Early wake up scuppers Easy order...

[LASmith]

Hi,

We have a 4 month old little boy and he's always been a good nighttime sleeper but we've never mastered the daytimes. He goes down at 7pm really well and sleeps through till 5am, hungry. We were doing the DF but recently dropped this as we felt it was disrupting his sleep. He does seem much better since we dropped it so all is good there - but the 5am wake ups have a knock on impact on our feeding schedule for the day.

When he wakes at 5am, I leave him for c. 10 mins to see if he resettles and when he doesn't, I stay in the same room (dark) and feed for 10 mins and put him back to bed. He'd feed for longer but I'm trying to limit the impact on the day. He then goes back to sleep and wakes at 6.30am - happy and then grizzles after a while for attention. We get up and then have A time. I've tried feeding him when he gets up but obviously not hungry due to the early feed. He can only go for 75-90 mins of A time before getting tired but the feed usually ends up therefore just before S time.

For example-
E 5am
S 5.20
A 6.30
E 7.30
S 8.00

So my questions are as follows:
Is it a big problem that we therefore end up out of sync for EAS?
Should I try not to feed him at 5am? (I did try abt a week ago and he cried for ages!)
What impact does this have on our day?

The next challenge may or may not be related... He only sleeps for c.30 mins during the day. I don't know if the feeding schedule is impacting this.
So because his S is short and his A is also short, we really struggle to stick to EAS. He only needs to eat every 3.5 hrs ie 7.30am, 11, 2.30pm, 6pm and then 5am. S
If I feed him more regularly than this, he's just not interested and won't take a proper feed.
As you can imagine, this plays havoc with out attempted structure of EAS!

Re the napping - I've reduced his A time and sometimes we get 45 mins in the morning but the rest of the day is back to 30 mins and he gets progressively more tired (and grouchy) as we go through the day. The ONLY time he can get past the 30 min mark is in the car... Cot, walking etc does not work! Don't know why he is so good at night but not in the day.

Is the feeding timing causing this or something else?

Would love any thoughts or ideas.

Thank you x

[Erin M]

Is it a big problem that we therefore end up out of sync for EAS?
Should I try not to feed him at 5am? (I did try abt a week ago and he cried for ages!)

I'd say definitely not a problem that you're out of sync -- it happens at this age and there's not a whole lot you can do about it.  I would still feed him at 5AM as it really sounds like he needs it. 

The 30 minute naps -- it sounds like you're working on your A time, which would be my first culprit -- also, do you see any signs of discomfort during the day?  Sometimes 30 minute naps can be due to discomfort.  Any signs of reflux or anything like that?

[LASmith]

Hi there,

Thank you. Yes will do - he doesn't scream but I think he definitely wants the food, plus he's going 10 hours. It's also not a big worry getting up for a quick feed at that time so we'll carry on with that.

The thing I worry about with the order of EAS is that he doesn't get the consistency everyone talks about as being so important. So before one sleep he'll have food, and another he'll have activity. So he's not getting clear signals of what's coming next. But having said that, because of his short naps I think there's not much we can do about staying on track just now!

Yes interesting you mention about reflux... I took him to the doctor a couple of weeks ago as he's quick sicky too. Not projectile though. He's referred is to a paediatrician so we're waiting for that appt but he thought it could be reflux. I don't understand why this happens only during the day and he sleeps 10 hours at night? Have you seen this before with reflux babies? I also wondered if it was something I'm eating?

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it.

Lindsay

[Fiver]

If it helps any, my DD never did much more than 30 minute naps all through the day (and didn't always sleep that well at night either).

Yes, work on the naps, but your nights sound awesome!

[eva026]

We had a similar situation with DD sleeping till 5am, BF and then not being hungry for WU. To be honest we just muddled through till the phase passed. I figured as long as I wasn't feeding to sleep then it was ok.

[LASmith]

Great thanks guys - good to know. Yes definitely not feeding to sleep so fingers crossed we'll extend the naps and then get on track with the schedule.

Take care x

[Erin M]

Like the other ladies said, the inconsistencies are ok at this age -- they'll sort out as he gets older. 

Regarding the possibility of reflux, if it doesn't seem to bother him, it's ok -- some babies just spit up a lot and it's ok.  The thing about the nights is that sometimes discomfort will cause lots of shorter naps and then they just crash at night and do a good long stretch.  That being said, my dd1 was a short napper early on and would do long nights for the same reason. 

[LASmith]

That's interesting - I definitely get the impression he is crashing out at night!

We'll get him properly checked out then we can eliminate it or not... And then either treat or work put how best to get him some good sleep.

What did you do with your dd1's short naps?

Thanks
L

[Erin M]

What did you do with your dd1's short naps?

Muddled through the best we could!  She was a good stroller sleeper (ds was my good carseat sleeper!), so we'd always try to do one nap in the stroller or car seat each day so I knew I'd get a good long one in there.  I worked on increasing my A time slowly until she could handle more and take longer naps.   I did more extending with her (hold through the jolts worked great with her -- are you familiar?) though I never could extend naps with my ds.  Some of it is developmental and will get better with time. 

[LASmith]

Thanks Erin - sounds like you got it working so we will keep trying. He's definitely a car seat sleeper... That's the only place he will stay asleep for longer than 30 mins. It's just quite difficult to drive for 2 hours every day!

His A time is really only 1hr15 so I think we'll stick with that for now and see if we can get more sleep from him- would be great to extend it but I don't think he's ready just yet.

He's just had a bout of gastro and is now on the mend - been feeding really well every 3 hours today so all looking much better on the food side - naps still 30 mins though!

Thanks for all your help.

Take care,
L

[Erin M]

We did eventually get it in the end with all of them, and you will too.  Just takes a little time sometimes!

[eva026]

With us things just clicked at around 6mo. DD suddenly started to extend naps on her own and it wasn't sth I did or didn't do.

[LASmith]

Hi there,

Thought I'd update on the situation and I also have another follow up Q... He is now 4.5 months old and we're on c.3.5-4 hr feeding, 90 mins A and still 30 mins S.

I mentioned the early feedings before... He seems to be feeding at 4.30am at the mo, takes a big feed and then refuses to go back to sleep - he is tired cause he keeps falling asleep whilst feeding. So I burp him and go to put him down, so I feed him some more etc until he doesn't want any more... Then he lies in his cot, content for c10 mins and then screams the house down. He did this for 110 mins this morning - I went in to see if it was more food - no, settling, no. Eventually husband got him to sleep after nearly 2 hrs of being awake!

I think he'd like to start the day then... But is also tired. He slept for 90 mins when he eventually went to sleep. And the other day naps are 30 mins.

Was thinking about holding off from feeding him by 30 mins tmrw to see if that does anything?

Also - he is then not hungry until 9am and 4 hour feeding doesn't fit right between 4:30am and 6:30pm... Ie sometimes I have to feed him to avoid ruining bedtime but he's not hungry and then wants to feed later and we further mess up the day..

Hmm am a bit lost- the early mornings aren't getting later and it's having a knock on impact on rest of the day feedings.

Would appreciate any ideas, feel a bit clueless.

Thanks x

[Fiver]

I wonder whether this is more of a routine question now rather than a feeding one.  Do you think a post on the E.A.S.Y. Forum might be an idea to try to iron things out a bit?