It's so E.A.S.Y.

One of the cards we received at our shower had several pictures of babies crying on the front. The captions for each said "Hungry", "Hot", "Cold", "Wet", etc. It was meant to be a guide to understanding your baby. Of course, every picture was exactly the same. As Keith would say, "It's funny because it's true!".

When we were in the hospital (the first time), the nursery had Owen on a 3 hour eating schedule. They/I would feed him at 11:00, 2, 5, 8, etc. It was fairly easy to do because he would sleep most of the rest of the time. When we got home, we quickly got off that schedule. He appeared to be hungry every 1.5 to 2 hours, sometimes wanting to eat for an hour or more. The pediatrician told us to see a lactation consultant. We did, and $70 later, we still weren't getting more than an hour of sleep at a time. (Not to say she wasn't helpful; she did help me work on my form.) The good thing was that Owen was gaining weight, so we didn't have to worry too much about that.

Then our friend Jill let us borrow some books by Tracy Hogg, the "Baby Whisperer" (Keith calls her "The Hogg"). While I don't necessarily agree with/like everything she says, we learned some very important information. The most helpful to me is how to interpret you baby's cues. For example, if he is sucking his tongue, he's not hungry - it's self-soothing. We realized that we were probably feeding him when he wasn't hungry. He wasn't going to refuse the breast - he can use it as a pacifier. The main point of the Hogg's books are that babies like to be on a routine: Eat, Activity, Sleep (E.A.S.; the Y stands for You time while he is sleeping.) The whole routine would repeat in so many hours, depending on his age. The idea is that if he starts crying at hour two in a three hour schedule, he's probably not hungry; if he hasn't been sleeping yet in this rotation, he's probably overtired. Or, if he was sleeping, he may be wet (butt moving side to side), cold (bottom lip quivering), or he has gas (pulling his legs up).

The Hogg also has suggestions on how to get a baby to sleep for longer at night. She promotes doing a cluster feeding and a dream feed. A cluster feeding means feeding him before the normal time (2 hours on a 3 hour schedule; say at 5 and 7pm) and then feeding him without waking him up right before you go to bed (at 10pm).

I am happy to report that some of her strategies are apparently working for us. We are now on a 3 hour schedule fairly consistently (which is normal for his age). I have employed the cluster feed and dream feed (although I don't think he necessarily has to be asleep), and he is now waiting until 4 or 4.5 hours before he wants the next feed. Still some room for improvement, but things are getting much EASIER!

Other developments: Owen now has some tears when he cries (they don't start off that way). He is also showing more interest in visual things. When we put him in his rocker with the hanging toys he will first look at the dog, and then the cat. He will also turn his head to see who is talking. Every once in a while he'll give a look that appears to be a smile (not quite a conscious smile yet, but we'll take it!). His neck strength is also getting better day by day. He is getting better at getting his thumb in his mouth. Overall, he's getting cuter and cuter!