To Schedule or Not To Schedule

Add Texas to the list of states Hope has visited.  On my side of the family, Hope met 2 great aunts and 3rd and 4th cousins.  On Wendy’s side of the family, Hope met 8 aunts and uncles, a great aunt, a great grandmother, and 13 cousins!  It was great for the family to get to see Hope, but it was wonderful that Hope slept through the night 5 out of 9 nights!  Also, Hope slept much better in the car than she did on the plane.

Hope turned 10 weeks old today.  She changes so quickly.  Her behavior changed so much between the ages of 6 weeks and 8 weeks. They have changed even more at 10 weeks.  One of the biggest challenges has been Hope’s eating habits.  We feed her breast milk only, mostly by bottle.  She falls asleep so easily when breast feeding that it’s not good for Wendy or Hope or the process of how the body produces milk.  Hope also falls asleep easily when eating from a bottle.  She has spent an entire morning drinking 4 ounces of milk.  She can drink 1 ounce in 20 minutes and sleep 40 minutes, and she has done this for 4 hours.

Now that she is older, she does this far less often.  She is drinking larger amounts in less time.  Therefore, she is able to go longer between feedings.  It still varies.  The amount, the duration, and the time between feedings are not consistent.  Very often, people ask, “How much does she eat in one sitting?”  I must sound dumb when I say, “I’m not sure.  4 ounces?”  One of the comments I hear a lot is, “She’s eating again?  She just ate.”

I have read articles and heard advice on how to feed your baby a consistent amount at consistent intervals.  In other words, how to put your baby on a schedule.  It is my personal opinion that it is too early to force a schedule on Hope.  In August, it will make our lives much easier to have Hope on a schedule.  She will be 14-15 weeks old by then, and if she has not developed some consistency herself, we will have to impose some on her.  I think she will be much better equipped, at that age, to adapt.

Everything that I’ve read about breast milk says that the baby’s body processes it so efficiently that when she shows signs of hunger, she needs to eat.  The baby is not going to over eat or start eating when she’s not hungry.  I don’t think we should mess with that.  Although, dictating exactly when and how long Hope is going to eat would make our life easier, I think she is too young for us to make her feeding schedule.

Holleman Family

Howe Family

We have found a few things to help us keep Hope awake, so she will eat more.  No, we’re not using a cold, wet cloth.  We are moving around more, changing her position, etc.  It is work, especially when I envisioned feeding her a bottle 4 or 5 times a day for 20 minutes each time.  We’re not there yet.