Help!!! need to get my DD back into her routine

[Mareta]

Hi all,

We have been in Spain visiting family and friends and now that we are back in UK my DD seems to be a bit out of control. She used to have a very good routine and now it seems all is gone.

Last night she was waking up every 3 hours for a feed. She is 5 months next week and I cannot cope with it for much longer, very little sleep and she does not seem to settle that well as she used to.

While we were away we tried to keep her night routine, some times we were succesful , but now it does not seem to work. She doesn't seem to sleep that much anymore during the day and at night she is over tired and goes crazy and cryes a lot (which is not normal on her). Sometimes I wonder if she is eating that much because she is hungry. She is EBF and does not have anything else. In Spain friends and family were asking me why I wasn't giving her solids or water and my answer was that I thought she does not need it. Is this true?

How could I get her back in a good routine without her crying? I think because we have been with so much people and they only see her twice a year, if they are lucky , she has got used to being pick up and playing all day round. This cannot carry on as it is not helping her to relax and sleep. Does any of you have any advice on how to get her back into a routine of sleeping and eating? I really need some rest as I am very tired and I think she is picking on this too. Her routine used to be waking up at 8am, have some feed, sleeping aroung 10am ish, feed at around 12pm, long sleep, feeding at 4pm, little sleep in the afternoon, bath at 7pm, feed after bath, bed before 8pm and then waking up once at night for a feed.

Any advice will be very much appreciated. Thank you in advance

I'm sure someone will show up with infinitely more practical advice, but a couple of points based on my vast experience of one whole DS :

• Do whatever it takes to get your DD to nap, then gradually remove the 'props' (i.e. if feeding to sleep works, do it at least every now and again until she's back in her routine, then think about stopping it)
• growth spurt? DS had a horrific one at about this age, and your DD has been on relatively few feeds per day for her age up until now - DS went a fairly long time between feeds and was still usually feeding at least 5 feeds during the day and at least a couple at night. He went back to 'normal' after 2 weeks of 'spurt' (i.e. waking 3 hourly or more), just before we weaned him!
• Food might make your DD go longer at night, but it might not, and it won't do her any physiological benefits (other posters can go into more depth, but there is no calorific benefit but there is potential risk from weaning before 6 months). My DS ate LIKE A HORSE from the day we weaned him (at about 25 weeks I think - we caved to family pressure!) but breastfed just as frequently day and night for another month or more.

Hopefully if you can hang on a bit longer your DD will recover from the excitement of the holiday and settle back into her routine - how long have you been back?

Oh no., you must be feeling exhausted suddenly having to get up every three hours to feed! I really feel for you.

A similar thing happened to me when we went on holiday. When we came back DD was totally out of her napping routine and I was tearing my hair out. But, looking back I think maybe it was the stage she was at anyway. She was 5 months old and was teething and also starting to get distracted during feeds so taking less at each feed but wanting to feed more frequently. Things are much better now but I think we got through it on a mixture of my efforts and learning her new routine.

First, she'd been feeding every three hours but not at night so I started offering her milk more often, to eliminate hunger as reason for lack of napping. She surprised me by drinking loads more although she had not looked hungry.

Then, on advice of a friend I started taking her for a walk in pushchair at nap time every day for a week (I chose 9:30am). After that, I tried rocking her to sleep at home as I'd done before. Watching her, I realised she now didn't want to nap 2 hrs after waking (10am) but at least had the idea from the walks!

I also found baby swimming classes helped. She could expend her energy, it was fun for me and there was a guaranteed nap afterwards. You say she was maybe overstimulated by being picked up and played with all the time but IME they do get more energy as they grow. We've also found one of those door bouncers useful as DD is very bouncy but that kind of keeps her in one place and I can wash up and chat to her while she bounces.

Hope that's of some help, although every baby is different!

Oh, and you're right they don't need anything other than breastmilk until they are 6 months old. (It even turns extra dilute and refreshing in hot weather so you don't need to give water). I found everyone kept asking me when I was going to give solids from about 4 months onwards (even my GP).

Before u get panicky.... Are you SURE she's not ill??? First baby???
If she was doing well before you went away, she'd probably get back in the swing fairly quickly...
If any worries re ears, sore throat, colds etc then get her to GP to check before you battle the routine line. Lots of bugs about at this time of year and you have been on a flight...,

And if not ill my suggestion would be to not worry too much over timing of naps but make sure not more than 4hrs total during day and make sure feeds are good long ones. My DD same age and she's just started to enjoy solids which is helping nap times but I don't think they really NEED it until they are six months unless big babies. You need HV advice specific to your DD for weaning but worth trying if you suspect she might be hungry.

Thank you very much for all your advice. We have been away for almost 3 weeks and I think she was also missing to be at home and with all her toys and things .

HV has been today in here giving advise about weaning her, told me to wait till she is 24 weeks, now she is 22 weeks. I don't think she is ill, she looks completely fine and happy, no signs of fever or anyother thing. I guess I will have to follow her needs and adapt to the new situation. She is teething at the moment which I guess is not helping either.

REDBUG: she has always being eating like this and gaining weight very well. However I may try to offer her the breast more often and see if this help. I don't mind feeding her as much as she wants, I really enjoy it, just was worried that something was wrong

I guess that being my first DD I am always learning and sometimes I am not sure if I am doing things right .

Thanks again and hope all of you have a lovely festive time.

Sounds like you're doing a great job Mareta! Keep going. Sure she'll hit her curve again soon! Hope the nights improve for you soon.... x