Help with EASY

[Jadea]

My son is having short naps and night wakings. I need help with troubleshooting my EASY. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong.

My son is 22 weeks old, touchy, and EBF except for rice cereal in his DF EBM bottle. When we first started sleep training he STTN for a couple weeks, but now hasn't been for 2.5 weeks, except for one random night 3 days ago. Our EASY from yesterday made me think he might be UT so I'm thinking to increase his A from 2 hr to 2 hr 10 min.

Wake up 7:23

E 7:23
A 7:23
S 9:23  WTS at 9:51

E 11:10
A 11:10
S 1:15 WTS at 1:40

E 2:30
A 2:30
S 4:30

E 5:10
A 5:10
S 7:50 BT    S was late as DS fought sleep for 20 min, he should've been asleep by 7:30

DF: 11:00 Breastmilk with rice cereal
NW: 2:30 AM


Today has been very difficult I tried to increase his A to 2 hr 10 min and I have no idea if he's UT or OT, but whatever it is its not working!

Today:

w/u 7:28
E 7:30
A 7:28
S 9:28 - 10:22  WTS 10:05 - I've never been able to extend an hour long nap so I didn't really try

E 10:22
A 10:22
S 12:32 - 1:07 he was in bed should've been asleep at 12:25 but he was acting UT fighting the nap which is confusing because he took a 35 min nap like he was OT...
S 2:00 - 2:50 resettled him after 50 min of p/u p/d.

E 2:50
A 2:50
S 5:40 - I tried to put him down at 4:50 but he was happy and playing and babbling, so I thought he was UT and let him stay up another 20 min. When I tried to put him to bed he fought it for 30 min of screaming crying and being very mad.

E 6:17
A 6:17
S 8:20 BT ... DS got to sleep at 8:20 but got woken up by DH accidentally at 8:27 and is now still awake at 8:42, poor little guy.

11:00 DF planned. Thinking of trying a 1:30 WTS for his 2:30 waking that has happened the last 2 nights.

[Jadea]

I should clarify that I don't see our nights as being bad, my concern is really the short naps and daytime sleep. I'm mostly just baffled about the A time. Before yesterday I was getting 45 minute to 1 hour long naps so I increased A time by 10 minutes, then I got this weird mix of undertired signals paired with overtired naps.

[Ima shel Alon]

Hello and welcome to BW

When we first started sleep training he STTN for a couple weeks, but now hasn't been for 2.5 weeks, except for one random night 3 days ago.

Did this collaborate with giving the rice cereal? Many babies find the rice cereal hard to digest and are constipated from it. The discomfort can cause NW.

If with 2h A time you got 45min-1h naps then you were right to increase the A time to 2:10. It takes LO time to settle into the new A and that often causes OT naps, that's ok. Just stick to it for 3 more days (and you'd need to quite strict during those days) and we can see if the naps are still short.
What do you think?

[Jadea]

Thank you for replying!!!

 

Did this collaborate with giving the rice cereal? Many babies find the rice cereal hard to digest and are constipated from it. The discomfort can cause NW.

No, it was prior to his 4 months growth spurt though. I started to pump 10 minutes per day after each feed to increase my supply during the day about 2 weeks ago, I've gotten to where I'm pumping 5 oz+ per day after he eats.  I've tried getting him to feed longer to eat up more of the surplus but he won't. So I started to put the extra expressed hindmilk in a dreamfeed which did eliminate a night waking that he had been having between 1-2am. When he continued to have his 2-4 am night waking I added rice cereal in order to increase the number of calories he is getting, it didn't have any apparent effect on his waking schedule or bowel movements so I've been continuing to add it for the extra calories. (he is very long and lean. Every time he gets any chub he grows!  His 4 months growth spurt put him into 12 month clothes.)

The recent time he STTN was the day I implemented the DF with rice. The very next day he began waking around 2am to take another full feed. I will try cutting out the rice cereal in the bottle to see if that makes a difference and I'll continue with the 2:10 A time to see what happens.

One question, when I am changing his A time if he takes a short nap should I continue with the same A time for consistency even though he will be OT? Or should I just change the 1st A time and pull in the second by 20 minutes?

[Ima shel Alon]

One question, when I am changing his A time if he takes a short nap should I continue with the same A time for consistency even though he will be OT? Or should I just change the 1st A time and pull in the second by 20 minutes?

This is something you'd need to figure out because it's different from baby to baby. Some babies, like my DS was, need a full A after a short nap to get a good nap out of them, but some, many, need a shorter A after a short nap. Most mommies shorten by 15-20min the next A.

It really can be that he is hungry at night, we were also having a NF at this age and we were FF. Many BF babies take longer to stop with all NF and I think it's still ok for him to have one.

[Jadea]

Thank you! DS had a 2 hour morning nap and 1:50 afternoon nap! Yay!  In the morning he woke at 1 hr 20 but then cried a little and put himself back to sleep. Since he went back to sleep without intervention is that a good sign for this a time, or is the waking at 1:20 still an indication of UT? In the afternoon he didn't make a peep for almost 2 hours.

[Ima shel Alon]

Great news!

It's hard to say, really. I would stick to the same A for 3 more days and if he wakes up after 1:20 then I'd try and add 10 more min. to his A.

[Jadea]

Thank you!  it's so wonderful to have someone to ask!

