Hannah - Week 11

Eating and Sleeping
I think Hannah had maybe not a growth spurt, but a need for more food around the middle of the week in order to increase my supply. Over the weekend she ate every 2 hours or so starting at her 1 p.m. feeding until she finally slept well at either her 7 pm or 10 pm feeding. She was also very awake those days as well. Monday I worked to get her back on her schedule (and also felt more 'full' when she would go the full three hours) and the magic happened Monday night. Due to supper plans and a hair appointment that evening, I fed Hannah at 4:30 p.m. (slightly later for her 4:00 feeding) and she ended up staying awake (we were not home) until I fed her again at 6:30 p.m. (before I went to my appointment). Peter put her to bed around 7:30 p.m. and she slept until 5:30 Tuesday morning! I couldn't believe it!

Yesterday, due again to supper plans, I fed her at 6:45 p.m. (early for her 7 p.m. feeding), then again at 8:30 p.m. And, again, she was awake between those feedings. I bathed her after the feeding at 8:30 and then put her down for the night. I had to wake her at 7 this morning to start the day. Talk about amazing!!

I had noticed in this post that her daughter had two feedings just 2 hours apart around supper time starting at 4 months old and that she didn't sleep between the two. I had always wondered how you went to three naps and kept 5 feedings before I saw that. I had already tucked that away in my mind to start moving toward in a few weeks. I only realized this morning that that is effectively what had happened by accident over the past few days. I'm currently reworking her schedule to look something like this:

7:00 a.m. - eat, awake, nap
10:30 a.m. - eat, awake, nap
2:00 p.m. - eat, awake, nap
5:00 p.m. - eat, awake
7:00 p.m. - eat, bath, then bed

She will get the same number of feedings in a day, just spaced a bit differently. She's quite young to go 12 hours without eating so I'm going to see what happens tonight and probably play with the schedule a bit so she's not eating her last feeding until 8 or 8:30 if she seems to need it. That might introduce an extra feeding but I'm ok with that.

Waketime
This week her wake times ranged between 60 and 70 minutes except on the weekend when she spent complete cycles awake. I think we will stick with that except keep her awake for those 2 hours in the early evening. She seems to be much more alert this week - I can see that magical 3-month mark approaching. She's also been a bit more flexible. For example, if we have to transition in the middle of her nap from car seat to crib (she doesn't sleep well in the car seat if she's not in the car moving) she'll occasionally go back to sleep. Previously I would always put her in the swing if that happened. I'm excited for her to be awake over the supper hour. She's almost steady enough to sit in our high chair (it reclines). Until she is, the bouncy seat is where she'll be.

Swaddling
Still swaddling. She still sleeps best when she is swaddled.

Milestones
Hannah came very close to rolling over (back to belly) this week. Her legs fetched her up, which I'm grateful for since she was on the couch. Oops! No more leaving her on the couch to fetch the nursing pillow!

Things from last week
We did well increasing her waketime and I think it was a good idea. She seems much happier going to bed after having a bit more time to play. We also were much more consistent with wake-up time in the morning. A few mornings were 7:30 (if she woke between 5 and 6) but that's within my 7 - 7:30 window.

Things for this week
This is Peter's last full week home before he leaves, so we're going to be on-the-go quite a bit to visit people. My goal for this week is to relax and also to try and figure out how to keep the 10 hours of sleep at night! We'll also see how she does with a full 2 hours of being awake.