Please Help...Need your feedback and advice!

[Nicmail]

Hi Everyone,

First of all, I want to thank all of you who have shared your advice and knowledge so far and made this forum what it is. I am new to the site so please let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

Here's the issue. I just started Samuel (9 weeks) on the EASY schedule 2 days ago. During the day he has been right on schedule without and problems - almost too good to be true. It's at night when the whole thing falls apart and I am desperate for some advice.

Up until 2 days ago, I was making the typical new mom mistake of using feeding time to put him to sleep. His evening routine was to bath between 5 and 6pm, then stay awake through his feeds at 7pm and 10pm at which time he'd go down for the night. Needless to say we didn't get any time for ourselves in the evening. For weeks he's been waking up between 1 and 2 am then again between 4 and 5am sometimes not going back to sleep.

The past couple of nights went like this:
E 4pm (almost 4oz)
A until 5:30
S until 6:15
E 6:20 (almost 4 oz)
A bath
E 7:45 (3 1/2 oz)
A lullabies for 10 mins
S 8pm . . . And this is where the problem starts. . .

He cried, and cried, and cried. I tried shh/pat, and tried his binky off and on. I'd stay with him for a few minutes then leave in hopes he'd settle and then return again after 5-10 minutes and repeat. At times he'd scream and at other times he'd just fuss and complain but it ended up escalating until I finally gave in and tried to pick him up, console him, and put him back down. That didn't work either because he was so worked up by then, so I gave up and fed him at 9:30pm. (He had almost a full 4oz at 7:45 so he hadn't been crying due to hunger, his nappy was dry, and he didn't have gas). He fell asleep during his 9:45 bottle so I changed his diaper to wake him a little then sang a lullaby again and put him down - He was asleep in seconds. Is this simply because he's used to going to bed later? 
 
He then woke up at 2am (just like clockwork) and I tried the shh/pat then binky but only managed to get him to doze for about 5 minutes at a time. By 3am we were still awake and he was escalating so I gave in and fed him (he took 3 1/2oz) in hopes he'd sleep through til morning. No such luck. The whole thing started again at 5:15 and I ended up feeding him around 5:30. Regardless of my sleep deprivation, I got up this morning at 7:30 to keep him on schedule but now that's falling apart.

My questions are: What am I doing wrong and how do I properly try to stop this 2am and 5am wake up cycle? I don't want to do anything to make things worse and letting him cry just seems to be making him overtired and waaaaaay more resistant to sleep. This morning he is refusing to take his morning nap so I'm getting really frustrated and don't know if I should now keep him awake until the next feed (due in 45mins) or throw the whole schedule off. I'm not expecting miracles overnight, but need to know if I'm on the right track or not.

Sorry for the long post but I didn't know how to condense it to give you the Reader's Digest version 

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on this problem,
Nicole

[momofclaire]

Sometimes getting into the EASY routine isn't so easy   At 9 weeks he may still need to eat at night.  Actually I think most babies do.  Mine was only sleeping one 5 hour stretch at 9 weeks.  What does your day sch look like?  If it is a good easy sch for you then it may just take a little time for him to get into the swing of the new sch.  It may not seem like it but I think you are probably on the right track.  If he is sensitive to the sudden sch change at night maybe move his bedtime earlier by 15 min each night until you get to 8:00pm.  Once you get him going down when you want you can   give a df at 10 or so and that should help you and him get more sleep.

[*Mona*]

hi Nicola and welcome

first of all- you're not doing anything wrong! on the contrary, you're doing a great job trying to put your baby on a good routine which will eventually lead him to good nights and earlier bedtime.

but just like PP has just stated here, it does take some time for babies to get used to new routines so hang in there and be patient. at 9 weeks my dd was going to bed at around 8:30 and still nursing twice at night, no DF. so don't worry, nursing/eating at night is perfectly normal for such a young age.

It seems you're doing cluster feeding [6:30, 7:45 pm] which is good but once he's more used to earlier bedtime I'd try introducing dream feed at 10 or 10:30pm which could help him actually sleep longer stretch at night and drop that 2am feed which sounds a bit habitual as you say it's 2am 'just like clockwork'.

try not to get frustrated [it's hard, I know] if shush/pat doesn't work at first. it does take time to settle in too.

HTH and please let us know how you're doing.

Monika