Have tried EASY from day 1, still struggling week 8!

[Savedgracie]

So the MAIN trouble I have with maintaining the EASY routine for my 8 week old, is that I can't always get him down for his nap. 

First off: He sleeps great at night.  Going to bed with his bedtime routine around 10 pm.  He then sleeps 5-8 hours, getting up for a night feed, then wakes for his day around 7am.

His average awake time is 1 hour.  We watch for sleepy cues (yawning) then we bundle, rock and cuddle, then put him down drowsy/awake.  He always cries at this point, so I pat and shush.  Some days it works miracles.  Other days it doesn't work at all! Seriously, some days we are on a 3 hour EASY all day no problems, and then the next day he cries for 3-5 hours that day while trying to get him down for his naps.  He's always going down in his darkened room with white noise. (it's also where he sleeps so well at night!) So my question is:

What do you do when you've been pat/shushing for an hour and they don't go to sleep?  How long do you pat/shush? Sometimes it takes 5 minutes, sometimes it takes him an hour!  This is why I find it so hard, because I don't know what to do when he has one of his "bad days"

My second question:  If I'm only successfully getting him down once or twice a day, do I still wake him after two hours napping? I feel like then he's even more tired, when he'd probably sleep for 3 hours!

I'm getting to the point that I want to give up on this, but don't know what else to do!

[laurab0228]

I have made just started the EASY Routine too and I would also like to know about the questions you asked.

[jessmum46]

Hi there, I'm sorry you've not had any more replies yet.

Firstly, glad your nights are good . That does make quite a difference.  What you might want to do is start working to get BT back closer to 7pm ie aiming for a 12h day.  That can help with a lot of over tiredness and allows LO to start to consolidate their rest into a long stretch.  We did this by moving BT 15 mins earlier every couple of days.

Could you post a typical or recent day in EAS format?

Are you remembering to include time spent eating in A time?

I would set yourself a limit on the time you are going to spend trying for a nap before getting LO up for some A time.  When establishing a routine with slightly older LOs I think Tracy suggested 45 mins, but you may not want to try that long.  Whatever you decide, if the nap doesn't happen, get LO up, feed if it's due and then watch very closely for tired cues.  When you see them, try again for the nap.  At 8 weeks it's again up to you whether you want to try the cot again or whether you resort to APOP (accidental parenting on purpose ie rocking, stroller, sling etc) to prevent an OT meltdown.  Lots of mums do the first one or two naps in the cot, then the later afternoon ones by any means they can (also helps you get out).

Have you seen this link about average A times? Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!!

When you say you're only getting him down once or twice a day, do you mean that's all the naps he's having?  I think at that age I let DD sleep up to about 3h for one nap a day if she needed it so by all means if your instinct says let him sleep then do.  The main reason to wake babies is to ensure they take enough calories in by day (and also make sure the longest stretch of sleep happens at night) but as long as he isn't waking more at night to eat after a long nap then go with it.

Overall though, remember your LO is still very young, and while some will fall into an easy predictable pattern by this age, many don't until they are quite a bit older.  Make sure you enjoy your baby and don't spend your life in a dark room doing shh pat xx

[Thanh nguyen]

My 6w boy sleeps with white noise too. Have u tried white noise for day naps? Whenever I see the sleep cues, I put him down in his crib, turn on white noise, n let him sleep on his tummy. That's how my boy goes into sleep, though sleeping on tummy is not recommended, but mine wouldn't sleep any other ways. I just keep an eye on him to make sure he's fine, and safe enough.

[Thanh nguyen]

Btw, as i'm new to BW n this forum, could u pls kindly let me know what DD n Lo stands for? . Shame on me, but honestly,  such terms make me so confused .

[jessmum46]

This may help: Site Acronyms/Abbreviations - What they are, and what they mean.

[lauradj]

Have you seen any improvement?  Just to add on to what jessmum has said, sometimes a good nap can happen in the stroller/baby carrier, whatever device works for you.  My DS, went through a period of only taking 45min naps and that's quite typical for that age.  By 16 weeks it was starting to straighten out.  Have you watched Happiest Baby on the Block?  I'm a huge fan because it worked well for us and it sounds like it might do the trick for you as well.  It's similar to the Shh-Pat but was a better fit for my little man.