Cluster Eating----HELP!

M.,
welcome to the everchanging world of parenthood. We always say that babies have thier days and nights "mixed up", but in reality (since the uterus was always dark) she has the same schedule now she had before. When you moved around a lot she was lulled and slept, when you ate or sat down or layed down she became active. For her she is on the same schedule, it is just different from yours.
What to do, well all of the "experts" have mostly differing opinions, hence all those books. I will offer mine as well and it seems to fit with many of them, so here goes.
If you will wake her to eat every 2 hours if breastfed, 3 if bottle fed during the day (Iknow this is hard in the beginning but well worth the effort) then swaddle her securely and let her sleep up to 4 hours at night she will rapidly convert to a day time baby. Using food, light, stimulation and short naps during the day then the reverse at night helps her to set the schedule. You do need to respond to her cry's right away as you have been doing but very soon you will see that she responds to the lack of sleep in the daytime with longer hours at night. If you swaddle with her hands in and to her sides she won't startle herself as muchduring the night therefore sleeping longer.
These techniques come from Dr Karp, the Miracle Blanket, and as a lactation consultant practice with babies feeding needs. I hope they help. I teach the "Happiest Baby on the Block" class at The Nestingplace please feel free to call if you are interested ###-###-####.
K. @ The Nestingplace

The answer I give my new mom friends is to basically demand feed for the first two weeks. There's nothing you can do during that time period to get an infant on a schedule. Also, with every ounce she gains she's a new kid, so a routine that looks the same for several days in a row doesn't really come about until closer to 12 weeks. If you're nursing, be sure you're getting her latched on properly to take in a good feeding. Also, it won't hurt to give her a bottle and let dad take over feeding duty one night. If you're bottle-feeding, he should already be taking turns! :-)
After 2 weeks, you can focus on simply keeping her awake after a feeding (during the day) and not letting her fall asleep while nursing. That will help set up the pattern of sleep-eat-awake that most of the books recommend.
Meanwhile, give her a week to grow a little and sleep whenever you can. If she's sleping a lot during the day, you should be too! Turn off the phone, leave the dishes in the sink and hit the pillow.

Read The Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg. She talks about this directly and will help you change the pattern she's developed. My daughter was sleeping though the night at 6 wks old and sleeping all night (10 hrs) by 10 weeks because I did what Tracy suggested. I highly recommend it!!

I have a 3 week old who was eating almost every hour but would only eat for 5-10 on one side and was done. The ped told me frequent feeding is ok as long as baby is eating a full meal, 10-15/side both sides, but if it is just snacking baby isn't getting the high fat hind milk and you need to do what you can to extend the time between feedings (pacifier,rocking,etc.) and to make the feedings longer. She told me to touch baby, use a cold compress, get baby naked, change diapers between sides, to get her to stay awake and eat longer. She also said that every hour was too much of a drain on mom, another reason to have dad care for baby to try to extend feeding times while you get a little shut eye.
I have been trying to do this, I am not as good with it during the day, and she is sleeping 3-4 hour stretches at night now.

Kay W is so fabulous! Take her advice! She is amazing!

The Baby Whisperer saved my sanity! Stick to it as close as possible and you will have a great sleeper. Mine was 7-10 hours every night by 8 weeks.

Hang in there while you do day things during the day and very, very quiet night things at night and her days/nights will adjust. I love the book "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" and used it with all 3 of my boys who now have good sleep habits. The hard thing is that nothing is going to normalize for a month or two relating to a schedule. Swaddling is your friend and should help you get some extra sleep between feedings. Good luck!

one week is too early to start a routine; let the baby eat when she needs it. Start around the 3rd week with the advice about moving the sleep time to the day. Be sure that you burp well when she eats especially at night.

at only one week old i let my kids set the schedule, but it sounds like she has her nights & days mixed up...at this age it's hard to try & get them switched back around...i would just make sure that during the day you do normal day things & try & keep more light in the house & more noise, & at night keep it dark & quiet, even when you get up to feed her try to not turn on lights or tv or anything, so she gets used to what day & nights are supposed to be. in the day you can try to wake her more often even if she only stays awake 10 or 15 min. then each time you wake her try to keep her up 5 more min. let her lay on the floor, even on her tummy for a few min at a time...dont keep her swaddled as much in the day...
i hope this helps...it seemed like to me with my two it took about a month to get them settled into a routine...it will get better!! but she's still so young!