just getting started - any advice appreciated!

[sarahmay]

Hi there

I've read Tracy's book and thought it was great so am really pleased to have found this website! My little boy is 9 weeks old and I'm just starting to try to get him on to easy. He tends to feed around every 3 hours during the day and can go for about 5 over night. I'm not entirely sure how EASY works though as i find that typically his activities don't fit into that order as he doesn't always sleep for enough time. So for example, I feed him (I'm breast feeding) at 8, then we have activities of burping, changing a bit of a play under his mobile, which seems to last about an hour or so before he's tired so then I'll put him down for a nap. However, he often wakes up after only 45 mins or so, which is then only a couple of hours since his last feed. In this case what should i do - try and feed him even though he's not necessarily hungry or try to make him go back to sleep? both of these options seem tricky to say the least!  He feeds really quickly which is probably why we get through the cycle so fast - 10 minutes is a pretty long feed for him but he's putting on weight well and seems to get all he needs in that time (i think my milk comes out very fast!).

Anyway, any tips or advice gratefully recieved.
Thanks
Sarah

[Shiv52]

Welcome!

At such a young age and when they are short napping it is totally ok for your EAS to be more like EAS AEAS EAS if that makes sense. So if he wakes early from a nap I would probably see can you extend it and if not get him up and just do some activities and then feed when it has been 3 hours since your last feed.   It may be that he will need to sleep pretty soon after that but so long as you rouse him and maybe do a nappy change and get him down slightly awake that is fine. 

If he is waking at a similar time into his naps you could try going in about 30 minutes in to his nap and when he starts to stir ssh him back to sleep and that can often help get a LO through that 45 minute mark.  Or do wake to sleep where you rouse him a little (only a very little!) and then resettle to sleep and that can help too.

HTH xx

[sarahmay]

thanks for the reassurance and the tips!  I've been writing down our activities over the past few days as Tracy suggested doing - can't really see much of a pattern as yes, but as you say, my little fella is still very young so I probably just need to wait a bit and see how things go.

Thanks

[Shiv52]

If he's lasting 3 hours in the day and 5 hours at night he is doing GREAT!!

[gyorgyi]

Hi!

I just wanted to share, that my DD (8weeks) was a short napper, she often woke up at 45 min.
But one day I was too tired around midday and I just finished cleaning and put my head on the pillow, when she was at that 45 min line. She opened her eyes and was totally awake, but I was so tired I decided to sh/pat her back to sleep.
It took around 10 min crying (I was about to give up) but she actually slept back and was sleeping another hour! 
Since that I don't let her to wake up, but we follow the routin and I sh/pat her back to sleep if I have to. She is in a better mood after and sleeps better at night, which is a surprise to me because I would think that if she doesn't sleep all day, she will at night. No, no, it's not like that :-)
I know it doesn't work for every baby, but it worth to try.

Good luck!

Gy

[sarahmay]

Thanks Gy. My LO is still waking after about 45 mins for most of his naps over the past couple of days but tomorrow I shall try your suggestion and perservere with some sh/patting to see if i can get him back to sleep again. I think because he looks so awake I've given up before! Feeling quite pleased now though as successfully got him off to sleep tonight in his moses basket with mimimal fuss so progress is definitely being made.

Sarah

[gyorgyi]

Hi Sarah!

I hope you'll have success tomorrow but if not, don't give up. It's important to stick to your guns.
I just wanted to say one more thing. When my DD wakes up after 45 min and I know that she should sleep more, I don't pick her up. I don't smile at her, but I sit somewhere where she can see me. Sometimes she just watching at me and her eyes are closing already.
During the night when she tries to wake up around 4 o'clock I just do the sh-ing from my bed, I don't even get up and she sleeps right back.
(But I do the sh-ing from day one and it took almost 6 weeks to start to "work" like this.)
The funny thing that I do the sh-ing now from reflex, last time my DH was waking up in the morning and I was half sleeping and I did sh-ing for him too :-)

Good luck!

Gy

[sarahmay]

A quick update - this morning I heard Sidney start squiggling around after his usual 40 mins or so of napping, so i quickly went up and after 5 mins of sh/patting, he was back asleep for over an hour and a half more! So, thanks for the reassurance as I'd never had tried that without hearing of your experiences (i'd assumed before that once he'd woken from a nap he'd had enough sleep!).

Thanks
Sarah

[gyorgyi]

 Well done Sarah!

[Shiv52]

Hurray!!!!  well done xx