Intervals

Cecelia has been, for a week now, eating at full (consistent!) four hour intervals. This indicates that she's getting better and eating much more efficiently too. It's funny looking back on these last three to four months. When she was first born, she ate every hour and a half or so and each feeding took as much as 45 minutes. So, it certainly felt like I was glued to the couch and would never get to go anywhere outside the house again. Then we made it to two hours in between (and when I say in between, that's from start to start, not finish to start) and that was exciting! There was a point when I felt like her latch was inefficient, but didn't care anymore as long as she was getting the nourishment she needed to grow. For a while, there seemed to be a routine, then that went out the window and even as recently as two weeks ago, she was going two hours, three hours, or four hours in between eating with no rhyme or reason that I could discern. Then, seemingly overnight, she became both efficient (I could see those flanged lips I've heard so much about) and predictable. Again, I know this will change and that she'll go through a growth spurt where I'll be glued to the couch and that's ok. For one day, I decided to take matters into my own hands. Why do I try to do this? I don't know. I decided that if she could make it four hours, I should try every three hours and then she'll never have to cry to eat, and maybe she'll "tank up" during the day and be less hungry at night. This hypothesis lasted one day where she spit up more and didn't seem sleepy at night at all. I remembered that she knows better than I when she's hungry and to be happy for the predictability even if it may be short lived. So, that's where we are now - four hours! She's getting so big!