Wednesday, February 22, 2012

A Growing Boy Needs Food!

Are you familiar with the concept of 'cluster feeding'?  Some things I've read say that a baby should be on a three hour schedule - eating, awake time, then nap.  (Secrets of the Baby Whisperer says it's EASY - Eat, Active, Sleep, You).  I agree that idea makes sense, and even though Nolan will often fall asleep while nursing, sitting him up to burp and changing him will usually keep him awake and happy for a while - he doesn't need to stay sleeping.  (At night, though, I will usually just put him right back down; I don't know that he even really wakes up at all.)  The three hour thing, though - that fits throughout the night and day for the most part, but the evenings around here... not so much.  And tonight was one for the books - Nolan was so fussy he sent Sean off to google cluster feeding!  Cluster feeding is when the eat more often for a time, like every hour instead of every three.  You can't raise any baby exactly by the book, but it sure is helpful to be able to have things explained - I'd likely have gone crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with the kid, knowing 'he can't be hungry - I just fed him!'  No, nothing wrong with him, and yes, he is just hungry again.  Even though yes, he just ate.  Sometimes it can seem like they eat non stop from 5 till 10... oh, great.  I hope the next two months aren't all like this.  It won't be too bad when it's expected, though.

There, that's a snapshot into my life at the moment.  Nolan is great, even when he is saying he wants more food - when he does get hungry, he wants it NOW.  I should take him to get weighed soon - according to our scale (me, then me with him), he's 13 lbs.  I measured his length tonight and he's 24 inches.  (Just like one of my nephews when he was born!!!)  Long guy - we can almost see him growing.  At 3 weeks he was into 3 month clothes; at 5 weeks now we have to move him up to the next size again!  Guess I'll be shopping for sleepers tomorrow.

We went to Winnipeg this past weekend, and he got to meet the rest of the family.  It was good to see everyone, as usual.  I think the funniest part was seeing Zach haul out his book and crawl up on Sean's lap to read it, over and over.

Madeline has this week off school, so we get another couple of days with her home with us.  That's a treat.  I don't think we have anything we have to go out for tomorrow, so maybe I'll get some pictures up...  Thanks for checking in with us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cluster feedings in the evening should help him sleep longer through the night. It's a good thing!
Jess

Jamie said...

Violet did the same thing in the evenings. It drove me crazy. She did sleep 12 hours a night at 3 1/2 months though!