Need help w end of day schedulewhen day starts at 7:45am

[cou]

Hi there,

I am having problems w the late afternoon/ early evening schedule bc we don't wake our baby up until 7:45am. She is 14 weeks old gestation. She is on a 3 hour schedule and I am slowly trying to transition her to a 4 hour schedule. She isn't able to sustain being awake for more than one hour 15 or one hour 20 at a night.

Here is the current schedule:

eat - 7:45am
sleep - 9am
eat - 10:45am
sleep - 12:15pm
eat - 1:50pm
sleep - 3:20pm
eat - 5pm

What happens next? Should she get a catnap at 6? I am afraid she won't be tired enough. However a catnap at 6 is more like an early bedtime. Should we just do an early bedtime? The other thing is if we do an early bedtime at 6pm, then it just seems like too long to go to 7:45am for wake, even though we dream feed at 11'ish. I hope this makes sense! BUT, on the other hand, seems like an 8 or 8:15 bedtime is too late? I am so stumped!

Thoughts?

Thanks!

[cou]

My other question is if she can only be awake for an hour and 20, but can she sleep for more than an hour and a half? Can she have a one hour 45 min nap? That will stretch her day out more. Feeding every 3 hours is making her not ea much during the 2nd and 3rd bottle of the day. Thank you!

[jessmum46]

Hi there

EASY is meant to be a flexible routine to suit your family's needs.  So if you start your day at 7.45am you would aim for a 12h day with BT around 7.45pm.  I would probably (given the routine you suggested) do something like a catnap at 6.15 for 30 mins and then BT around 7.45/8pm.

But if she is willing to sleep longer than 1.5h at a time for naps what you could do is just let her naps extend out a bit to up to 2h each and then have a three nap day looking something like:

WU 7.45
Nap 9-10.45/11
Nap 12.15/30-2/2.30
Nap 4ish-5.30/6ish
BT 7.30/8ish

Gradually as you transition to 4h EASY you will be aiming to get to 3 naps anyway (typically two long naps and a catnap by the time you are fully there).  I would just focus on the EAS cycle, not worry exactly how her feeds are spaced (doesn't have to be exactly the same throughout the day) and let her naps go a little longer if they well to help the transition

[cou]

Thank you so much Katherine! I like how you are more flexible & I like how you are willing to let the S part go a little longer. I am confused though. If you could please educate me. There is a thread on one of the boards that shows how to transition from a 3 hour schedule to a 4 hour schedule. That schedule is extremely detailed down to the 5 minute mark, meaning extending wake time by 5 minutes for 3 days and then extending sleep times by 5 or 10 minutes for 3 days, so on & so forth.

That seems like a very rigid schedule plus also makes it seem like all of a sudden letting her sleep for an extra 10 minutes is a no no.

I am confused as to which way to go. Is the flexibility better or should I do the rigid incremental increases?

I hope this makes sense & I am not trying to comment negatively on anyone's post at all.

Thank you.

[jessmum46]

Aww that's ok honey, you don't come across as being negative at all .

That post you're referring to is I think helpful as a guide, particularly for some mums who like to do a very slow incremental increase and have LOs who will respond well to that.  But for me (and I guess you from what you said) it's a bit too rigid and too schedule-like which was never the aim of EASY.  If you are happy with following her lead and letting her naps go a bit longer if she wants to, you'll probably find she can transition fairly easily just by naturally extending her wake time and letting her nap up to 2h if she wants to x