Part way there, now transition to 4hr EASY?

[HeyHeyBK]

Hi,

I wrote a week or so ago about removing props and getting my LO (3.5 months old) sleeping in her cot - we have made progress and she is now settling in her cot and falling asleep on her on anywhere between 5mins and 20 mins after being put down. It's a miracle since we were starting from rock bottom (we modified the PU/PD - Sush/Pat as both seemed to overstimulate her, so did a mix of the two with the odd PU but mostly it was sushing with a hand on her).

She is on a loose EASY routine but at the moment the issue is that she wakes after 40 minutes of sleep and seems hysterical for food.  Her A time is about 2 hours - any earlier and we have a real struggle to get her down, her tired signs magically appear at the 2hr mark.

I wonder if with this routine of Eat/Activity being 2 hours and the sleep only being 40mins is should she be moving to the 4 hr EASY? (I read in the book that this transition normally starts around 4 months but can be earlier/later depending on the baby) I can't get her A any shorter and she's never had naps so the fact that she's napping at all is a BIG win in our household.  So I feel like I can't follow the "how to transition" from a 3 or 3.5 EASY since she's never fully been in an EASY due to the fact she'd never sleep...

I have tried to extend her naps (at times where her A has been shorter and she's woken from sleep and there is 30 minutes until her normal E time of 3 hours) but it ends up being really stressful for her (she's unresponsive to the soothing/modified PU/PD - sush/pat sleep process we do at the start of the nap), and I feel like she's so used to feeding every 3 hours that she has an expectation to feed after her 40 minute sleep (which magically coincides with 3 hours since her last feed).

I've been trying to push her feeding out by 5, 10 or 15 minutes but she's so focused on feeding, she screams (more than she did when we started removing props and getting her to sleep in her cot) until she gets offered the breast - and only then is world peace is restored...

My question is: does a 4 hour EASY sound right in this situation? and if so, does anyone have a suggestion of how to transition a baby with a 2hr Eat/Activity and a 40min nap to a 4hr EASY?

She's happy when she's been fed and she is happy in her A time, she's also sleeping through at night - waking between 6am and 7am after approx 10hrs sleep.

I'm still in love with the fact she's actually sleeping during the day and I am happy to transition when it's ready (i.e. if I need to continue what we are doing for a while to get her used to sleeping during the day and extending later once day sleeps and setting in the cot is fully established).

I'd really appreciate your input. Thanks!

[Jiinx]

hey hun,
 Sorry about the short naps. It is possible than a younger baby can transition to a 4 hour EASY. They can usually go easily to that transition when they can handle 2 hours of A time and last 4 hours between feeds.

You mentioned she screams for a feed...is she BF? Have you tried a pacifier to extend the feed? Does she take a lot of milk when you offer it to her? Does she wake at night?

Would you like to post your EASY for us to take a look at?
E - when she eats, how she acts before and after the feed;
A- how long she's been up for from eyes open to when placed in her crib; and
S- how long she napped for, when she woke, did you try to extend, what types of extension technique you used...

[HeyHeyBK]

Thanks for the reply.  She cries for a feed when she wakes, it's normally at the 3 hour mark and it's when she's waking from her short nap - she won't take a pacifier and I have tried to resettle her in her cot but had mixed success.

She sleeps pretty well at night - goes down anytime between 7 and 8pm and goes through till between 6am and 7am without a dream feed.

A sample EASY from for us from the week (note when I put Sleep, she takes between 5 and 20 minutes to settle into sleep), I've rounded the times to make it easier to see:

WEDS
6.00am: E/A
8.00am: S (17 mins to settle)
9.00am: E/A
11.00am: S (15 mins to settle)
11.40am: E/A
1.50pm: S (10 mins to settle)
2.30pm: E/A
4.30pm: S (5 mins to settle)
5.10pm: wakes, I try to resettle, change etc but no luck - so feed and do night routine of bath etc
8.00pm: S (30 mins to settle)

THURS
6.40am: Wakes (no night feed or waking after going down at

This particular day the evening routine was a little long (given her 2 hour activity period I try to ensure she's fed, bathed etc in that time and into bed...this is a massive improvement on the past when we struggled for 3+ hours to get her to sleep in the evenings and that was in our arms)

Her settling these days is mostly self settled - once she's in the cot, she finds her fingers to suck and with a few niggles will soothe herself to sleep with limited interaction from us - if she is upset we'll pick her up to soothe her and then place her back in her cot.

As far as what she does pre/post feed - pre-feed it's like she can't concentrate on anything else apart from eating. Afterwards she's all smiles and giggles.

When trying to extend her naps (I have only been trying to extend naps if she's under her normal 3 hour routine) I will be in the nursery, sushing her, sometimes hand on her (which I do when putting her to sleep if she's unsettled), occasionally I'll pick her up to soothe and place back into the cot.  Yesterday I managed to resettle her when she woke 30 mins prior to a feed - she was pretty grizzly for most of that but I managed to get her drifting into short sleeps (2-3mins in length) but she kept waking up (not so much via jolts but more eyes open and fingers back into mouth) and when we got to the 3 hour mark I picked her up when she was alert again for a feed.

Hope this makes sense? I'm worried this is too much info!

[Jiinx]

Hi there

She sleeps pretty well at night - goes down anytime between 7 and 8pm and goes through till between 6am and 7am without a dream feed.

That's excellent! Has she always been like this? I can always tell if something is up with my dd if she wakes at night, even if she settles herself. If she's not waking..then she's definitely getting a) enough to eat during the day; and b) her routine, while may be a little scrambled atm, is okay.
Some los..despite not getting enough day time naps can make it up at night.

She may simply not be ready for a 4 hour EASY...bfed babies sometimes take longer to make that transition.

You mentioned she takes time to settle - 15, 17 mins etc. Is she crying? Or just putting herself to sleep?

I'm actually not too concerned with her routine overall - bc she's doing really well at night. I'm just wondering about her naps and the day being very long overall (6am - 8pm). If she short naps, have you tried putting her down a bit earlier for her next A time so instead of a routine looking EAS it would look like EASASE ...

I don't think I answered your original question, but I think she's doing okay with a 3 hour EAS as she's not waking during the night for a feed (and that's the usually the biggest clue).

sarah