Moving to a 4 hour routine - does this sound right?

[KellyC]

Hi

I've just read the section in the book on transition to a 4 hour routine and the sticky at the top of this forum - I can see why there's been some confusion as some of it doesn't quite tally!

I've been trying to work out a plan which I think will work for us and wondered if this sounded about right;

Step 1 - Increase first A time by 15 mins to 1.75 hrs and first E interval to 3.5 hours.  All other A times 1.5 hrs and E intervals 3 hours.  3 naps and 1 catnap.

Step 2 - Increase first A time by another 15 mins to 2 hrs and first E interval to 4 hours.  All other A times 1.5 hours and E intervals 3 hours.  3 naps, no catnap and early to bed.

Step 3 - Morning now ok.  Increase all other A times by 15 mins to 1.75 hrs and E intervals to 3.5 hours.  3 naps, no catnap and early to bed.

Step 4 - All A times 2 hours.  All E intervals 4 hours.  2 naps and a catnap.

I'm happy to be flexible with my LO.  As it stands we often feed in the middle of our A time to work around his naps.  Does this sound like a good plan?  Does anybody who's made the transition have any suggestions?

Many Thanks

Kelly x

[Deb_in_oz]

hi - it sounds like a reasonable plan and i suggest you give him tme to adjust to each transition. my only comment would be to keep an eye on how he reacts to the first A time stretching - some (not all) babies need their first A time to be shorter than the others so if he does not do well with extending it i woudl try another A time (maybe the last one and work backwards....)  If he does fine with first A moving to 2 hrs great, but my point is not to get discouraged if he gets overtired as many see the first a time as an extension of nighttime.  you can move on and try a different course HTH

[KellyC]

Thanks, that does help and I'll definitely bear it in mind!  I'm amazed at how quickly Zander has become capable of going 1.5 hours each activity time, even after a short nap.  Last week he was only doing 1.25 hours and the week before closer to 1 hour.  I can't keep up!!

Kelly x