Combining EASY with Toddler

[Peapod12345]

Hi, I new to the forum although I used EASY with my now 3 year old little boy who is the most amazing sleeper. The routine worked so well for us that even though he was ebf, he slept 7-7 from about 12 weeks. Of course I'd like to recreate the same success with my newborn (4weeks), but it isn't so easy(!) with a toddler to fit around. Below is the schedule I'd like to try, but I can't work out how to make the evening work (on the schedule I'd be feeding at 6 and at 7. at the moment she feeds about every 3hrs, sometimes with some cluster feeding in the evening and is ebf. I don't really want to wait till 8 to put her down otherwise I have to eat my dinner whilst holding her each night (and she wants to go to sleep by this point anyway). Any advice/ tweaks before I start trying this routine in a more formal way. (I haven't put the Activity times on unless there is something specific I want to do)

E 7.00 - Change nappy, dress, 1st feed
S 8.30 - Car seat, nursery drop off at 9
E 10.00 - Change nappy, 2nd feed
S 11.30 - Crib
E 1.00 - Change nappy, 3rd feed
S 2.30 - Car seat, nursery pick up at 3
E 4.00 - Change nappy, 4th feed
S 5.00 - toddler dinner
E 6.00 - Change nappy, 5th feed
A 6.15 - naked time upstairs whilst bath runs
A 6.30 - bath, ready for bed
S 6.30 - Stories with toddler
E 7.00 - Change nappy, 6th feed - Toddler bedtime
S 7.30 - adults dinner
E 10.00 dream feed
Night feed between 2-4
 

[Lindsay27]

Welcome to your newest addition! It sounds like you are doing great so far!  You may find that at 4 weeks naps aren't super "set" as they are still very much in that sleepy newborn phase, and A times will be quite low until about 12 weeks when the true 3hr routine begins (1.5hrs awake/1.5hr nap).  I'm not sure what your situation is but we've always done bedtime simultaneously, my DH puts my DS down and I put the baby down, so that both are asleep at the same time (7/7:30ish) and then you could hopefully have our dinner in peace

[Peapod12345]

Thanks so much for your reply.

Yes, it's a 7/7.30 bedtime that I'm aiming for, I just can't work out the timing of the evening feeds to allow for this. I'm worried that if I feed at 6 and then 7 then she wont take a full feed before bed and will be difficult to settle. How do you think it's best to approach this? The schedule has been working really well so far today, hope it continues!

[Lindsay27]

Honestly, I have never cluster feed either of my LOs...mainly just because from 5pm-7pm is chaotic enough as it is with dinner, baths, etc., so if you are feeding at 4pm and LO is generally doing well with 3hr feeds, then I would just wait and not feed again until 7pm - which will hopefully ensure that she takes a good solid feed before bed.  Do you do a DF?  I didn't also didn't DF either of mine and they were perfectly fine to feed at 4pm, 7pm, and then the first NF.