Hi,
My 5.5 month old daughter has been on EASY since she was about 3 weeks old. She thrives on it and of course, so do we. She has always been a big napper, but now that she is almost 6 months old, her naps seem to be too long and her ability to stay awake long enough to have her feedings every 4 hours is limited. She begins to really get cranky when I try to keep her up longer than 1 hour 15 mins. I know that she can go 4 hours between feedings (she is breastfed) but usually by the time we reach 3 or 3.5 hours, she is so tired from being awake for only an hour, that she gets cranky and wants sleep so then I have to feed her early. I have no idea how to remedy this problem: I do not want to keep her up when she is screaming for a nap, and once she goes down, I do not want to wake her from sleep. She only has one night waking, but it is just a ritual feeding. I have never been strict with her on exact times for feeding and sleeping, rather I have always worked with her natural rhythm, so depending on when she wakes up each day, then I do the EASY around that. One thing that I do is feed her everyday around 7 am and put her to bed at around 7:30.
Any ideas on what to do to get her a bit more regulated, so that she can stay awake longer??
Here's a sample of her schedule...It looks a bit messy because it changes day by day a little depending on her wake up and eating times
Wake up 6:30-7:00
E 7:00 or 7:15
S 7:45 or 8:00- usually only 1 hour after waking up. This nap is at least 2 hours
A 10:00 or 10:30
E 10:45 or 11:00
S 12:00- this nap is between 1.5-2 hours
A 1:30 or 2:00
E 2:30 or 2:45 - here is where she begins to really have a hard time stretching everything
S between 3:15 and 3:45 - this nap is usually only 1 hour
A 5:00 or 5:15
E 5:00 or 5:30
7 - bath and final nurse
7:30 Bed
Thank you so much for the help!!!