Some EASY questions

[Ima shel Alon]

I think it's ok. As long as you are not out now for every nap, every day for the next week she'll be fine.

I am so happy, it sounds like a great progress. In a week you'll be in a whole different place .

[Hayleys]

Thank you! Things are continuing to go well! Last night she slept until 5:30 am, woke crying. I have her a bottle which she drained very quickly and then she went straight back to sleep. I actually had to wake her at 7 am.

Our day plans changed so we were actually home for her morning nap. However, 5 mins before I was about to start the wind down time she fell asleep in my arms. One minute she was sitting on my lap holding her toy and then she dropped it started rubbing her eyes, leaned into me and closed her eyes and fell asleep within seconds. I took her upstairs and put her straight in her cot and at that point she was fast asleep. It was very sweet but I haven't been able to put her down for a nap since sleep training started. I AP her PM nap with a car ride or stroll in the pushchair. Tomorrow we are home so I will try again to get her to sleep independently in her cot. I think she was extra tired today due to her taking longer to have her night time bottle and then the 40 mins to fall asleep she actually only had a 10 hr night.

So tonight she finished her bedtime bottle at 8pm and I put her in her cot. She cried as soon as I put her down and again I couldn't leave the room so sat near her cot. Tonight it only took 15 mins until she fell asleep which was fantastic!!

I'm just wondering when you think I should perhaps start moving away from the cot? We are in day 3 now and I know that typically around day 5 there tends to be a regression in progress. Do you think I should wait until after that time. Also she has begun crawling in the last week so I thinking that she may be experiencing SA but not sure so I want to be sensitive to that. I'm not in a hurry to get the process over I just want to do things as gently as possible, but at the same time I don't want her to become dependent on my being in the room. What do you think?

[Ima shel Alon]

I would still wait. For sure after the regression, but you can also wait afterwards. Sitting next to her is not a huge prop, iykwim. After a while of doing this, when you had enough (that was always the sign for me to change things) and when you think she is ready you can do it. Meanwhile enjoy her sleep, enjoy what you accomplished so far.

And I wouldn't worry so much about naps. Babies treat day sleep and night sleep very differently so she will continue to learn to self soothe in the evening and at night time even if once in a while she falls asleep on you or she has her PM nap in the stroller.

[Hayleys]

Hi

I hope you had a good time away!

Things are continuing to go very well.  My lo is going down for her morning nap and bedtime independently now, generally I am still Ap(ing) her afternoon nap, but sometimes she is going to sleep independently for this.   I am still in the room with her until she is fully asleep.  I think I'll continue to do this for a while and then start to move out of the room over the next few weeks.  Also and this is huge, her early night wakes have stopped!!  This is fantastic and it means that I can have more of an evening to myself!!  Wow!!  It seemed to significantly improve once you recommended that I adapt her routine and have less A time before bedtime so it looks like overtiredness may have been the issue.

This is our EASY at the moment:

W 7:00 am
E  8:00
A  4hrs 20 mins
S  11:20 (1 and a half to 2 hr nap)
E   
A 
S  4:30 - 5pm (set 30 min catnap)
E
A
S  8:00 pm

Over the last 10 days or so she seems to be having days when she is waking early.  Usually around 6:30 but the other morning it was as early as 5:50 am.  Also she seems to be very tired when I wake her from the PM cat nap.  She usually wakes from her AM nap after 1 and a half hours and I'm just wondering if she does this then maybe she needs a 45 min PM nap instead of 30 mins?  Do you think this would make any difference in helping the early wake ups?  And if she did a 2 hr sleep should I keep the catnap at 30 mins?  I'm just wondering why these early wakes are suddenly occurring and the only thing which I can think of is that she can be very tired before her PM nap and then also difficult to wake up from it too.  What do you think?

[Ima shel Alon]

I hope you had a good time away!

I am still in hospital Not good time at all

I am very happy to hear that things are better.
Can you remind me how old is she now? Because it sounds to me like it's not OT, but rather that she is in the middle of the 2-1 transition, and this transition is always changing, yk?
What I mean is that the transition idea is to slowly push the AM nap later and shorten the PM nap so she could eventually manage one nap.
My best bet would be to tell you to put her to bed a little bit earlier and see if that helps. Sometimes a baby who did a 13h day and 11h night changes and needs 12-12. DS did that at some point.
But I could say more when you remind me her age .

[Hayleys]

Hi!

Sorry to hear that you are in hospital! I wish you a speedy recovery!

She will be 12 months in about 10 days! Today she woke at 6:10 am so I'm going to put her down for her first nap at 10:30am. If you are able to respond today, any idea on how we should move forward with day or in general?

A 12 hr day and night could work well! 7am-7pm would be good!

Thank you!! 

[Ima shel Alon]

I would just keep the day as it's always is and aim for a 19BT. Perhaps your last A time needs to be tiny bit longer today.

