starting EASY and 12 weeks, please help!

[jc2]

Hi i would appreciate some advice please.
My LO is 12 weeks, old, she has been formula fed every 4 hrs since one week old. Naps have bee a problem since day 1- i now realise a combination of overstimulation and accidental parenting- intervening too soon at 45min and dummy has become a prop!
In past few weeks she was Eat, then activity 30-40minm nap 45min, quiet activity 45min, nap 45 min, eat!!

So I have started to use EASY routine,

However at this age and given on 4 hr fees so long I am reluctant to goto 3hr regime at this stage, and was considering 3.5hr routine. This would be feed at 7, 10.30, 2 and 5.30, which seems v early for last feed, so should i do top up feed/cluster after bath or is she too old. I have started dream feed. She will sleep through to 7, but looks for dummy and is v restless from 5am onwards.

Also i am using shush pat to lengthen naps but how long should i do it-- at present she is waking at 45min, then using shush pat until she s just back to sleep(approx15min) then HTTJ at 5 and 10 mins approx when she also looks for dummy

Finally i am aware dummy has become a prop, should i address this now, or achieve longer naps first and then address dummy use??

[mamatolevi]

Are you swaddling your LO? I find that my LO stirs at 45 min into a nap, however, since I began swaddling him he doesn't actually wake up at 45 min. He is able to settle and get through his sleep cycle transition without waking. (I don't know all of the details of the sleep cycles, but have read a lot of info on this site.)
I don't see why you couldn't do a feed after the bath, but if the dream feed is getting you through until 7am, that's great!

[jc2]

Yes I have been swaddling thanks but she still wakes i'm afraid   
Thanks for your suggestion though!!

[Lolly]

If you think the dummy is a prop then I would get rid of it now, if she is waking and needing it you probably won't get longer naps until it is gone. We got rid of DS's at 4.5 months and it really helped with the quality of his sleep - we went cold turkey and by day 3 he was fine.

If she is used to 4 hour feeds I agree it's not worth moving to 3 hour as you will need to move back to 4 hour is a few weeks anyway. If she is sleeping through with a dreamfeed I would think she's getting enough calories - she'll wake is she's hungry! How much is she taking per bottle and over 24 hours?

The only problem with a 4 hour EASy and a younger baby is you won't be able to have the 2 hour A times so will have to do a EASAES (or a variation of ) for a while until her A times catch up. It does work, just keep in mine that you don't feed to sleep when E comes right before S. You could do a top up feed after her bath, some people split the last feed before and after bath and it will get a few more calories in her! There is a link her you may find useful http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164034.0

If she is waking at 45 mins every nap have you tried wake to sleep (W2S) to help? Here are a few links that may help if you haven't already found them!  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64168.0  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85499.0 There is also some help here on pat/shh http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=164034.0

HTH! Any more questions please just ask!

Laura

[jc2]

thanks for your advice lolly, re reading those links have helped.I have been trying wake to sleep at 30mins but will tweak the timing a bit. Am doing HTTJ but she is a very jerky baby even with swaddle. Have made some progress in last 2 days in that she cries for a min only and then starts going back to sleep in response to shush pat. This takes about 20mins and then jerks few times in next 20mins.
She does root for dummy a lot during this process. In last week she started looking for it a lot from 3am onwards during night. This is a new thing, and timing coincides with her dropping night feed. I'm not sure if she is maybe a little hungry but not enough to wake fully for feed, or if she is becoming reliant on dummy to transition through night sleep phases also--this i dont like!! When you went cold turkey was your LO using it for naps and night sleep? Did you use shush/pat etc to get through it and how did you get on?
She is taking 4 x 6-7oz during day and 3-4 oz at dreamfeed, total 28-29oz in last few days. She cannot yet stay up long enough for 4 hr EASY like you say. Tomorrow i think i will try 3.5hr with split feed around bathtime and that might add another 1-2 oz to her 24hr total.
Thanks again

[Lolly]

Glad the links were of use to you!

Both my LOs had the dummy a lot - pretty much all day and night really, I didn't limit them to just sleep times so they were both pretty addicted . We did use shh/pat and still do with DD to help her get to sleep (my independant sleeper has other ideas at the moment ), it does work although we used shh/ rub the back as I have two refluxers and patting aggrevates their tummies. As I mentioned before I just took the dummy away one morning and did a bit of APOP for the first day or so just to get him to sleep for naps and night. After the first day it was much easier and introducing the lovie certainly helped.

At 12 weeks she could be hungry in the night - a lot of babies have feeds in the night until much later on, if you can settle her but she is waking pretty soon she could well need an extra feed.

Laura

[anghou]

Hi

Your conversation is sooooo relevant to my LO!
 
You have described a EASAES routine - what comes after the last S??

Would you give more detailed timetable of what an EASAES would look like please and timings for each so I can work out how to fit it in to 3.5 hour EASY.  THANK YOU!!

PS I generally get my LO up at 8:30am.  He wakes bt 6 and 7am but I try to put him back down til 8.30 so I can catch up on my Zzzzz's.  Should i just get him up when he initially wakes up?  Could this be part of the problem?  He goes to bed between 7:30 - 8pm.

Thanks

Angela