BabyWhispererForums.com
ACTIVITY => E.A.S.Y. Forum => Topic started by: jfrancis on May 14, 2016, 11:45:55 am
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Hi all. I'm Jen and I've been doing EASY since my dd was 8 weeks old. My bub can't seem to handle the recommended A time for her age, but doesn't nap well either and I'm not sure if she's over or under tired.
I found it difficult to implement the 4 hour easy when dd turned 4 months old as she struggled with her A time, even though I changed it gradually she could barely make the 2 hrs awake time.
She is now 6.5 months old and still struggles to stay awake for a 2 hr awake time. At about the hour and half awake time, she starts yawning and eye rubbing, and if haven't got her into bed on the 2 hr Mark, she starts to have a melt down, which then makes it even harder to get her to sleep. She doesn't transition well between sleep cycles during her naps, I usually have to go in and shush pat to get her to nap longer. She is very cranky every late afternoon and evening and fights the cat nap badly. She sleeps wonderfully at night though, it's unusual to hear a peep out of her at all.
Our current routine is as follows:
E- 6:30-7
A- 7-8:30
S- 8:30 for 2-2.5 hrs
E- 11:00
A- 11:30-1:00
S- 1:00 for 1.5-2 hrs
E-3:00
A- 3:30-5:00
CN- 4:30 or 5 for 30-45 mins
E- 6:30-7
S- 7:30
After writing this all down and reading some of the suggested 6 month old routines here on the forum, I think I've answered my own question, but do you think she's napping badly as she is under tired?
What do you think?
How do I try to increase her awake time without causing major melt downs?
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I think you did answer your own question! I agree she is likely undertired as the A time for a 6.5 month old should be around 3+ hours. After about 2/3 months the tired signs can be very unreliable and when she is acting tired by rubbing her eyes and yawning it probably just means she needs a change in stimulation. Very often older babies show tired signs when they are (for lack of a better term) bored. Also, if you are putting her down for a nap at the same general time every day it is probably just habit for her to act tired ya know?
I actually think she is melting down because she is not ready for sleep yet, especially if you are also experiencing short naps that you have to resettle. I would try just changing an activity, moving to another part of the house or outside which should peak her interest and keep her stimulated in order to reach an age appropriate A time.
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Agree with all the above!
You also may want to think about the 3-2 nap transition! It takes sometime to make the change but basically, babies begin to short nap or become UT for naps, which means an increase in A times, which then means slowly the last CN of the day will push away and be done with. It's a process! ;)
As far as increasing A times, you want to do it gradually if she's sensitive to OT (aka melt downs as you say) ....you can start by pushing her first A time of the day by 15 min increments every 3-4 days. If you find 15 is too much (as it can be for some) try increasing 5 mins at a time :)
xo
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Great, thanks for confirming that for me. I will try to incrementally increase her awake time to 3 hrs over the next month or so.
My next question is... How will bottle times work if she's having an A time of 3 hrs and 1.5 hr naps? It would make the fourth bottle of the day at about 8, which is a bit too late for bed time isn't it?
She is not eating solids yet, we are doing baby led weaning and she likes playing with food, but not eating it yet.
:)
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I am trying to remember from my DS lol, it's been too many years! I think the space between bottles increases and the last 2 are probably close together, I do remember my DS going down to 3 bottles per day at about 8 months. And you generally offer solids 1hr after the bottle.
So something like:
E 7am
A
S 10-11:30
E 11:30
A
S 2:30-4
E 4pm
A
E 6:45/7pm
S 7/7:15pm
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Thank you.
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I will try to incrementally increase her awake time to 3 hrs over the next month or so.
Just popping on to reply to this thread - saw your thread re: PUPD.
If you're getting happy waking at 45min, you can push A times faster than you are doing. If you consider 'average' A times go from 1.5hr at 3 months to 2hr at 4 months then 3hr at 6 months and 4hr around 9 months, you can see A times keep going up - you're about an hour 'behind' so to speak, so if you keep increasing slowly, you may find yourself trying to decide routine tweaks with unreliable data because you're in an OT/UT loop.
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Yes I agree. If you used the next month to increase to 3hrs then she is going to be 7.5 months and then her A time should be probably 3.5hrs (maybe a bit less) so likely still UT for her age. You certainly can increase slowly enough so as not to shock her, but I think you can easily do it in 15min increments and it wouldn't take long to get her up to something more age appropriate :)
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Thanks guys. I was going to increase her A time by 15 mins every 3 days, but left her with hubby this morning and she went 3.5hrs with no worries!!! This afternoon she went 3 hrs with no worries too. I'll see how she sleeps tonight, but fingers crossed :)
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Oh fantastic!! Let us know how you get on!