From demand feeding to routine.....

[Sheer Bliss]

Has anyone started off demand feeding and then moved to a routine??

My twins are now 2months old & DD2 is the perfect baby, hardly cries, feeds well, sleeps nicely after self settling in her cot and gives me the most gorgeous smiles . DS is my sooky, clingy, wants to sleep on me (not even next to me, has to be against my chest) and a bit of a snacker (every 1.5-2.5hrs), so driving me insane with the lack of sleep and inability to even take a pee on my own!!

So as a result, I want to try and move them both to a solid routine so that I can try and get some normalcy back into our house. It's not fair on my older kids ATM, as they get none of my time, even with DS in the HAB i am still so tired and cranky - and it's not their fault. And when DS DOES have the occassional good sleep, he is sooo happy and alert when he wakes, so I think he will benefit.

I am b/f and am certain that he is getting enough milk, he has a hernia causing him some pain ATM so not going to start much until he has had an operation.....but looking for some tips/success stories on how you did it, and also - what routine you have/had for a 2month old. I was thinking of 4hrly feeds (same as in hospy) 8, 12 and 4....DH does shift work and arrives home at those times, so he can be there to help with the older kids at some of the feeds if i do those times.

[becster05]

Hi Charlismum,

I did move bub from demand fed to routine but only after she was 3 months. I kind of felt that up until 3 months it was important for her to take what she needed both for herself and so that I established a good supply IYKWIM. After that though I put her onto 4 hourly feeds starting at 0730, 1130, 1530, 1830 (bed at 1900) and then dream fed at around 2230-2300. Bub just napped whenever during the day but I did try for regular naps at 0900 and around 1300 or so. Even now though her nap times can be a bit all over the place although her first nap is generally always around 0900.

As far as moving her to routine feeding, I found the first 4 hour gap between feeds was really only the hardest one because I had to try and stretch her out the 4 hour gap obviously. But my theory was that if I stretch her out that one feed, she will then be hungry enough to take enough milk to last her for the next 4 hours and so on. I figured if you let bubs just snack, they will only take enough to just feel happy and then stop rather than having a proper feed as such. I know heaps of people will disagree with me here and that is absolutely cool. I am no expert or anything of course, but I had a 10pd baby who was more than capable of taking a big feed and lasting 4 hours to the next. I wouldnt advise it for everybody of course. My other rule I set for myself was that anytime bub was hungry earlier than the 4 hours, she was definately put on the boob and not left to be hungry for ages. It worked like a gem for us and she feeds beautifully and always has 2-3 good sleeps through the day. She then goes to bed at 1900 and sleeps through (apart from dream feed) until 0630! If you find it helpful, I bought the Save our Sleep book. Whilst I dont completely follow her advice as I find it quite strict, her routine times etc have been really useful rather than me trying to figure it all out on my own as such! Good luck!

[sahm]

I'm bumping this because I'm in the same boat with my DS and wanting to hear about others experiences with routine feeding, too.

[Jender]

My 4.5 month old bub is also on a routine now. Only variation is that he gets an extra feed at 5 and then feed just before 7pm for bed. I don't dreamfeed, doesn't work for us. I found that moving the feeds slowly further and further apart worked as well as entertaining the bubs during those times when you are trying to stretch it out

[kar]

We are trying too. Finding it very hard to get the feeds beyond three hours in the afternoon though. Most of the time DS doesn't sleep beyond 1hr so that is a long time to try and stretch feeds. I am sick to death of the snack feeding though and running out of milk because I never get a chance to replenish and we feed on and off all afternoon, so I have decided today is the day. 3.5 hrs here we come!

We have been implementing a routine for about 4 weeks and it has made such a difference to our lives. F is almost 5 months and we are working on a basic 2 up 2 down in theory with our getting up time between 6.30 and 7 and bed between 6.30 and 7. If he wakes after 6 we get up and start the day. The 2 down rarely happens though, so there is a lot of entertaining the bub going on but a walk in the pram/ergo always seems to see F through.

We just kind of went cold turkey - spent the first week getting him up by 6.30 each day and putting him to bed between 1hr 30 and 1hr 45. Prior to this he had been so exhausted he could barely stay up 1hr 15 without being terribly grumpy. Within a couple of days he was staying up for about 2 hrs most times.

[mim1]

I was never successful at setting exact times for feeds, but my lifestyle didn't mean I had to. What I did do was stretch my ds out to 3 hours between feeds as a minimum.

If your ds is only going 1.5 - 2 hours between feeds then jumping to 4 hours might be had. I suggest stretching it to 3 hour feeds initially and see how that goes, then make it 3.5 a week later then 4 hours if you can do it.

My ds had reflux so he wanted to feed constantly, but once he had med's in place it helped me stretch him to the 3 hour mark during the day, but in the evenings he might get 2 feeds 2 hours apart.

All the best!

[keepingpositive]

Those of you who managed to stretch your bubs' feeds out, how did you do it? My DS naps and snacks most of the day but I really want to try and stretch out his feeds. When he wakes he cries until he gets a feed (usually 1.5 to 2.5 hrs since the last feed), although I don't think he is always hungry because once he's on he doesn't do much sucking.

Any tricks or tips?

[becster05]

Hi Keepingpositive

It can be quite difficult and perhaps a little stressful to do but it is all about distraction. The only thing I think you can do is just keep doing different things to try and draw the time out. Go for a walk outside, show bubs flowers, trees, leaves etc, go for a walk, play with toys, walk into different rooms and show bubs different things, just keep finding different things to entertain and distract bub. Our jolly jumper is our best friend for this. She absolutely loves it so all her worries are out the window when she gets to bounce!! As I said in the previous post, the first day (or even the first 4 hour stretch) is the hardest but once you get there bub should then take enough to get them through to the next feed. I cant help but think that your bub might just be using your breast as a comforter?? I know when my bub gets to the 2 hour mark she is starting to get tired and is looking for cuddles and possibly nap time so is it possible your little one is looking to use your boobs as his settling technique instead of actually feeding??

[becster05]

Kar, your routine sounds almost exactly the same as what ours was. DD was on the perfect 2 hours up, 2 hours down routine which was just fantastic!! Now she is over 6 months though and started solids she is starting to stay up a little longer so now has 2 naps a day, generally around 9am for maybe an hour or so, then has another big sleep of about 2 hours anytime from 1pm onwards. As I said in my previous post, the Save our Sleep book was great for its routines and whilst I didnt follow it to a T, DD has just naturally fallen into the next routine for her age group as she's grown all by herself without us really trying for them.

Whilst its not for everybody, being in a routine has been great for us! Bubs always feeds really well, has adjusted to solids quite well now and has always been a good sleeper. Goodluck to all!

[Boobycino]

I cant imagine doing all that with twins!

Jasper was a snacker and a snuggler. For weeks I slept upright on the couch with him in my arms and the boobie out - as it was the easiest way to get him to sleep soundly without interupting me. (thankfully we had a brand new comfy couch, otherwise it would have been signficantly worse than it was!)

Jasper is 8 months old and never been put into a routine, but he's developed one all on his own and is now very predictable - he's been this way since 6 months, since starting solids really, before then he was still pretty scattered, but not in a bad way I think. I would be making plans with other mums and they'd be planning around their childs sleeps and feeds whereas Jasper didn't have a routine so there was nothing to be interupted, we just rolled with whatever each other was doing.

I think though, you do what you need to do to create sanity and support yourself. One baby is hard enough - and I guess I've had the luxury of being able to indulge Jasper quite a bit, where as mums with older children, twins, mums who need to work or have a busy life, dont have that luxury.