Benji and Daddy have a moment during tummy time. Benji finally decided to turn his head and look around, which resulted in much happy astonishment when he discovered things on the other side of the blanket.

The last week or so has been pretty rough for us. Benji started waking up hungry at random times in the night, after having slept well through the night for weeks. We figure he’s going through a growth spurt, and try to feed him more during the day, but he also gets distracted easily, looking rapidly from lights to face to ceiling fan to quilt to window…

Eating has never been smooth sailing for Benji, and that trend continues despite our best efforts. When he does eat, it takes about 10 minutes per ounce, or 40 to 60 minutes, plus time spent burping, changing (poos always seem to happen during feeds), waiting, and cajoling him to stop flitting his head from side to side so fast and please FOCUS. That excludes time nursing, which has never gone well and remains a small, supplementary part of his eating.

We offer him food immediately after he wakes up, but lately he’s only taken maybe four oz then, so we also offer right before he goes down. I’ve heard four-month-old babies should go four hours between feeds, but we’re at more like every two (or less, since he’s only up for an hour and a half to two hours between naps and eating at both ends of that time).

I’m not sure if we should try to extend time between feeds, because at this point that would mean he eats a small meal and then goes a long time before eating again. Perhaps he’d get the idea and eat more at each feed, but perhaps not.

Basically, I would like to see him eat more volume at wider, more age-appropriate intervals, but I don’t know how to get there and I don’t want to lose and calorie intake for him because he’s already really small.