5 mo old EASY and Resettling

[MarciaMSPT]

Not sure where to post this one.  My DS is 5 months and a week old.  We've come a long way in regards to his napping and my emotional health through it all! 

My struggle is this... my DH and I are working together on putting him down in his sleep window and letting him put himself to sleep.  At times, this means no crying and sometimes he cries for about 3-4 minutes.

My question is that he continues to wake during one of his naps at the 45 minute mark - usually the afternoon nap.  He does not resettle and I always end up picking him up and bouncing him back to sleep (which we have quit doing when putting him down for naps or bedtime).  He falls asleep and then will sleep for another hour after I put him back down.  I would like to see him either sleep straight through or resettle himself without all the crying.  ShPat does not work as it only upsets him and PUPD makes him furious as well. 

Our EASY looks like this:

E 7am
S 9ish and sleeps till about 10:30 or 10:45

E 11
S 12:45 or 1ish (and sleeps till 2:30 or 2:45 with at least one APOP resettle - sometimes sleeps till 3 or later with a resettle)

E 3ish
CN 5ish

E 6ish
BT between 6:45 and 7:30 depending on time of last catnap

Should we be more set on BT and the CN?  Does our EASY look about right? 

We are trying to extend A times but he requires a long wind down... otherwise is very fussy and will not just drift off to sleep...

Thanks for your help...

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi there!

It seems to me that you are doing great! I wish my EASY looked like that back then

Did I get it right that you are struggling with the second nap? If that's the case then I think he is ready for more A time.
He is approaching the 3-2 transition and in order for him to manage that his A times need to be 3h. Don't be alarmed, he still has a bit of time till that happens, but it's good to start with it now so later on the transition is smoother.
The way we increase A time is gradually so we can prevent OT. You increase 10min every 3-4 days. It might be that on the 4th day of an extra 10min you will already see good results and won't need to extend A times anymore. If you think that 10min is too much for him then you can also increase by 5min.
I get from your post that you usually follow sleepy cues, which is great, but when increasing A times you'd need to look more at the clock so you know you are consistent.

Good luck and we are here if you have more questions

[MarciaMSPT]

Thanks so much for your words of wisdom and encouragement...

I'm struggling with how to increase A time.  I think he is awake 15-30 min before we get him up at 7 so morning A times are rough to extend.  And he needs a good amount of snuggle time and walking around for wind down.

Any thoughts on how to increase A time with out OS?

Is he getting too much sleep by sleeping through the night with no NW.  He sleeps about 11 hours, plus about 3.5 hours total during the day.

Thanks!

[Regina Phalange]

How does he react to walks? I've always had some luck by taking my son out for a walk around the block before wind down if I need to extend an extra 5-10 min. A drive would likely put him to sleep, but the fresh air, and so many things to look at while in the stroller keeps him occupied and content.

[Ima shel Alon]

^^^DS would fall asleep as soon as he hit the buggy , lol. It's amazing how babies are different, right?

Do you have a garden? When I struggled stretching A times I would take DS out to the garden on my arms and just walk quietly around, perhaps singing a song and that gave me an extra 5 minutes.
When it was cold I did it around the flat, just went around the rooms and talked to him with a very quiet low voice.
Like I said, you can try even just 5min if it's harder to stretch him longer than that.

I don't think he is getting too much night sleep. 11h straight at 5m is great.

[MarciaMSPT]

He loves walks!  And that is how I stretched it before...but after a 60 degree day yesterday, now we've got 7 inches of snow coming tomorrow and a cold front - winter is here!  We live in a small trailer so walking around only takes so long...but I've been sitting and showing him the plants with flowers on it, our little lemon tree inside now and anything else that I can talk to him about.  Yesterday, we went out and watched the chickens for about 10-12 minutes... he was enthralled by them!  I discovered that he loves to be stripped to his diaper and lay on a fleece blanket so that buys me some more time... he's not motivated to roll yet although he did roll front to back when he was 3 months but then seemed to loose interest. 

Lastly I bounce him on our therapy ball while watching the fire in teh wood stove... he seems to like that but again, I think he's getting to the age where bouncing is annoying to him rather than calming to him...

He'll enjoy looking at the snow tomorrow!  Oh, I bought some sunflower seeds and filled the birdfeeders so I can set him in front of the window to watch them tomorrow when the snow flies.  He loves watching the birds and it often interferes with his feeding time since he can see the feeders while he's feeding too.  I love that he loves being outside and nature etc... we are all outdoor people and spring time will be fun with him in our garden area - quite big with an orchard - it's all fenced in - he'll love it!