avail.
She's been waking up at 7am every morning the past couple of days, which was the goal, but as far as consistency goes, that's it.
Our first feeding of the day is pretty regular, 7, but after that it's complete chaos! Sometimes she wants to eat an hour and half later, sometimes two and a half, and sometimes not at all. What the heck little girl?
Today she had several half hour naps, followed by crying, and two hour and half naps.
Seriously. Unpredictable. She makes it impossible to predict when she is going to eat, which in turn makes my day impossible to predict.
I'm hoping this calms down soon, but in the meantime, any suggestions?
p.s. She has been such a champ at night lately. I think I average 6-7 hrs a night, which is unheard of for a newborn, right? It's just during the day that she's weird. Help!
the main thing to focus on is getting FULL feedings & don't allow her to snack feed (keep her on one side, watch for hind-milk, listen to her swallowing, etc). it's snack feeding where she has only had fore-milk that will cause her to get hungry an hour later. she needs to take in a full feeding to get to the hind-milk that is necessary for growth & that will keep her tummy full for several hours. if she takes in a full feeding it is unlikely that she will get hungry sooner than 2 hours later (prob closer to 3, with her age) so focus on full feedings.
ReplyDeleteshe is far too little to know how to regulate her own sleep & hunger cycles, so that's where mommy comes in! feed her every 2-3 hours & try really hard to not feed her sooner. i can't stress feeding her on a schedule enough. i went with every 3 hours since day 1 & that's still what we do during the day. make sure you aren't just assuming she wants to eat, when she might be crying because she is tired rather than hungry. if she becomes fussy an hour after she ate i would definitely first assume she is tired and try to put her down for a nap before i would feed her again. if you can hold off and feed her on a regular schedule her hunger will start to match up with her feedings and then you will know EXACTLY when she will be eating, which will make your life 100% easier.
i should note that i am suggesting parented-directed feedings here & that's purely my own opinions and not all moms do it that way. what you are describing where you feed her "when she wants to eat" is on-demand feeding. some moms do it that way and find themselves feeding at completely random time intervals & they are happy with that. i don't do that, it wouldn't work for me, but like i said, some do. so if your goal was to on-demand feed than ignore everything i'm saying!
if not, feed every 2 1/2-3 hours. if she doesn't seem hungry, that's okay. but try hard to get her to eat & then try again when the next feeding time rolls around. that's the first step in getting her on a schedule. once you have her eating at regular intervals then you can naturally work naps in & things will start to fall into place. you're the mommy, don't be afraid to take charge! :D
also, if she wakes up from a nap crying it is very likely that she isn't finished with the nap. babywise says that babies who have napped sufficiently wake up happy & at first i was like "yah right!" but it is SO TRUE. if evie "wakes up" from a nap crying all that tells me is that she needs more sleep. i rub her head, put her binkie in, turn her soother back on & she falls back asleep and will usually wake 40 minutes later smiling from ear to ear.
ReplyDeleteYour friend has an interesting post. Hmmm...I never thought about the wake up crying stuff haha.
ReplyDeleteI'm in no position to give you advice...but mother's instinct never fails! Trust your gut. :)
Remember she is still figuring all this out too. 3 weeks is still little, it took Jared about 5-6 weeks to figure out that night was not awake time so he slept a lot during the day. One thing that has helped me with both was to feed them once they woke up instead of before going to sleep. The would eat, be awake/play and then rest. This helped me know the difference between sleepy and hungry. Good luck, I am sure you are doing great.
ReplyDeleteCami saw the pic and said "Baby tired. Baby nap. Baby sleep. Baby cute." Its fun when they start talking, tho I do miss the cuddly newborn stage!
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