Then when she got here, I quickly changed my mind. I'm not really sure why I thought I could just go with it. I'm a planner and I have always been a planner. Even when I was home by myself before Jane, I had my days planned out pretty much to the hour everyday. I just like to know what I'm going to do and when. So to think that I was just going to "go with it" with Jane was silly.
But me planning my whole life isn't the only reason why I ended up on a schedule, its also because I truly believe she is a happier baby and knows what to expect and when now that we are on a schedule. We can also get out of the house and go explore and know when we need to be home or need to eat when we are out and about.
There are a ton of books out there that tell you a schedule is best and they tell you what kind of schedule to go on. To be honest, I read about half of three or four different ones. I got the gist of them, most of them saying the same things, and then I just let my motherly instincts take over after that.
For awhile in the beginning, Jane ate every three hours. This was also when I was still breastfeeding and it wasn't going so great. There were alot of times when I had to feed her more than that or in the middle of those feedings so we were all over the place then, which is another reason why I was set on getting on a schedule.
Once I started exclusively pumping, I could actually see how many ounces she was eating at each feeding which made me feel better about knowing she was definitely full. She was eating about 2-3 ounces each feeding. Then she started wanting more at each feeding and then sleeping for longer times past the three hour mark. Alot of books say to wake up your baby to feed them, but since I knew she was eating more than a usual for her age (according to what I googled), I just let her go.
Finally she was eating 4 ounces constantly and wanting to eat every 4 hours on the dot. So, I stuck with that and that's what we've been doing ever since. She is doing great!
So the days go like this.
9am: EAT
9am: PUMP
12pm: PUMP
1pm: EAT
3pm: PUMP
5pm: EAT
6pm: PUMP
9pm: EAT
9pm: PUMP
Its craziness right now, but like I said in the post about breastfeeding, hopefully soon I wont have to pump as much.
Now that we are on this schedule, I do wake her up to eat if she is asleep. She usually eats and then plays and is awake for an hour or so before she goes to sleep until the next feeding. Every time is different, sometimes I have to wake her up for feedings and sometimes she wakes up hungry.
Now, the night is different since I'm obviously trying to get her to slowly be able to sleep through the night. Once she goes to bed after her 9pm feeding, I let her sleep as long as she wants. There is no schedule and I don't wake her up. Right now she usually wakes up hungry between 1-2:30am. She eats for about 20 minutes and goes right back to sleep. Then again, I let her wake up on her own. She usually wakes up again around 5 or 5:30am. She eats and goes back to sleep. Then finally I DO wake her up for her 9am feeding so we can go back to our daily schedule.
This schedule is working out great for us. I can plan around pumping and feeding (although there is hardly any down time as you can see).
The plan to get her to sleep through the night is slowly let her eat more during the day and less at night until she can sleep through without getting hungry. I'm going to let her lead the way. Obviously I haven't started and another thing Ive learned since being a mom is that your plan doesn't always (and mostly never does) go the way you decide or plan. Ill be back to let you know how that goes.
***Just two days after writing this entire post, Jane changed her mind and now wants 5oz every feeding. She must be going through a growth spurt. She also has only woken up once at 4am the past two nights. I'm not sure if that's just a fluke or her new thing. Maybe now that she is eating 5oz each time instead of 4oz, she can sleep longer at night. Its fine with me, that's one less feeding I have to eliminate on my own****
Now that she is 8 weeks old, its time to start eliminating the nighttime feed. I'm going to wait until after her 2 month appointment though because I want to make sure that she is at least 11lbs (since I heard that's a good weight for a baby to be able to sleep trough the night), and also that her doctor thinks all this is a good idea.
Ill keep everyone updated. All I know is that I cant wait to not pump as much and to be able to sleep through the night without interruption. I know some of you moms out there are reading this and laughing because alot of babies still wake up at least once even when they are a year old. Hey, I'm keeping my hopes high!
Love
Jennifer
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