When do I stop waking her up for E?

[gracewalk]

We started EASY with little 7mo Grace on Saturday.  I read the book and Tracy clearly says that she doesn't normally recommend going by the clock, but that you should be quite regimented for the training in period.  I always have to wake Grace up for the scheduled eating time.  At what point to I let her sleep it out and go with her rhythm??

We are doing:
7am wake and nurse
8:30 solids
9am nap
11am wake and nurse
12:30 solids
1pm nap
3pm wake and nurse
4:45 solids
5pm cat nap
6:30 bath
7:00 head for bed
by 8 she is usually asleep - last night was awake from 9:30-11:00 - then I gave her a dream feed and she went back to sleep.   She is getting easier to put to sleep, but did take 1.25 hours for yesterday's morning nap too...

Looking forward to seeing what her new rhythm will be like, but I'm afraid if I let her sleep until 9am or so, we may be back into her old routine of not getting to bed until 11 or 12 at night.

Jennifer & Grace

[Missy Lou]

I think she can go longer than 2 hours of A time at 7 months.  if she gets a lot of day time sleep then she won't be tired at night and decide it's a great time to play.  also, if it's taking that long to put her down, then it could be because she's not tired yet. 

i think average A time at 7 months is about 2.75 hours. 

[Layla]

Agree. She could be ready to give up her catnap, so you might try & extend her morning A time to about 2.5hrs (usually the shortest A time) and afternoon A time & drop the catnap. Bump up the bedtime though for a little while until she is used to the new A times... so instead of 7pm, maybe 6.30-6.45pm.

[gracewalk]

Just had another 9pm wakening that lasted until the dream feed - she was having a grand time - chatting to me in the little snippets that I usually imitate back....  I think I'll try what you're suggesting.  She is usually pretty tired in the morning for that morning nap, but I'll see what I can do.  My Dh and I have been saying maybe it's that cat nap, but dropping it would mean having her up from 3 until 7... so what you suggest makes sense.
Btw, she is actually just shy of 7 months - not sure if that makes a difference... but thanks for looking closely and seeing what might help.  much appreciated.

[Layla]

Some babies can comfortably do 2hrs so if you don't think she will be good to stretch any more, let her have 2hrs in the morning (considering she is sleeping so well for her morning nap) & do something like this:

7am - wake
9am - morning nap
11am - nap ends
1.30 - afternoon nap
3.30 - afternoon nap ends
6.30ish - bedtime

[Missy Lou]

when my LO dropped the catnap, she had a pretty early bedtime for a while until she could stay up for longer periods.  i believe her routine was similar to the one in the pp but her bedtime was like 5:30 because she couldn't make it any longer than 3 hours. 

that happened again when we transitioned to one nap - early bedtime and waking up to play after having already gone to bed for the night.  actually isabella & jasmine's mum also helped mewith that problem.

[gracewalk]

Do you mean that she went down at 5:30 and stayed down until 7 the next morning??

I screwed up today.  Grace woke up at 6:30, and I rushed down and nursed her, then thought... damn - shoudl have done pu/pd.... then she was REALLY tired slept from about 8:15 to 11:00.... maybe I should have woken her up after 2 hours, but then our day would have REALLY been shifted to an early routine... she had a 2 hour nap again at 1.... so we thought we'd try to just put her to bed at 7, since she had had so much sleep... she went down easily, but woke up wired at 7:30 - let her get up, then when she was tired again (9:00) I went and did pu/pd for over an hour until her dream feed (again).

My husband and I decided to give this a good shot for 3 more days.  I'm not sure I can stay home and obsess about this much longer!  I really wish I didn't goof today.

Anyway, I am curious about what happens for the rest of the night when you have an early bed time!

[Layla]

Don't be afraid of the early bedtime. Jasmine for the last 3 days has been going to bed for the night at 5.30pm (cause she's she's going through the 2-1 transition & her naps were like rubbish) & she slept till her usual 6.30ish in the morning.

Are you saying she woke at 6.30 for the morning? I always have a rule of thumb that if mine wake up anywhere from 6 onwards, I am happy to start the day then & shift the day if I have to.... You should be able to add A times here & there & usually they go to bed about the same time anyway.

See if she wakes 30mins into her nightsleep, I would have tried to settle her in the cot. I think 9pm is too late  .

[gracewalk]

Well, evenings used to be a really active time for her, so my Dh and I wondered if she was maybe just a night hawk...  we had been pu/pd-ing her between 9 and 10 or 11 for a couple of days, but before we started EASY on Saturday, she was always "on fire" at that time, so last night we thought we'd let her get up and see how the evening ran its course.  I do think that I should stick it out though, and take your advice.  She just went down without a whimper for her morning nap.  I can't quite get 2 hours of A time from her yet in the morning (7:15-9:00 today and she was really rubbing her eyes as I put her down)

One other thing... when we started this on Saturday, she usually cried as she was being lain in the crib, or very shortly afterward, and I ended up needing to stay there until she was in a deep sleep.  If the chair creaked as I got up, or my knee cracked.... she woudl jolt back awake.  NOW I have become a prop, I think, sitting right beside her as she drifts off.  i read in the sleep interview with Tracy that I should be trying to leave once she's settled, but at the moment, I'm sure she'll cry more.  One time I tried to just sit a little further away and she cried.  When we've made SO many changes to Grace's world lately, I'm not sure I want to add the quick escape to our routine just yet.  Any advice?  Are you able to leave now right after you put your LOs down?

[Layla]

Well I am able to leave right away but I think thats because I've always been conscious of how much I stay with her. With Isabella we were done with sleep training at around 3 months & with Jasmine at 4ish months & any set backs, I have always helped them out with but I never stayed with them until they are asleep.....

Don't stretch her too much in the morning at a time. 15mins every 3-4 days & if you see she is getting overtired, take a step back and go back to her old A time. THe morning A time is usually the shortest so if she can only manage 2hrs for now, let her be.

Take it one step at a time.

[Missy Lou]

my LO did the same thing with early bedtimes - slept about 13 hours at night.  with the less sleep during the day, they catch up at night. 

what's been going on?

[gracewalk]

Well, things have been moving along - she slept right through for 12-13 hours the last two nights!!
BUT she still really resists going down about 1/2 the time. Sometimes she goes down without a whimper, and other times she really gets a full scream going...  I really hope that eventually she will enjoy bed time

I do really like to get outside at least once a day .  I live in the arctic and the weather is only marginably hospitable outside for maybe 7-10 weeks of the year, so we really have to take advantage - we also don't have a vehicle and it's a 20 minute walk to the store / post office.  I did stay in for over a week, but I need to get into a more realistic daily rhythm for our lifestyle too so for the last 2 or 3 days I have been out in the afternoons running errands, attending community events etc.  And soon it will be fishing season...  All that is to say that she also ends up doing some sleeping in the stroller/carrier and we aren't exactly able to follow the EASY to a T, but despite that, she has had her best two nights yet - possibly because her naps are interrupted in the day.  I try to make sure she has at least one solid nap, and the other one might be in bits and snatches in the stroller.

Thanks alot for your help.  I think we'll start moving away from the by-the-clock approach, and say that our "training period" is over - we've made huge gains - no more soother, sleeping through the night.  We'll be travelling on and off between late July and mid October, including one trip overseas (to Glasgow to see my Gran), so we may well need another training period later, but I'm pleased with how far we've come.

All my best,
Jennifer Wakegijig

[Missy Lou]

awesome. 

have fun outside while you can.

be safe on your trips and have fun.

check back with us, especially if we can help.
melissa