We've got 2 under 2, and have spent most of the last 12 weeks dealing with the horrific sleep regressions of #1! Poor #2 has just had to wing it a bit, although I have been promoting independent sleep as much as possible with her. With #1's sleep problems we haven't had the freedome of movement to get #2 in her cot upstairs for fear of disturbing the delicate sleep of #1. From birth almost she was on 4 hourly feeds, sort of - but was very colicky in the evenings, which she has pretty much grown out of now. She's also had a horrid cough and cold these last three weeks, so I haven't really been able to observe properly what she's doing. She wakes in the night with breathing difficulties, and is still a pretty windy baby. On a good night, she just wakes once at 1 or 2ish, on a bad night it's 12, 2 or 3, then 4.30, like last night.
I'd like to get her going on a proper EASY now, and a proper bedtime upstairs in her cot (in our room) - I really think I could probably get her through the night, but only if I get cracking with EASY. It won't be easy because I need somehow to shoehorn her in to #1's routine, so I just need a bit of advice with the following.
At 12 weeks is it too young to start a 4 hour EASY? Should I try and go with a 3.5hr to start with? It's not so much the feeding, but the sleeping I gather...
Getting round the bedtime routine is what is hard - at the moment it's really difficult getting a 'catnap' in between 5 and 6, because #1's routine is 5pm tea, 6pm bath, 6.15-6.45pm stories and bedtime. I can't be there for #2 when she wakes, so she tends to come along for the ride with a feed at 5.30pm, then bath, then sitting with us, swaddled for stories. I tend to pop her in her cot, never mind sleep cues, while I settle #1, which only takes a few minutes. So, should I then go in and get #2, and go through the 4S routine until she settles or go downstairs, have a feed and do it from there? It's a long time awake that's the thing!
And what about cluster feeding?
Lastly, she tends to sleep till quite late in the morning - it's 9am and she's still sleeping, but usually it's more like 8 or 8.30. For the ease of EASY should I start from there, or get her waking earlier. It seems like anathema when we're dealing with 5am wakings with #1!
I also need to implement the dreamfeed, but I'll need to set my alarm for that - I'm just so pooped I'm in bed by 9 these days!
Anyway, any opinions or advice on what would be the best sample routine to follow would be helpful - there seem to be several options I could follow. Thanks,
Catherine