4 mo LO seems kind of ok with 40min naps - how to adapt EASY?

[newtoBW]

hi there......we did BW with our 3yo and it worked really well (although the week of PUPD was painful to say the least!! haha). Now he we are with 4mo DS#2. Since about 2wks old, he has had short naps. However, for the most part, he is happy when he wakes up and doesnt seem tired still, so I'm wondering if this is just our lot in life right now and he just doesn't need longer ones. The problem we are having though is that he has been stuck in a 2-2.5 hr EASY since then.

Currently his A time is about 1h15 and with these short naps, he doesnt seem to be able to push it any longer than that.  He is taking about 5 of these short naps a day!!! Down for the night at around 630-7pm and wakings overnight are erratic. Often he will wake to eat at 1 and 4am and then up for the day b/n 6-7am. Sometimes he only wakes once at around 3am. Sometimes he wakes before midnight.....we have tried DF but it only seems to stimulate him and he wakes an hour later, which was sooner than if we hadnt done the DF. (Same DF problem with DS#1).

Basically he is usually quite happy when he wakes and so I'm not sure how to break out of our 2hr EASY. We started PUPD today to wean the soother and swaddle and he is responding pretty well. Tried to extend one nap and did PUPD for 30 min with no success.

Where do we go from here in terms of his short naps and EASY? Keep trying to extend naps with PUPD? it seems kind of cruel, since i'm not sure he really needs longer naps!

Any advice would be great.....thanks!!!

[michaeljacknnugg]

My guy was a short napper also, and pretty happy with it. We ended up on EAEAS as he was happy to do a long A time - not sure your DS is at this point though?

Have you tried inching out his A time to see if it will help? Often babies can look tired at the time they would habitually sleep, but can go a touch longer if handled sensitively to avoid OT.

[newtoBW]

Thanks for the reply back!
DS doesnt seem too happy to be up more than 1h30 but we can try to increase that slowly over the next few days. He gives off some very obvious tired cues (yawning, head-burrowing and rubbing eyes), so I'm not sure I want to keep him up too much beyond that, or do i??? I kind of wish we could just have a bit more of a normal schedule!! I am hoping that perhaps over time he will just settle into some longer naps!
PUPD has gone frightfully well today (we had a very rough start to it with DS#1, but this has been somewhat a breeze today!), we are gearing up for a possibly-bad night though. DS#1 has had a fever all day boooooo.
Re. your EAEAS......is that something that will last indefinitely? What was your experience? Just curious.
Do I just really need to follow his cues and not the clock at all then? I just find it hard to know, esp as the day goes on, how long his A time should be, if his naps have been horrible all day long.
Thanks again......wish us luck overnight!!

[michaeljacknnugg]

I always went with cues, with the clock as a guide. And we weren't on short naps forever! I think around six months we were on 3 naps, then down to two some time soon after. It was complicated by his 5am starts!

How did the night go?

[newtoBW]

Well we made it through the night haha. DS#1's fever broke at around bedtime and he perked up a bit but we had him sleeping in the basement as DS#2 is LOUD LOUD LOUD. DH was sleeping in the bedroom in the middle floor and i was upstairs with DS#2. DS2 settled well for bedtime at 730, but needed 15min PUPD at 830, then i fed him on waking at 1215 and needed 20 min PUPD, then fed again at 245 and needed about 15 min PUPD and then he woke for the day at 620. All in all, not a bad night. I'm really looking forward to when (hopefully!) DS finds his hands better for more significant self-soothing. We are trying!

Wondering also: would SAS ever be appropriate? Should I be trying to keep his feeds at 3h or so? Bc if I do, at some point mid-afternoon maybe, bc of his very short naps throughout the day, there will be a SAS if I space out his feeds more, but I really dont think he'd settle well for a nap if he is halfway hungry, you know what i mean? i do feel like i am feeding him way too much right now for his age, but not sure how to break out of that.

Also overnight, he is still eating and i am ok with feeding him twice overnight (since DF hasnt worked) but hoping that once he finds his hands, he will self-soothe through one of those feeds instead. What do you think of that idea?

[michaeljacknnugg]

I was pondering earlier today and trying to remember what we did - it's been a while as my guy is nearly 5!

I think I pretty much scheduled feeds according to his age and followed cues for sleep. So most of the time he would end up eating halfway through his activity time - would that work for you?

I found that also as I spaced feeds over the day he took more - and I think this helped with dropping night feeds.

[newtoBW]

so we have been hitting A times of closer to 1h30 throughout the day, and aside from his last (5th!!!!) nap of the day just now, he settled well with less than 5 min PUPD. This last one was a bit more off and on, but still only needed less than 10 min PUPD. Do you think that longer A times gradually might lengthen his naps? Will keep working at that. Am also trying to hold off on feeding him til 20 min or so after he wakes up (usually eats right away), as i find that helps to stretch out his A time better.

we shall see how the next few days go. thanks for the help for the time being!

oh ps - do you agree that PUPD to extend naps in this case just seems a little too much? DH and I both feel that its borderline mean cuz he doesnt really seem tired or cranky for the most part!

[michaeljacknnugg]

I'd think that yes, longer A times would definitely help, unless he gets very OT in the process. I'm not an EASY expert so helped there are some more experienced eyes out there to chip in!

Have you tried PU/PD at the end of a nap to see how he reacts?

Sounds like you are making great progress!

[Aishi]

Hi

You're getting great advice from pp so don't worry. We're all just mums helping each other out xx