[Jadea]

Good news! Thanks to your advice my son is still having unassisted 1:45 hour naps! He is still having UT or OT wake ups but is continuing to self soothe through them to take good naps. Most of the time the w/u are UT, so I'm going to try increasing his A by another 10, so it will be 2:20 A at 22.5 weeks old.

More good news! He also started to STTN as of 2 days ago, he's going from 7:30pm to 6:00am, then having 1 EW at 6:00. I've been feeding him then as I figure he must be hungry and I put him back down and he sleeps again till 7:30am.

I also have a question. I've noticed that he fusses and acts very tired for at least a half hour before his nap time. He often will suck his thumb and close his eyes and try to fall asleep in my arms before nap time. This has persisted even though we've now been on this schedule for 6 days and on EASY now for about 6 weeks. I've learned to ignore his signals and just watch the clock as putting him down early leads to poor napping and going by the clock lends to much better napping. Is this common or should I feel concerned about this?

[Ima shel Alon]

YAY! I am so happy for you

What you are describing is normal for many babies. My LO was always like this, couldn't handle the last 30min of his A but putting him earlier would give me UT naps Actually for most of his first year I had to hold him for his last 30min of the A because he was fussy and even crying .

[Jadea]

I have another question... Now that we've increased to 2:20 of A I'm having trouble fitting all three naps in a day, my boy will nap 2 hours given the opportunity. So my question: should I let him do 2 2 hour naps and have a super early BT (where he would barely get to see his dad) Or should I cap the naps at 1:30 in order to keep a more reasonable BT?

w/u 7:40
E 7:40
A 7:40 - 9:55
S 9:55 - 11:58  baby fell asleep faster than I expected, but slept 2 hours without a peep

E 11:58
A 11:58 -2:18
S 2:18 - 3:45  I cut the nap short because if I had let him sleep 2 hours I would've been stuck getting him to bed after 8 pm or before 7 pm.

E 3:45
A 3:45 -5:57 attempted to lay baby down early in an effort to avoid BT issues, he ended up going to sleep only 8 min early
S 5:57 - 6:30

E 6:30
A 6:30 - 8:00
S 8:00 - BT  he was tired at 8pm and fussing, but had a hard time going to sleep

DF 10:30

[Ima shel Alon]

If it's important for you to keep BT at 20 (which is reasonable) then my suggestion would be to cut the naps at 1.5h. This problem that you have now is not going to be there for long because most babies drop their CN at around 6m. Have a look here: All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

[Jadea]

How many days of short naps should I wait before increasing A time? Last time I waited a week, but that seems too long. He had a 1:20 wake up and a 40 min wake up yesterday. Today can't be considered because it is all sorts of wonky but I think he inadvertently got a carseat nap in the middle of his first A time, so we've been off kilter as he slept a short nap for his first S .

[Ima shel Alon]

Do you mean he slept 1:20h and 40min?

In general, when upping A, if you keep getting Ut naps after 3 days you can increase again by 10-15min.

[Jadea]

Sorry for so many questions!

Something weird happened, yesterday I thought DS had snuck in a catnap during his first A time because he was SO AWAKE when it should've been naptime. (we had a car trip on the first A and I can't tell if he's sleeping when he's in the car) He wasn't fussy before his first S like he usually is, he was just awake. Today I'm thinking that he didn't get a CN during his first A because he has been the same for all of his naps yesterday and today. Today I increased all of his A times by another 10 minutes starting with his first A and he is still acting super awake at naptime. He barely fusses before naptime and when I go to lay him down he fights the nap and he only took a 1 hour nap and a 40 minute nap today.

Is it possible that he just had some sort of a leap in the amount of A time that he needs? I had thought I would be able to gradually add in more A time anytime his naps started to get short, but this seems like it was just all of a sudden and I don't know how much more A time he will need but the 10 min I added today doesn't seem to be remotely enough. He is currently having 2:30 A at 23 weeks as of today.

[Ima shel Alon]

It could be a leap, but still I wouldn't jump too much. Increasing by 10-15min and waiting 3 days gives him enough time to get used to it and for you to see the results (only at the third day!). I wouldn't make any conclusions after one day of increasing A. If you think he can handle more then make the increase by 15min and not just 10min.

What you are describing can also be OS, not just UT. Maybe in the last 30min of his A you can have some quiet time?

[Jadea]

I'm looking for a little reassurance that I should keep increasing A time as 3 hours for a 5.5 month old seems like a lot to me.

We have been gradually increasing A time every 3 days, my boy will be 6 months in 10 days. He is now at 3 hours even. We are on day 3 at 3h, and he is still waking up at either 45, 1 hour or 1:20. Last night he slept all the way through the night without waking up or his habitual 6:40 am waking for the first time!

I am spending the last 1/2 hours before naps holding him and walking around as he is fussy.

When he wakes in the middle of his naps and cannot self settle I just turn him to his side and put a little pressure on his shoulder and he usually starts trying to self settle again at which point I leave the room. Sometimes he completely settles and goes for a good nap, other times (like this afternoon) he won't settle at all.

[Ima shel Alon]

It could be that he is high A needs kind of boy. If you manage to settle most of the short naps then I would wait a bit with upping the A again. When he is closer to 6m old and you still get 45min then you can increase it again by 10-15min.