3-3 1/2 EASY??

[maisie68]

Having read the 'time to transition' thread it seems that our son who is 14 weeks is ready to go to 3 1/2 hours between feeds. The dilema however is that he already is waking sometimes nearly an hour before his 3 hourly feed. I'm trying to hang him out by changing nappy & playing but then he gets grizzly. He's doing all the things that warrants transition though ie, sleeping less each nap time & taking less of his formula than he used to as well as waking at different times in the night. Where do I start please?!!!!!

[* Paula *]

I would start the transition first thing in the morning, and keep your lo up the extra A time after his first feed to ensure that he sleeps longer.

It may take a few days for your lo to adjust, so would not worry if things don't get better right from the word go.

HTH's
Paula

[maisie68]

Thanks Paula. As usual he woke after only an hour, (fed @ 7am, to bed @ 8am) at 9am, & there's no chance of getting him back to sleep again so I changed him & played for an hour (which took me to his next feed time of 10am) by which time he was really grizzly & tired so I put him back to bed. It seems the wrong thing to do but if he's tired he gets progressivley worse if he doesn't get his sleep. Im hoping he'll sleep for 30 mins or so which will take him to 10.30 & a 3 1/2 hour feed. Fingers crossed!!!!

[* Paula *]

Good luck.

How did the rest of today go?

[edjo]

Hi Paula,
I too have a ? re transition, waking before E time.
My LO has woken up now at 12:15pm, she was last fed at 9:45am (but was awake at 9:15) and went to bed at 10:45, has been asleep for 1hr 15, she is not due to be fed until 12:45 (on 3 hr or if I push her to 3.5 hours 13:15) - I count this 30/60 mins before E as part of her A time, so at the moment I am doing a 1hr 45 min A time slowly getting to 2 hours so will put her down at 13:45 for her next sleep - does this seem right to you?  I noticed that in your reply to Maisie you say "keep your lo up the extra A time after his first feed to ensure that he sleeps longer."  Is my ? making any sense, sorry if its not!!I guess what I am asking is, if your LO is awake before the E and has had a good nap, do you count this b4 time as part of the overall A time!  Gee, I'm glad I know what I mean   

[* Paula *]

Hi,

Yes, I understand what you are saying.

I would count the time that she wakes up before a feed as A time as well, as you do not want your lo to get over tired.

At 5 months of age you should be aiming to have your lo on a 4 hour EASY.  Is she bottle or breast fed?

Can you post your routine, with E - how much or how long, A- how long, S - how long and including your windown routine.

This way we can have a look and help you transition over onto a longer EASY.

Short naps are definitely a sign that she needs to transistion as she is not tired enough to acutally sleep longer.

Paula

[maisie68]

Hi Paula

The rest of his day wasn't too bad ta.

Yesterday however was different again. He seems to want to feed 4 hourly but sleep as a 3 hourly if that makes sense. Here's what happened:

7.15  E (woke 6.45)
        A
8.25  S
11.15 E (woke 10.50, 2 hour 20 nap)
        A
12.25 S
13.45 (woke 13.10, took 3oz water, only 45 min nap)
15.15 E
        A
16.25 S
18.15 E (woke 17.10)
        A Bath 19.00
19.30 S (3 1/2 hr sleep)
23.00 E

He didn't feed until 7 this morning (waking at 6.30) although he woke at 2.30am & 5am but put himself back to sleep.

We're on track today for the same times as yet. Just wondering if he'll want feeding again @ 18.15. We'll see! I'm trying not to worry too much that he seems to be sleeping more than the book says because I think he may be mid transition & is in that 3 1/2 month stage where a lot of development seems to be taking place. Am I ok in thinking this?
Thanks.

[* Paula *]

I would say that as long as his naps are not interferring with his night time sleep, then it is fine.  The minute to start seeing a few night wakings, then you know you will need to cut down a bit on the naps.

I agree I do think that he is mid transition.

Keep us posted on how you get on.

[HeatherC]

Can I jump in with a question about the 3.5 hr EASY?

