Formula - Part 2, Finding a Routine

In a previous post, I mentioned that J seemed to be doing alright with the Nutrimagen on Thursday evening. But apparently, he did not nap all Friday. He also kept moaning as if his stomach hurt and didn’t want to be put down or played with, which is unusual. We called the pediatrician, who was surprised that J had this reaction to Nutrimagen because it is a very basic formula designed for babies with sensitive tummies. So just after a day’s feedings of Nutrimagen, we went back to soy Friday evening. Wouldn’t you know it, after his evening feeding, J was smiling and playing with us. That night, he slept well.

A little backstory about J’s developing routine, which I can now also cross of my to-blog list! I would say that Jacob did not fall into a routine/pattern until he was about 3 ½ months. He’d wake to eat, be up for 1 – 2 hrs, and then nap until his last feeding. When we finally realized this, we decided to feed him 7 oz every 4 hrs (5am, 9am, 2pm, 6pm). We decided that he needed to eat at 10pm also, so we’d wake him around 9pm (after he had fallen asleep at 8pm) for a bath. We’d then feed him 8 oz at 10pm and put him to bed. If you’re doing the math, that’s 36 oz a day. This site says that babies his weight (at 4 months, Jacob was 17 lbs), should take 34-43 oz a day, feeding 6-7 oz every 4 hrs. So we thought we had it right. Sometimes he’d sleep until 5am (that’s 7 hrs between feedings and also 7 hrs of sleep), which our pediatrician said was great for his age.

Recently, J was taking amoxicillin for his sinus infection, apple juice for his constipation, and getting used to soy formula, so he’d sometimes wake at 1am or 3am to feed (adding another 3-7 oz to his daily total). And who wouldn’t with all these changes?!

Anyways, just this past weekend, we decided to make his 6pm feeding his last feeding (8 oz), with a bath at 7:30pm, and bedtime at 8pm. Granted, I had been saying to put him to bed earlier this WHOLE time but Alan believed that if we put him to bed at 8pm, he’d get up in the middle of the night…and he was already doing pretty well on his schedule…but A recently read somewhere that babies like to/should go to sleep between 6 and 8pm, and he was sold (aiya!). But no matter, because over this weekend, J slept from 8pm to 5am. Now, that’s 9 hrs of sleep and almost 12 hrs between feedings. Hallelujah, Praise the Lord! (And he has been doing great feeding 29 oz instead of 36 oz, not counting the 4 oz of apple juice, which I hope to stop in the next week or so because I don’t like J consuming the extra sugar, whether it’d be naturally from the fruit or added)

To think, what if we had switched to soy earlier? Would Jacob have been less fussy overall? Would he have been sleeping through the night earlier? But again, no matter, because he is happy and sleeping through the night now…let’s hope it continues!!!!