[Hayleys]

Hi

Her routine was very wonky today in the end so I'm expecting some wake ups in the night or early morning.

Anyway, do you think I should gradually start increasing her morning A time then? If so, over what period of time should I do this and by how much each time should I increase?  At the moment she has lunch after her morning nap, I guessing it will get to the point when she will need to have it before her nap right?  Also do you think I should start making her bedtime earlier now at say 7 pm or will I do that in time?  Her EASY at the moment looks like this but do you think I should change it?  She will be 12 months in 10 days.

W 7:00 am
E  8:00
A  4hrs 20 mins
S  11:20 (1 and a half to 2 hr nap)
E   
A 
S  4:30 - 5pm (set 30 min catnap)
E
A
S  8:00 pm
 

[Hayleys]

Hi

Just wanted to update you in case it affects your thoughts.  Last night she did wake twice but I managed to get her back to sleep. She then actually slept until 7:10 am. She went to sleep at 7:30 last night. I actually think that she may be wanting a 12 hr night now as before the recent early wakes I was having too wake her at 7am from a deep sleep.

She wasn't tired until after 4hrs 30 mins of A time this morning, I think this may be due to the longer night sleep.

[Ima shel Alon]

The first thing I'd try is only pushing BT earlier to 19-19:30 and decide what to do next after a couple of days. If you see that she IS sleeping 12h nights and that the EW is gone - but... 1st nap start to be shorter, then I'd increase the first A time by 10min.

[Hayleys]

Hi

Ok, thank you!  That sounds like a good plan.  Just to clarify though, am I still keeping her catnap at 4:30 - 5 pm, even if bedtime is earlier?  My gut feeling is that this will still work well, but I just want to make sure that this is what you meant.  She seems tired about an hour before I am currently putting her down, so that's also making me think that perhaps a 12 hr day is what she needs now.

I have a bad cold at the moment and just before I put her to bed tonight I noticed that she also had a runny nose, Ugh!!  I'm really hoping that she doesn't develop a cold as it may mean that EASY goes out of the window for a while, but we'll see what happens! 

[Ima shel Alon]

Hope you both feel better today!

I would leave the nap for now and only if things get wonky I would move it to 16.

[Hayleys]

Thank you!

Unfortunately she does have a cold and isn't sleeping well at the moment. As soon as she is better, I'll try the routine for a few days and then get back to you!

[Hayleys]

Hi

I hope you are well!

It took 2 and a half weeks for my DD to recover from her cough and cold, then I had to do some more sleep training as I had been APOP(ing) her sleeps while she was ill which took another week, so it's only now I feel ready to start to try to adjust her routine. The problem is so much time has past, I'm not sure if she may be needing something different now so I wanted to get your opinion.

She is now 12 and a half months.  This is the routine I have been working with and you suggested that maybe she now needs a 12 hr night as she was waking early in the morning.

W 7:00 am
E  8:00
A  4hrs 20 mins
S  11:20 (1 and a half to 2 hr nap)
E   
A 
S  4:30 - 5pm (set 30 min catnap)
E
A
S  8:00 pm

I am still following this EASY as it was hard to adjust when she was ill.  She has still been waking early, usually around 6 am but I have been able to rock her back to sleep so she can wake at 7 am.  Yesterday though she went to sleep within minutes at bedtime and then woke herself at 7 am, I heard her get herself back to sleep at 6ish and I did not have to intervene.  This meant that due to illness and the sleep training this is the first time in a long while that she had an 11 hr sleep.  Then this morning, she was not tired at all after 4 hrs 20 mins A time, infact she did not go to sleep until after 5 hrs of A time!!  I actually fed her lunch during this time and then she fell asleep on the bottle so I'm not sure if this is a good indication of if this A time is right for her or not!  It does seem like a huge leap!!!  Also on other days she has been sleepy before her usual A time and still having an hour and a half nap so it is all quite confusing.  The only thing I can think of is that perhaps the amount of A time depends on how much night sleep she has had.

So today her EASY will look like this:

W 7:00 am
E  8:00
A  5hrs
S  12:00 (1 and a half to 2 hr nap)
E   
A 
S  4:30 - 5pm (set 30 min catnap)
E
A
S  8:00 pm

Do you have any suggestions as to where I should go from here?  Should I still try to get her to bed at 7 pm so she can have a 12 hr night?  If so should I try this gradually?  I noticed that even when she was ill she seemed to always gravitate to an 8 pm bedtime, I'm not sure if she would go down at 7 am with the EASY as it is. 

Any ideas?

[Ima shel Alon]

Congratulations, you are now a mother of a toddler!

I think jumping to 5h A time all at once WILL be too much, and any case I think that's a very high A time. I think it's worth a shot to move BT to 19 for a few days and give her chance to set her body clock to that and see if that helps. If not I would increase the first A time but by only 10min to see if that makes a difference.