Shush / Pat 5 month old

[renn486]

Hi Everyone,
Needing some help with my 5month old!
I just started to put her on the EASY routine. She used to take all her naps on me and they were short naps! but slept well in the crib at night.

I'm just at the end of Day 4.

She prefers the shush/ pat to help her get off to bed but I am unsure if its turning into a prop. Doing strictly PU/PD with no shushing or patting made her more upset.

Since starting EASY she has adapted quite well! it takes 10-20 min of shush/ pat and PU/PD mixed in.
However she is wakeing at the 30min mark for each nap / bedtime. It is pretty quick to resettle her after she wakes but just want to know if this is normal or am I doing something wrong?
Will this get better as the week goes on?
TIA!

[jessmum46]

Sounds like you are doing great!  30 min naps are often related to overtiredness, which is not unexpected whilst sleep training, but perhaps you could post the routine you are aiming for to help us advise you better?

[renn486]

Hi there!
Sorry I missed ur reply!

Little one now just turned 6 months old and is still having short naps
On a good day she will get to the 1hr mark but mostly it's 40min with quite a few wakings in the middle of the night
She has gotten pretty good at falling asleep in the crib which is such an improvement!
However she does sometimes need the pacifier and sometimes she doesn't. She can put the paci in on her own during the day but not at night

Her day looks:

630 awake + breastfeed
830 nap
915 awake + breastfeed(sometimes if I feed her right after she wakes she will sleep eat)
1030  solids
1115-1130 nap
12 awake + breastfeed
2 nap
245 awake + breastfeed
445/ 5 cat nap
530 awake
700 feed
730 bedtime

I realize she's eating more often than every 4hrs. I find she eats the best after a nap when she isn't so distracted. Totally open to doing every 4 hrs if she could just sleep longerstretches!
She's also up a few times at night sometimes just for her pacifier other times to eat. She feeds twice overnight.
Any help would be great!

[jessmum46]

At 6 months A time is often getting  bit closer to the 3h mark so I think you may have more success with naps (and probably better nights) if you slowly extend the A times, say 10 mins at a time, hold for 3 days then push again until naps start to lengthen.  She may not need 3h yet but I'd bet that she needs more than the 2h or so that she is having currently.  Feeding more often than 4h is fine though with a breastfed baby - many can't manage the long stretches between feeds until properly established on solids as well

[renn486]

Thanks!
I'll definitely try extending the awake times 😊 I hope it works!

[renn486]

When extending the awake time do i keep it at say 2 hrs and 15 min for 3 days regardless of how long she naps? I tried today and she did 1 nap that was 40min and second nap was 30? Thanks!

[jessmum46]

You try to aim for as close as you can, if she short naps you may need to reduce the next A time slightly to stop her becoming very OT but try not to go too short.  If it all goes wrong do your best to get through the day and try again with the longer A time the next day x

[renn486]

Thanks for the advice so far! Fingers crossed it continues but I've gotten to 2.5hrs awake time! And she naps 1.5 hrs on a good day! But over the past 3-4 days she's waking up super early!
She's up at 5am so she's taking her first nap at 730
How do I fix the early waking? TIA

[jessmum46]

I found heading for the 3-2 was a tough period of EWs for both of mine, but keeping on moving forward and stretching the A time should help.  Try as best you can to get through without a third nap, though with first nap so early that might be difficult.  You may need to gently push the first nap later regardless of wake-up as although A time isn't bad, it could still do with getting a bit longer I think and too early a nap will serve to encourage that EW to stick around x