Monday, February 26, 2007
I spoke too soon.
Ugh! Delaney has decided that she doesn't want to sleep good at night anymore. Last night she slept from 9-11pm, 11:30pm-2:30am, 3:15-5:30am, 6:30am-8am. At least I got one 3 hour stretch. I don't even think she did sleep from 6:30 on but my mother in-law came and got her so I could get some sleep. I'm not sure what to do about it or even if there is anything I can do. She falls asleep while I nurse her and I can't get her to drink for more than 5 minutes on a side. Then when I put her down she seems very restless and still hungry. I have tried everything to keep her awake but always after a few minutes she is out cold. Do you think I should put her on more of a feeding schedule throughout the day? (these questions are mostly for Faith because I know she is a nursing genius). I know she is still getting used to this whole being alive and eating thing so I should just be more patient....
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Sorry that I didn't see this till today! We've all been sick. Yuck.
This is going to be the longest comment in history, but I'll post it here anyway, in case anyone else is looking for suggestions for the same thing. Rememeber, all of this is my opinion, and whatever you choose to do with it or modify it is completely fine. Whatever you do, you have to live with the results, so do what works best for you!
Anyway: yes, I would highly reccomend putting her on a schedule. But before anyone starts cringing, I'm not talking about a hospital style schedule, where the baby is not fed until their next time slot, no matter how hungry they look. I'm talking about something called "parent directed feedings", in which case you take into consideration both the hunger cues of your baby, as well as the clock.
I would recomend for the daytime: make sure that she nurses for a full 10 minutes on each side, as I said above, each feeding, and don't feed her any more often than once every 1:45 minutes apart (if she's seriously acting like she'll starve) or once every 3 hours if you can stretch her that long. It's not about making her suffer, it's just about getting her hungry enough so that she really eats full, satisfying meals. It's better for your milk production, and, in turn, better for her mealtimes.
Every time you nurse her, make sure that she nurses for at least 10 minutes on EACH side EVERY time that you feed her. That way, there are no snacks, and she is sure to get the hind milk (the richer, creamier more filling stuff) along with the fore milk (thinner, sweeter, the stuff that she gets when you first let down.). Hind milk generally doesn't start flowing until the baby has been nursing for at least 5 minutes, which explaines why she'd still be hungry.
With Andrew, I had a ton of trouble keeping him awake for feedings in the first week, and I actually had to use a cold wet washcloth on his little belly, and flick his feet to keep him going. It sucked, and he would cry, but he ended up being a pro nurser, and a great sleeper.
Putting her on this type of comprimise of "schedule"/"baby demand" will cause her to figure out that night-time is for sleeping, since you are never letting her go for more than 3 hours during the day. All babies are "tuned" to have a 5 hour space between nursings (of course that means from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next, so it's not QUITE that much sleep time for you, unfortunatly) at some point in every 24 hour day, so you're just helping her to realize that time is at night.
I hope that this all makes sense. If not, let me know and I'll explain further. You COULD read the book "On Becoming Babywize", but that would involve disecting a book while being sleep deprived, which is probably not reccomended. What I've written above is a distilled version of the essence of that book.
Give both the girls kisses and hugs for me! I hope for many nights of sweet sleep for you all.
Post a Comment