On demand feeding... blah!

Feeding on demand with my first child really sucked. She ate every hour on the hour which made my breastfeeding experience a living nightmare. I was home alone with her five out of seven days of the week so, I was also very sleep deprived. It was not until I put her on soy formula (after trying regular formula) that things turned around. She started eating every three hours or so. She even started sleeping through the night but was the queen of power five minute naps during the day.

Feeding on demand with my second was a dream come true. He came with his own schedule right from birth. He would eat every three hours and during growth spurts he would eat more during the feeding and sometimes moved to every two hours. He was the king of the naps during the day and had a lot of sleep issues at night. Eventually, I just stopped feeding him during the night unless I felt he absolutely needed it. He was on regular formula until he started vomiting after almost all feedings around three weeks of age. We moved him to soy formula and he stopped vomiting and was more content.

Feeding on demand with my third child, so far has been an interesting adventure. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to her eating demands. I find myself questioning if she is even really hungry and I am over feeding her. She is currently 13 days old and when I think I know her feeding schedule she throws it out the window so to speak. Her first week she was eating every three to four hours. Then sometime during her second week she changed it to every two to three hours. Making sleeping very hard to do. Right now she is a mix if every two to three hours during the day and every three to four at night. Now I say that, but I must also add in that she sleeps like a dream during the day. At night though she goes for marathon wake sessions.

For my second and third children, my husband is home everyday, but gets up super early. He works hard all day and is exhausted when he gets home. I hate asking him for help during the night out of guilt and guilt that is placed on me by other family members concerning his job. He helps when he can, but really feeding on demand sucks!