floundering a bit

[frogwell]

could do with some advice/opinions from experienced parents!

my DD who is now 10 weeks 3 days old has always been v hungry and has fed 2-3 hourly all day. She was 7lbs at birth and is now 13lb5oz. I can't seem to get her into any routine during the day cause she wants feeds at different times, she is being formula fed on extra hungry baby milk.

Today she fed at 7.30, 10, 1.15, 4.15 and 5.45 and will have more at 8 and 10. she will get down about 35fl oz, then at the moment some nights she will go to sleep at 9pm, and wake up any time between 4am and 7am - so she is going through the night, sometimes 4 times a week. She normally goes to bed in her cot fine, slightly awake or completely awake at night and goes to sleep, although recently she has not been going back down after the night feed if its at 4 or 5am, she wants to be up for the day which is not good!!

In the day she won't sleep in her cot at all, has to be on me which is not good I know but I thought I'd deal with trying to get her to go as long as possible at night first. So she naps on me or in her pram for about 4-5 hours before 5 pm, and 1 hour between 5-9pm.

The qs i have are:
is she too young to expect to be in a routine?
is the fact that she is going through the night fairly reguarly a good sign and will this usually happen more often and become the norm?

I feel like all i'm doing at the moment is analysing her napping/feeding etc to see if i can get her into a routine and get her sleeping at night, and can't say i'm enjoying life :-( health vis says baby is thriving and happy though and i love her to bits, just hope it gets easier. I don't think it helps that you can't i read her stories or play with toys at the mo, have tried but she screams after 5 mins. :(

Opinions are always really divided about routines and lots of people think it's not on to try to get a baby this young into any kind of routine.

I had a routine - almost from birth - DD slept 7pm to 10pm - feed,nappy change then 11pm to 7am from 7 weeks. It is a real effort to do a strict routine but worked out wonderfully for me. I needed a focus due to PND. Whilst teething/illness often put a spanner in the works, DD is 13 months and still a great sleeper (touch wood).

All babies end up sleeping better as they get older and all babies have periods where they don't sleep as well as normal. Lots of babies go throught the night of their own accord - I didn't want to risk having a child who didn't sleep well as I'm a nightmare with no sleep.

Have you read any routine books. Some of my frinds swear by baby whisperer - Im a Contented baby fan myself.

My DD was BF so can't help you on quantities of formula but if your HV is happy with her weight gain etc then stick with it.

Routine wise I'd say go with the flow during the day. If she wants to sleep on you then enjoy it, stick the tv on, have a drink and snacks to hand and chill out. I found DD changed where she would sleep every month or so including on me, pram, bouncy seat, floormat and eventually at about 6 months - her cot! We didn't really have a daytime sleep routine until 9 months when she'd have a morning and afternoon sleep.

No guarantee that sleeping through the night will improve or continue as she gets older. It seems to change depending on illness, teething, growth spurt, development spurt (9months!) etc.

I still remember those first few months and I can say it absolutely does get easier so hang in there and try not to stress about what she should be doing but enjoy what she is doing.

thank you so much - i feel a lot better having read your posts. i have tried a routine with her but cause she feeds all over the place and won't wait for 2 seconds once she wants one its been impossible. think i will wait til she is a little older before i try to get her into a routine so i can distract her with more things and persuade her to wait a little for feeds.

thanks again so much for the reassurance. X