Help with E.A.S.Y routine for a 4 1/2 month old

[little mans mum]

I have recently bought Tracys books and have been trying out the E.A.S.Y routine but at the moment i cant get him to sleep for more than 1/2 an hour each time. The routine looks like this E.A.S.A.E.A.S. ETC. He sometimes is then too tired to feed and falls asleep mid feed. Night times are always a bit of a nightmare around our tea because he gets tired and hungry and dosnt know what he wants and he a bit grumpy. How can i get him to sleep longer in the day or is it a case that he may be getting enough in the day and needs to go to bed earlier?? Ive tried walks in the pram, in the car, in his pram in the living room where its not as quiet and in his room where it is quiet but still only half an hour. How much sleep should a 4 1/2 month old half. Also how can you keep to the routine if you are out and about.

[HeatherC]

Hello.  Can you give me a sample day's routine and see if we can offer some suggestions for any tweaking?  Have you checked out the Naps board for help with lengthening his naps.  You will have EASAE if he continues to have short naps, and it will probably turn into really short A times after E b/c he'll be overtired.  My dd took 30 min naps until she was about 5-6 months.  She did this about 4-5 times a day, but she always slept through the night.  I would really commit some time to be at home and sleep train him in his normal sleeping environment.  At 4.5 mos a baby might have 2 naps of 1.5 hrs and a catnap up to 1 hr, but not all babies do that and some do more.  How is his night sleep?

[little mans mum]

Sorry only just got chance to read you reply as not been on the website for a while and for some reason the reply did not come through to my email, anyway Its all changed again now, as we are struggling with daytime naps altogether now and by about 6ish he is that tired he fall asleep and sleeps through his last feed and we have to wake him. He now just balls the place down when going for a nap and nothing will calm him down apart from rocking whcih i dont want to continue or taking him back downstairs, he crys that hard he struggles to breath and ends up wimpering. Even when he has fell asleep and you try to put him down as soon as you lean over it all starts again ive tried the pick up pu down but cant get him calm enough to put him down. When you have tried to put him down for a nap and no sucsess and take him back downstairs hes happy as larry all smiles for a while then the grumpyness starts again.This is a really rough day time routine

At the moment he wakes at between 6.45-7.30am and has a bottle
usually nap of about 1/2 to 1 hour about 1-1 1/2hour after waking
bottle at 11-12 depending on 1st bottle ( he goes 4 hours in-between)
May have 1/2hour about 2-3ish
bottle at 3-4pm
may have another 1/2 hour nap 6-7ish
last bottle 7-8pm then bed which is always ok and sleeps the whole night waking about 4-5am for a chat to himself then back off to sleep by himself, and a dream feed about 10-11ish (whenever we go to bed)
We write all feed times and amount all the time and do try to write sleeping times but this is not as often. I cannot get Tracys chart to show on my computer each time i try to enter it it just says the page has expired.
Ps he has just turned 5 months
Hope this is what you asked for.

[HeatherC]

I think it would be best if I moved your questions to the Naps Forum.  I think you are doing well with your EASY routine (4 hrly feeds, consistent bed/wake times).  I feel you would more benefit from advice on that forum for helping your lo nap.  They might suggest putting him to bed early for a few days or more to help eliminate any overtiredness he's experiencing.  One tip I would like to offer is one that helped me.  I would put my dd down 1 hr after wake up, no matter what, and she started taking longer naps.  I think he'll sleep better once he's more rested.

[little mans mum]

Thanx for that i will keep an eye out for replys there.

[little mans mum]

Didnt have a wind down before but started to try one after reading Tracys book. I ve started with a half an hour of just sitting on my knee then up to his cot with his mobile on, he starts off ok then starts to cry so i try to wait a while comforting him with my hand over the side of his face as he like it, then he gets worse with the crying and i try the PU/PD method but cant get him back down as he wont settle down. Yesterdays morning nap went well i fed him at 7am and put him down at 8.30am and he had 45 mins and afternoon nap even better fed fed at 11am and put him down at 1pm and he slept for 2hours (and i got chance to hover the car) but when i went to put him down for a bit of a catnap about 5.30pm before his last bottle it all went pear shaped and he wailed the place down with real tears and all. In the end he didnt have this nap, we then got him ready for bed and ended up feeding him bout 15mins earlier than he was due, he then fell asleep at 7.10 during his bottle and this was the last we heard off him till 7.15am this monring. Hope you can understad what i mean.

Nicolas

[little mans mum]

Thanx ill give that a try,its just so hard when he is really propper upset crying. I ll let you know how we get on.

Nicola