Help with EASY rountine.

[nursegeri]

Hi, I have a little girl Grace of whom is 3 months old and have been using the EASY routine for 5 days now and its gone reasonably well so far, just a few issues with afternoon naps and waking in the night that i would appreciate advice/help with tweaking!! This is pretty much an average day so far:

Wake 6:15 - 6:30.

E - 7am
A - getting washed and dressed, approx 15 mins on playmat.
S - 7:45am - 9:15am
Y -

E - 10am
A - Swing chair, or walk in pram, toddler group
S - 11am - 12:45/1pm
Y -

E - 1pm
A - Play mat, Cbeebies (she loves watching TV already!!!!),
S - Anytime from 2:15pm - 3pm (usually lasting 45 mins) Grace very unsettled before this nap, though today was out in pram and she fell to sleep at 3pm by herself for 30 mins quite happily)
Y -

E - 4pm
A - Play mat/TV/swing
S - Catnap approx 35-45 mins anytime between 4:45 and 5:15pm (usually not happy about going to sleep, but displays signs of tiredness)
Y -

E - 7pm
A - Bath and Bed
S - Asleep between 7:30 - 8pm
Y -

Dream feed at 10pm. Grace has been waking either 1am or 2pm for a feed. Then on average at about 5am for another feed. She normally wakes anything between 6:15am - 6:30am.

Thanks. geri x

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi,

Is she having any other wakings at night other than to feed? Does she go back to sleep easily after those feeds? Our routine looked similar to yours at that age, and Spencer had 2 night feeds until about 4 months old (plus the DF), and dropped to one feed at about 5 months, and finally dropped the DF by 6.5 months.  I'm wondering if the long 2nd nap is leaving her not quite as tired, I think (and my memory isn't what it used to be!!) we did three 1-1.5 h naps and a catnap (but then she was on the low end of sleep needs)

HTH
Heidi

[nursegeri]

Hi, at the moment normally when grace wakes for her first feed in the night at approx 2pm she does go back to sleep again, and normally back again after her 2nd feed at 4:30am (ish).

It may be of interest just to outline what Graces's sleep pattern was like before i started the EASY routine. As she has always up unitl the age of 11 weeks only woke 2 times in the night. Grace went to sleep at approx 8pm, no dreamfeed, woke at 2pm ish (always went back off to sleep with her dummy) and then woke at approx 4:30am for her 1 and only feed!!! it was amazing....especially as she has been breastfed and went approx 8 hours overnight between feeds. Can i add that she did seem to cluster feed more in the evening, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm (which obviously tanked her up for that long stretch overnight). She also cluster fed in the morning before her 1st nap!!! Graces naps in the day were very random (no routine) she always had the morning nap at approx 8am for 45 minutes or sometimes 1 hour, random times and lengths throughout the day and had a catnap between 5:30 - 6:30pm. B4 bed at 8pm.

Then it all started to go down hill - a combination of things happended all at once, growth spurt, 2nd lot of injections, developed her first cold and the weather was soooo warm!! Grace then started to wake every 2 hours or so overnight and fed every time. She seemed to want feeding every 2 hours in the day too!!! I was exausted and hence why i decided to give the EASY routine a go!!!!

So ye, compared to the rough 2 weeks we had with her the EASY routine has helped (significantly throughout the day) and moderately throughout the night, but no way near what she was like overnight before!!)

Thoughts and advice appreciated.

Geri x

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

You know, I've done a DF with both of my kids with alot of success, but I've read of some babies that it just upsets their nights sleep, could she maybe be one of those?   Growth spurts sure are no fun, especially when you add in all the other stuff happening at once! Are her naps getting better on EASY?

Heidi

[nursegeri]

Hi, been on 3 hour EASY rountine now for a week and there is progress - work still needed but hope to be getting somewhere!!! Grace has woke just 2 times for the past 2 nights!! She has always managed 2 naps in the morning and a short 45 minute nap in the afternoon at around 2:30-3pm. The past 2 days she hasnt wanted her catnap and has managed to stay awake for 4 hours before bedtime!! though she has been a bit cranky near to her bedtime, but this hasnt stopped her enjoying her bath!! In the morning she can bearly stay awake for more than 1.5 hours!! So she has approx only been getting at the max 4 hours of nap time over last 2 days and the past 2 nights have been a little better!!! I have continued to give her a dreamfeed at 10pm and she has woke between 1:30-2pm for first feed and 4:30-5am for second feed - gone straight back to sleep on both accounts!! Always seem to be ahead of the rountine though and therefore she tends to need an activity time when she wakes before her feeds!! oh i have also been cluster feeding her at 3pm 5pm and last feed at 7pm.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yay for the progress! Sounds great, when she's ready I'm sure she'll naturally start to drop the night feeds. On those days we couldn't get a catnap we would try and get her in bed a bit early, but for some odd reason that was her best time of day, we always planned outings for supper time then!

Hope things continue going well,
Heidi

[ryates71]

Hi Geri,

Sounds like you are doing really well! 

You could try moving the DF forward or backward by half an hour to see if this makes any difference.  We did this recently and maonaged to drop the night feed altogether.  Also DH does the DF (previously EBM but now formula as I had mastitis again) and we have gradually upped the amount, so I knew he wasn't hungry when he woke so have probably tried harder at settling him.

Rachel