Seriously, after 8 months of growth spurts you’d think I would very easily recognize the signs that Little Bug is in another growth spurt, but they slip up on me every time, it seems!

This same scenario has happened every growth spurt Little Bug has had:

Little Bug is eating/sleeping well.

Then, all of a sudden, naps go crazy. She starts waking after only 30-45 minutes of a nap.

I get frustrated.

And then, I realize it’s another growth spurt.

Little Bug inhales an enormous amount of formula over the next couple days, naps continue to be crazy and then just as swiftly as the growth spurt came upon us, it’s over and things go back to where they were before.

This happened just this week! One day Little Bug downed five 7 ounce bottles! That is 35 ounces in one day. She normally eats between 25-28 ounces in one day.

Today I tried something new to hopefully help Little Bug get a good nap in. This morning she woke up at 7:30. She ate and then at 9am I put her down for a nap. It took her 15 minutes to go to sleep and she only slept 45 minutes. So, I assumed she was hungry again and fed her again at 10:30. Around 12:30 she was acting tired, but I decided to try something.

I kept her up until 1:15. At 1:15 I fed her again since during growth spurts she eats closer to every 3 hours instead of the normal 3.5 to 4 hours. She was very sleepy as she ate and I had to keep her awake because I didn’t want her to fall asleep on the bottle. She downed the 7 ounce bottle in about 10 minutes (which is very fast for her). At 1:30 I put her to bed for a nap. I didn’t hear a peep out of her. I’m sure she was asleep within 5 minutes of being laid down.

It is now 4:00 and she is still sleeping. 2.5 hours and counting! I knew the girl was tired but with growth spurts she has to eat so often it interrupts her sleep so much! Babywise advises against feeding baby and then putting baby down for a nap right away. Baby is to have awake time between feedings and naps. But, here is an example where I had to toss out what books and the internet say and go with my motherly instincts. :)

I just thought today was interesting and wanted to share and have record on my blog what I did today to help Little Bug get some much needed rest during this growth spurt!

The Babywise Mom who does this blog writes about growth spurts and she says the only way to cure a growth spurt is to throw out the schedule for a couple days and feed, feed baby and feed baby some more! Then, once the growth spurt is over, baby will resume his/her normal schedule. I have seen this to be true with Little Bug.

But goodness gracious, growth spurts are a challenge and tiring!

It is a good thing for mothers to be aware of them. If baby suddenly starts waking early from naps or just in general is not sleeping well, assume it’s a growth spurt and feed him/her sooner than you normally would so you can get more feedings in in one day!

Of course, there are other reasons that baby could not be sleeping well, but it’s a good rule of thumb to assume it’s a growth spurt first! Then if baby won’t eat well earlier, you can assume there is another reason baby isn’t sleeping well. (Babywise Mom has a great post about troubleshooting naps.)

I am mainly writing this to remind myself :) but hopefully it will help some of you out there as well too!

It is now 4:10 and I just heard Little Bug.

Wow! A two hour and 40 minute nap!

- Elaine