Unsure about 4 hr easy

[Jue H]

My 14 week old has sucessfully been on the 3hr EASY for the last 10 weeks, but has recently needed to increase his feeds and also has been waking too early from his naps. I tried to shh/pat him but only to end up in a complete meltdown. So i tried him on the 4hr easy which worked for a couple of days. He lasted 4hr inbetween feeds, 1+half hours of A and 2hr naps. But now he's waking up again after only 30-40 mininute clearly still tired and miserable and refuses to go back to sleep. I always make sure he winds down before i put him down so he is'nt overstimulated so that can't be the reason. He's slept through the night since he was 8 weeks old and could put him down at night and leave him to drift off by himself. But tonight for the first time, i had to sh/pat him for 20mins so now i'm worried he's got into a bad habit of making a fuss. I know i'm lucky that he sleeps through, but the days have become really difficult because it affects the whole day. PLEASE could someone give me some advice as i'm scared it will end in accidental parenting and cause even more problems.     

 He's a textbook/spirited baby.

[akvareli]

Dear Jue H, perhaps I am no expert in BW since my dd also has "periods of riot". Once in a while she starts waking early from her naps for a couple of days or in the middle of the night but i try to sh/pat her and just go through this period. To be honest, the third month was the most difficult for me in terms of keeping up with EASY but once we settled our 4 h routine it got better with each day. Just be consistent and eventually it will work out fine!
just a couple of suggestions - have you changed anything in your routine that could have caused change? new people in the house (MIL visiting:)?) new toys, activities?
has he been waking up in the night as well?
has he slept well during the day before?
in her "BW solves your problems" book Tracy mentions that the third month is the time when any inconsistency in baby's sleeping habits comes out. But it is all manageable!!! just try calming your baby down. At that age it happened quite often that my dd would wake up 30-40 minutes after going to sleep and i'd pat/sh her for the next 1,5 hours. super exhausting. to go through the tough times we had, i wrote "translation from babylanguage: crying hard - please help me learn to cope with it", printed out and hung by the DD crib. helped me to keep the perspective I am not sure whether i did everything right. But by the forth month it all worked out fine and now she sleep very well with only very rare an minor surprises.
you could also post your routine here so we could come up with more suggestions

please do not worry about his making a fuss becoming a habit. I am pretty sure he does not exactly enjoy it as well!

Hugs for you and all my support in this hard time

[marensmama]

Hi!  It sounds as though your LO is OT, hence the difficulty settling tonight.  Don't worry about AP, you're doing a great job.  If you could post your routine we could take a look.  One thought without knowing anything is that perhaps the 4 hr EASY was too much too fast, making him OT after a few days.  You could try 3.5 hr EASY and see how that goes.  Also, with the short naps, you do know that you need to decrease his A time that cycle to make up for it?

HTH!

[Jue H]

Thank you for your quick responses. Its good to know there are people out there who want to help, as i think my husband thinks i'm obssessing about it. But he does'nt see any of it as he is at work all day. Anyway heres my lo's routine:-

7.30 - 1st feed (7oz)
8.00 - Activity - wash, dress and kicky time on activity mat - 10min wind down
9.30 - Sleep - on a good day 1.5-2hrs but mainly 30-40mins
11.30 - 2nd feed (7oz)
Noon - Activity
1.30 - Sleep (same as 1st sleep)
3.30 - 3rd feed (7oz)
4.00 - Activity
5.30 - Sleep (if he's had bad naps earlier we normally have a meltdown now)
7.00 - 7.15 - Activity - bath time
7.30 - Last feed (7oz)
8.00 - Bed

I hope this can shed some light on the situation.

Thanks 

[akvareli]

Sound like you do need to get back to 3,5 h EASY (remember A time is all the time your baby spends not sleeping, including E time and winddown), you could look up the examples of routines at the EASY FAQ board. I was able to move to 4 h when my dd was exactly 4 months and it started to work smoothly some ten days later. when she was your son's age her schedule looked like this:
E - 6
A - 6.20
S - 7.30 (before that some 10 minutes winddown, preceded by 10 minutes quiet play)

E - 9.30
A - 9.50
S - 11

E - 13.00
A - 13.20
S - 14.30

E - 16.30
A - 16.50
S - 17.45

E - 18. 20
A - 18.40 (bath time)
S - 19.00

DF - 23 00

it's a tough time but you'll get over it!
good luck and let us know how you are doing!

[marensmama]

I agree.  Try the 3.5 hr EASY and don't forget to shorten A time if he has a short nap to help him catch up on his sleep.  Keep us posted on your progress!

[Jue H]

I'm having a complete nightmare. I tried my lo on 3.5 EASY like you suggested, but now he's only napping about 50-55 mins. I try shh/pat but that won't get him back off. Then about 10 mins later he'll start to scream the house down with exaustion. He's 15 weeks tomorrow, when do you recommend i start him with the 4 hr EASY? I feel like the whole of my days are spent obssessing about his naps and trying to get him back to sleep. 

[marensmama]

Hmmm... well if neither the 3.5 hr or 4 hr EASY 'works' and you're just getting stressed about it all, the only thing I can suggest is to step back from it all for a few days.  Instead of working out in your mind what happens and when, just observe your baby and go by his cues.  Log what happens, how the routine looks, length of naps, etc.  Once we let go of the 'schedule' mentality, and just roll with it, it is much less stressful.  Often times, they're telling us what they need, we just need to observe them to tune in to what they are saying.  BWing is all about going with what works for your baby, so maybe he's somewhere in between. 

How are the nights going?   Does he have any props?  Also, if he is somewhat spirited, you need to make sure his room is very dark, some babes like a long wind-down, my DD2 likes next to nothing, she can't even tolerate one lullaby before I put her down... it's turn the blinds, swaddle and put her down.  You can experiment with those things and see what works.

Sorry I can't be of more help.  I really think just rolling with it for a few days will bring to light what he needs.  Remember, this is the time from 3-6 months where babies sort out their day sleep, so it is a work in progress.