questions re easy

[sandrmum]

hi im wanting to put my 5mth old baby girl(5mths in 3 days) onto 4hr easy.currently she feeds every 4 hrs including nite time to.except when comes to the feed before bed its early as she likes go bed by 530pm.need to know 1)if say we get up at 6am i feed her then i put her back to bed 2 hrs later and she sleeps only 40mins(as she usually does at this time) if she dont go back to sleep do i keep her up to about 12 when it wld be her next nap time as on the 4hr easy or sld i put hher down earlier when shes tired again.usually this sleep i can get up to 2hrs out of her (usually have to intervene.)2)i usually bath her round 430 pmthen she wants a feed straight after and shes so ready for bed between 515-5.30 have no worries settling for bed .she then will wake up for a few feeds in the nite.how can i stretch her to go to bed at 6pm.she wants go bed early even if she has a nap at 3.30 for 40min and if she doesnt some nites is in bed by 5pm which means shes waking up just after 5 in morniing ready to get up i try pat back to sleep can sometimes stretch her out to between 530-6 3)sld i always try get her back for more sleep in the morning sleep i usually dont as like yesterday we had go mums group for my 3 yrold son then today had drop him at kindy she doesnt go back to sleep in car. i guess wat i really want to know is do i keep her up till shes tired after morning catnap or or really keep her up till its the due time for next scheduled sleep.is it normal to still be feeding twice in nite which always seems to be almost exacly after fed her 4 hrs ago before bed then 4 hrs after that then she goes up till 5hrs before want get up.can each sleep be withinn about half hr of scheduled time or does it need be dead on time.sometimes i think i sld just go with want she does and not worry about schedlued times but is that ok.prob not cos way we going now shes in bed early as and up early as but just cant seem stretch her out but i want her to in bed by 6 so i can get stuff done for my son tea etc as my hubby always away for wk.thanks.

[HeatherC]

At her age, a 4 hr feeding routine is the way to go.  However, if she is waking at night to feed still, she is either waking from habit or is not getting enough to eat during the day.  Is she having 4 feeds and a df?  This would probably be best.  Have you tried a 3.5 feeding routine? 

If she is waking at 6 am, you could try doing pu/pd until 7 am in hopes of resetting her internal clock to an appropriate morning wake time.  It will take consistency and many days of doing so, but it can work.  Then, get her up at 7, have a feed, have A time of about 1.5 hrs total, start a nap winddown, then put her down for a nap.  If she wakes after 40 mins, do pu/pd again for either 40 mins or until nap time should be over.  So, you would have E 7, A until 8:30, nap until 10-10:30, feed 10:30-11.

Now, if you are unable to get her back to sleep when she wakes early from her nap, the next nap would be sooner after the next feed as she is behind in her sleep for the day.  For example, if she wakes at 9:15, and her feed is at 10:30, she's already been awake for 1.25 hrs, and would probably be ready for her next nap around 11 (after you have time to feed her and change her diaper if necessary).  Just make sure she doesn't feed to sleep as that would create another problem for you to solve later.  Just keep trying to get her to sleep so that she can stay up a bit longer in the evening an hopefully get back on track with her sleep.  You shouldn't feel like you have to go by the clock, instead go by your dd's cues.  If she looks tired, put her to bed. 

I don't advise, though that you push her to stay awake later in the evening if she is clearly tired.  She will then become overtired and find it even harder to fall asleep.  I think that if she can get some more day sleep with better naps, then she will slowly be able to stretch her evening to a slightly later bedtime.  However, some babies are just naturally early risers and there's not much you can do to change it.  I have, however, read success stories using wake to sleep in the morning and also just going in, resettling with a touch and some comforting words and going back out.  You may have to try a few different things to find what works.  But for now, as long as she's going to bed at 5:30, she's going to be ready to wake at 5:30/6 the next morning as that is plenty of sleep.