Is everyone else ending up with a larger amount of time between the last bottle and bedtime?  Used to be that ds (on 3 hr EASY) would have his last bottle at 7 pm, then bed at 7:30.  Now, he's having his last bottle about 6:15 pm.  He's barely making it to 7:30 for bedtime b/c his naps are ending a bit earlier than the catnap used to end.  Am I making sense?  Here's our before and after:
E  7:30  (formula fed)
S  8:30 (45 min napper from 4 weeks to 11 weeks)
E  10:30
S  usually about 11, depending on whether or not I was able to resettle him for a longer nap)
And so on until a catnap about 5:30-6:15 pm, E at 7, bed at 7:30

Now, he's doing something close to this for about 4-5 days because he finally started taking longer naps:
E  7:30
S  8:50/9:00-about 11
E  11-11:30 (sometimes he can make it till 11:30)
S  12:45/1-about 3
E  3ish maybe a few minutes past 
S  trying for 4:30-5:30/6, but has been inconsistent since changing
E  he wants to eat right at 6, he's always been more hungry in the evenings.  I try to hold him off, but the longest he'll go before going nuts is 6:15.  So, there's quite a large gap between this feeding and bedtime, but there's not time for another feeding.  I'm not making him wait to follow the clock, but either way, those first 2 longer stretches of the day make it hard to give anything but 4 bottles.  I'd rather him eat closer to 6:30 at night so he doesn't go to bed so long after eating, but he won't wait.  Is all of this right?  We still do a df at 10/10:30, and he's getting the same oz per day as he was before b/c I upped each of the bottles by an oz.  He's still sleeping the same at night as he was.  So I guess there's no problem really, but just wondered if I could be doing something better or different.
TIA!!!!!

[edjo]

Hi Paula,

Thanks for your reply. Here is our routine, this was yesterday, every day is pretty much the same but sometimes she swaps her naps around like 1 hr first nap 1.75 2nd or other way round.

Woke up at 5:50am but went back to sleep then awake at 6:45
E 7 ( 220ml )
A 7:15 (she guzzles her bottle!)
S 8:25 - 10am (1.5 hours)
E 10:20 (190ml)
A 10:40
S 11:35 - 1:15pm (1.75 hours)
E 1:30pm ( 200ml )
A 1:50pm
S 3:10 - 4pm (50 mins)
E 4:30pm (220ml)
A 4:45 (grizzly due to short nap I imagine)
CN 5:15 - 6:15pm (usually catnaps for 50 mins)
E 6:30pm
A 6:45pm (bath - this is our bedtime rountine, then story)
S 7:15pm - this is later than usual

When she is up early at 6 and fed at 6:30am she is in bed by 6:30pm - I adjust the bedtime according to when she wakes up.

I know she can hold out 3.5 hours for her feed in the morning but that 3rd feed she is pretty hungry by 3 hours. After about 1 hour 45 mins of being awake she really slows down, starts coughing (her little way of saying I am tired!) and pulls her ears.  I dont want to miss her sleep window by keeping her up that extra 15 minutes.  Our wind down routine is pretty basic, I will sit her on my knee, read a story from a book and sing her a lullaby and walk her up the stairs.  She's always been a great sleeper and puts herself to sleep and hardly ever cries, even when she is hungry.
I have read the transition stuff but still dont know how to move forward and not have a meltdown on my hands.  We're going to visit family for 3 weeks next week and I am already begining to stress about being out of our routine and away from home but Eva is pretty placid and portable.
Your help on getting her awake longer and between feeds would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much
Jo

[* Paula *]

Sounds like she is doing great on the routine that she is on - and she seems like a really great napper.

With regards to increasing her A time, the best thing would be to start with 5 minutes every few days.  Especially if you say that she is quite sensitive, and you don't want her to get too over tired.  You can start with the 5 minutes every A time and leave it that way for 2-3 days and then add an extra 5 minutes and see how she does.

When she is able to make it longer between feeds you can always add an extra oz to each bottle to ensure that she has enough to tide her over. 

Heather - sorry for the delay in replying.  With regards to the long stretch between his last bottle and bed time, you could always do a bit of a cluster feed and offer him a bottle at 5:30 after he wakes from his cat nap, and then again before bed time at 7:30.  Hope this helps.

Paula