our EASY is going down the drain. Help

[troshina]

She's been on EASY since birth. Sleeping through the night, taking 3 good naps, and a cat nap till we started trying to switch to 4 hour schedule. The naps got short and I never know now when to feed her and when to put her to bed. We used to do 7-10:30 - 2pm-5:30pm-7pm feedings with activity times and naps.in between. She can only stay up for an hour and 20 mins in the morning, and 1 hour 40 mins in afternoon, and 1 hour after her 5:30pm feed. May be she is not ready yet to transition? She still sleeps through the night, but I am afraid her short naps  will spoil her night sleep.
She just turned 4m. and she's 12,5 lbs ( 6 at birth)
please, let me know what you think. I feel lost.

[*Mona*]

hi

I voted for transition.
no wonder she can't stay up longer if her naps are too short.

can you post her routine for us?

thanks
Monika

[troshina]

Thank you, Monica
Here is her routine TILL 5 DAYS AGO, THEN THE NAPS GO SHORTER AND ALL OVER THE MAP
7am wake and bf
7:15-8:15 activity
8:15-10:15 sleep
10:30 feed and activity
12:15 - 2PM Sleep
2pm - 3:45 Feed and Play
4pm-5:30 sleep
5:30-6:30 eat and play
6:30- CAT NAP
7pm DINNER, BATH, BED

WHEN WE TRIED TO SWITCH TO 4 HOUR ROUTINE, SHE DID IT FOR A DAY AND THEN I THINK SHE HAD A GROWTH SPURT - SHE WAS WAKING UP 30 MINS INTO HER NAPS CRYING AND TOOK A FULL FEEDING EVERY TIME. SO I WENT BACK TO 3 HOUR SCHEDULE THE NEXT DAY, AND IT ALL GOT MESSED UP. TODAY I WILL FEED HER EVERY 3:30 HOURS AND SEE HOW IT GOES.

THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING.

[*Mona*]

hi

so how have you been doing? is 3,5hrs easy going on well for you?
looking at your routine, actually I've noticed you were already getting close to 4 hrs easy anyway: there you had 2hrs intervals between 10:15 and 12:15 and 2pm to 4 pm. plus her feedings were more or less every 3,5 hrs too. SO I think you could first try to get her back to that routine and work on separating her feedings even more now.

hth
Monika

[troshina]

Thank you, Monika
Well, we tried yesterday, and trying today to go back to 3,5 hour with no success. She just wakes up crying 45 mins into her nap and doesn't want to go back to sleep, gets tired really quickly and cries again. I started doing pu/pd and it took me an hour to get her back to sleep, but by then it was her feeding time so i gave her a few extra mins to sleep and that moved our feeding to 11am. She never cried before - it's all new and stressful for me. I will give pu/pd a few days and see if it works. And since it takes me so long to get her to go back to sleep, i might as well move to 4 hour EASY. What do you think? I know she is not hungry when she wakes up - she only bf for a few mins. and she took longer feeding this morning at 11am.
Let me know what you think.
Another thing I wanted to ask. She does not stay up for longer then 1 hour 20 mins in the morning ( after her 7 am feed ) I tried low key activities, just walking with her around the garden, just sitting there and such. She starts fussing and crying, so I put her to bed. Which leaves us with 2,5 hours before her next feed. Suppose she sleeps and does not wake up . Do i let her sleep 2,5 hours? Do I wake her at 2 hour mark and just play with her till 11AM? Or do I wake her and feed her? I am confused.
Thank you so much.
Irina :

[*Mona*]

hi Irina, so how have you been doing? 3,5 hrs routine working for you? or have you moved her to 4 hrs?

as for morning nap- I wouldn't let her nap longer than 2 hrs. shorter A time in the morning is quite common for younger babies so nothing to worry about.

let us know how you're doing

Monika

[troshina]

Ok, we have been doing 4 hour schedule for two days now. She still is only up for 1:30 mins in the morning. I just have some activity after she wakes up from her 2hour nap ( it had been very hard to keep her sleeping for a few days, but today I did not have to go in for her morning nap at all ) Her ufternoon nap was 2 hours to, but I had to put her paci back in one time. She woke up 45 mins into her 3rd nap all smiles and happy, but got cranky in 45 mins and I just put her back to bed. She had shots yesterday and has been kind of moodier then ever. I want to feed her at 6:45, following by the bath and bed. We'll see how it goes.
Question. What do I do about thepaci. I know I am not suppose to do pu/pd with it, but did it anyways since I did not know it at the time. Now she started NW asking for it. She also still swaddled - does not seem to be able to sleep without it yet. What do I do?
Thank you
Irina

[*Mona*]

hi Irina, sorry for not getting back to you sooner.
so how have you been doing? is the routine working for you?

I can't offer much help as for pu/pd at her age as didn't have to do it BUT if your Dd is waking for paci that's probably the sign it has become a prop and you would have to deal with it sooner or later. before you tackle paci problem, be sure she's healthy and not going through growth spurt etc.

good luck and let us know how you've been

Monika

[troshina]

Thank you, Monica
We did get rid of the pacifier. And it improved her sleep to.
We are now working on her schedule. Last few days looked like this:
7 am wake and bf, activity
8:40 or 8:45 sleep
10:15or 10:30 wake up
10:30 bf ( she is hungry ) activity
12:15 sleep
2 or 2:15 wake up
2:15 bf, activity
4pm - 5pm or 5:15 sleep
5:45 bf, activity, bath
6:30 bottle, swaddle, sleep
10PM DF
sleeps till 7am
Somehow she can not last 4 hours in the morning, but then during the day we can go 3h45 mins.
So we'll work on that I guess.
My question. How do I extend the wake time without overstimulating her?
We just got rid of the pacifier and I do not have any other tools to calm her down.
Thank you.

[*Mona*]

hi

I think your routine looks great!
and with BFed babies it's very common to feed more frequent than every 4 hrs, don't worry.
don't worry about the wake up time too- she'' show you when she's ready.

keep us posted and good luck

Monika