3MO just started EASY, trouble napping w/o boob

[Missy Lou]

i think we need to work on his A time.  at 3 months, the average A time is an hour, 20 minutes to an hour, 30 minutes.  it looked like the morning A time was about an hour.  although the afternoon was 1.5 hours which is good.

try to make his A time a little more consistent if you can.  A time is eating, diaper change, playing and winddown.  i'd plan any outings to fall during naptime, preferably though during his catnap.  if he's used to sleeping in his sling, then there's really no sleep training going on. 

LO eats every 2 hours?
melissa

[donnaR]

i think we need to work on his A time.  at 3 months, the average A time is an hour, 20 minutes to an hour, 30 minutes.  it looked like the morning A time was about an hour.  although the afternoon was 1.5 hours which is good.

try to make his A time a little more consistent if you can.  A time is eating, diaper change, playing and winddown.  i'd plan any outings to fall during naptime, preferably though during his catnap.  if he's used to sleeping in his sling, then there's really no sleep training going on. 

LO eats every 2 hours?
melissa

i'll work on his A time, he has been an extremely fussy baby (some tell me colic?) until very recently, and to sooth his constant crying, i nursed him. often he'd eat every 40mns or sooner. lately with implementing EASY I've been able to stretch it out a bit, but when he starts to fuss, not much soothes him other than eating, so yes, we are more like EAEAS within a 3hr time period. i'm going to keep working on that though to get him to every 3hrs.

good tip on the outing. i'll make a point of doing it during a scheduled nap, cause otherwise (as I found today) it messes up the whole rest of the day afterward. Like today when he fell asleep during an A time, while i walked with him in the sling.

Another Q I have is about bedtime. Basically the evening routine has an E then S (bedtime). This is the one time during the day LO is allowed to eat right before sleep. Does this change at some point when LO is older so there is some A between E and S? I guess its ok for one time during the day for them to go in that order.

Ok, gotta go dream feed. Nite nite gals. This is great, thanks for all the help! I hope my book arrives soon....... I ordered the toddler one too.

[SweetAsHoney]

Do you use a pacifier?

Anna

[donnaR]

gosh, if i could get him to take it, i think that would be a lifesaver! He just won't have a thing to do with it. I keep trying though, maybe someday?? At 3MO is this wishful thinking?

[Mrs. A]

my friend was over yesterday and she was feeding her boy who is almost 6 months. he was at it for almost 30mns, where I don't think my LO ever eats longer than 15mns. should he be eating for a longer time? maybe being on a definite 3hr schedule will help.

 
Being on a 3hr routine helps for sure, but you also have to watch your LO and let him tell you when he's finished.  I discovered that my DS is an extremely efficient eater.  I kept trying to have him eat longer and he would get fussy.  He normally takes about 10-15 minutes to eat, sometimes less.  But I know he's getting enough because he makes it easily for 3 hours between feeds. 

[Missy Lou]

some LOs just don't like pacifiers.  if he doesn't like it, think of it as one less thing to possibly have to wean at some point.  he'll find his fists to suck on one day. 

what does your LO's routine look like in the afternoon, donnaR?  when my LO was still having a catnap, it would usually work out where we'd have A time and then eat because the catnap is so short that she wouldn't be hungry after waking.  So yeah, it's usually A, then E, then winddown and sleep.

melissa

[kc456]

My son (3.5 months) started liking and taking the pacifier at about 9-10 wks? We waited to introduce it because of breastfeeding, and started at about 6 weeks. He did not want to take if for a couple of weeks, and then warmed up to it. We use the straight nipple one -- Soothies brand.

I've just recently started implementing a "routine" -- I've only recently found EASY, but I started by reading a book on infant sleep, and my first step was to make sure he does not stay up past 1.5 hrs (his limit at the time). So, I'd say keeping the duration of awake time consistent is key. Although I differ with EASY on the first A time -- the sleep book (Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child) mentioned that the first period of wakefullness is brief, in our case it was 45 min-1 hr.

Another thing I started doing after getting advice on this forum is to keep his meal times consistent. I don't know if it's due to my efforts or just that he's getting more mature, but he started to space out his feedings quite a bit, now they are at about 3+hrs (big improvement from 2 - 2.5 hrs). It also looks like he's taking more at each feeding. I work the naps around the meal times, but I don't wake the baby for a "scheduled" meal, just feed him as soon as he wakes up.

And (again not sure if I can take credit for it), he dropped his habit of wanting to snack before the bed time. I'm guessing that now that he's not overtired when going down for naps, he does not need the soothing of breast to calm down.

Finally, I'd suggest that you dedicate a week of (yes) staying home, so that you can be consistent about awake times, nap schedule. I was going crazy cooped up at home while I did it, but it was worth it.

Good luck! I'm sure it's a lot more challenging with a baby who'd been colicky.

[Missy Lou]

i have also seen a lot of the moms here mention that the morning A time is shorter like kc456 mentioned.  it seems so weird to me since LO just woke up from the night but i notice it with my LO also.

melissa