Help! I can't get my 5 month old to stay awake for 2hrs!

[Alyssababyadam]

I have been doing the EASY routine since my son was 6 weeks old. It has been a life saver, but I've been having trouble transitioning him to a 4hr routine. He gets plenty to eat, so I know he is physically able to go four hours between feedings. However, I can't get him to stay awake for much longer than an hour. After an hour, he gets extremely fussy and starts rubbing his eyes and yawning. I usually keep him up for an hour and a half but by then he is on the border of being over tired. This has been going on for a month, and his awake time doesn't seem to be extending. What do I do??

Just so you know - he goes to bed at 7pm and gets up at 8am, and his naps are 1 1/2 - 2hrs

[Skadiver13]

Can you post your full EASY? What do his nights look like? Was he a preemie?

[Alyssababyadam]

I don't do everything at exactly the same time every day, but it usually looks like this

E: 8:00am
A: diaper change, play
S: 9:30
E: 11 or 11:30
A: play
S: 1:00
E: 2:00
A: play
S: 3:30
E: 5:00
A: bath, play
S: 6:30 or 7:00 bedtime
E: 10pm dream feed

He usually wakes up once at night, around 4am or 5am, because he's hungry. (I can tell from the way he is crying)

[Skadiver13]

Ok, so it looks like you've got a few things going on. So I'll try to list them so they make sense and just to get some clarification. I mean it's tough if you are getting 2 good naps and 1 1hr nap plus a 13hr night with no NW's I'm hesitant to change a whole lot. Usually A time increases come when you're naps get shorter and your mornings get earlier. When he wakes at 4/5 does he go right back to sleep after eating or is he up for a while?

1. Your A times should be thought of as eyes open to eyes shut
2. You should be working on 2 naps and 1 cat nap or 2 naps but if he's sleeping 9:30-11, 1-2, and 3:30-5 he's sleeping a total of 4.5hrs during the day AND sleeping from 7-8AM with only 1 night waking? Seems he might be a high sleep needs baby?
3. It looks like form what you wrote his second A time in the AM is 2hr? wake at 11 sleep at 1? sometimes it's 1.5hrs?
4. Was he a preemie?
5. When he's rubbing his eyes etc. have you tried a change of scenery to see if that piques his interest? Sometimes when babies get used to sleeping after a certain amount of time they show all the signs of being tired but could really do more if they get a change of scenery.
6. Do you have to APOP the naps?

I guess it's hard for me to see anything wrong if he's doing 3 great naps and sleeping all night.

[Alyssababyadam]

Between his first & second nap, I can sometimes squeeze out 2 hours but its usually only an hour and a half tops. He was born at 39 weeks, so nope not a preemie! I haven't tried a change of scenery but I'm not completely sure how do to that. it rains a lot where I live so I can't take him on a walk or anything.  He doesnt go to sleep right after i feed him at 5am, he takes about an hour to go back to sleep but if i dont feed him he wont go back to sleep at all!Sorry I just joined this forum today, not sure what APOP means?

[nona]

my DD took a long time to transition to 4 hr EASY. AT 5 month, we were more like 3.5 hr EASY. She is about 8.5 months now and I still put her down at 2 hr A time occasionally but I can stretch to 2.5 more often.

[Skadiver13]

APOP is accidental parenting on purpose, i.e do you rock him to sleep etc. Does he sleep the full nap in his crib with out any waking or intervention from you? I think one issue you may have is your 5am is actually an early waking not a night waking and he's just taking on daytime hours to his sleep. Change of scenery could be going to another room and doing a differnet activity. I.e. if my son is on the playmat on his tummy and gets fussy but it's not nap time I'll bring him into the other room and let him play with a different toy or we'll go read a book or do something low key until it is nap time. LIke I said I don't really know what to tell you if he's sleeping from 7-5 I think he's sleeping too much during the day. I would start doing 1 1.5/2hr nap in the AM 1 1.5 2hr nap in the afternoon and then a cat nap if you need it to get you to bedtime. Put him to bed early if need be but the 5am wake up sounds more like and EW than a NW so by capping the naps from 4hrs to 3.5 you might push that time a little later. Does he take a full feed at 5? If so, Maybe move your dream feed to 10:30? (only if he goes to bed at 7 though not 6). IF not then it's not hunger that's waking him but habit.

[jessmum46]

Hi there I see you're getting some great help already from Skadiver

You should be working on 2 naps and 1 cat nap or 2 naps

Just wanted to say that the first of these is probably the better approach - it's still a little early to be thinking about 2 naps, especiallly if your LO is fairly high sleep needs (as it appears from your EASY).  A typical EASY at this age would be 2 x 1.5-2h naps and a 30-40 minute catnap to see you through to bedtime.

When he's rubbing his eyes etc. have you tried a change of scenery to see if that piques his interest? Sometimes when babies get used to sleeping after a certain amount of time they show all the signs of being tired but could really do more if they get a change of scenery.

This is a great suggestion - in the early days of trying to stretch my DDs A time we just used to go for a walk round the garden or the kitchen for 10 mins or so near the end of her A time, pointing out different things and talking/singing to her.  The change of environment was enough to keep her awake for a little longer but wasn't too overstimulating just before naptime. 

I totally agree about the 5am waking - it sounds very much UT due to a long late afternoon nap and a short day.  I would have thought it was a routine issue rather than hunger waking him, though once he's awake he probably realises he is hungry if you know what I mean?  It's like if I woke up a couple of hours early - it wouldn't be hunger that woke me but I'd probably still be happy to eat my breakfast, even if I normally ate it later - make sense?  I'd also try to aim for a 12h day if you can and gently push out those A times by increasing 10 mins or so every few days. 

Let us know how you get on