help with S on a 3hour easy

[kendraandella]

Ella is almost 3.5 months old and I have been on EASY for about a month now.  She is quite a happy baby but I've been having a few problems/have a couple questions.  Her routine, as of late, has looked like this:

E:7
A:7:30
S: 8 (2 hour nap)
E:10
A:10:30
S: 11 (2 hour nap)
E:1
A:1:30
S:2 (1/2 hour - 1 hour nap)
A:3
E: 4
A: 4:30
S: 4:30/5 (1/2 hour - 1 hour nap)
A: 5:30/6
E: 7, bath and bedtime by 7:30

My problem(s) are:
1) She only seems to be able to stay awake for about 1 hour (including eating time) before she gets cranky and I put her to sleep but I've been reading that it should be about 1 and a half hours.  Plus, she will be 4 months soon and if I have to transition to a 4 hour EASY, that's a huge jump to having 2 hours of awake time.  Should I be trying to keep her awake longer?  I have been scared to because I don't want her to get overtired.

2) She seems to get at least 2 good 2 hour naps in but then has some short ones and by the time it gets to the early evening, she is quite cranky; especially by the time I feed and bath her at 7. Is she getting too much sleep/not enough awake time and that's why she's not napping as long later on in the day? (she still goes down to sleep quite easily at 7:30 though)

3) I think she's addicted to her paci but I haven't wanted to wean her yet partly because Tracy says before 3 months it's not a prop and partly because I'm worried/not ready to fight with taking it away yet.  I have to replug at about the 1/2 hour mark during her naps to keep her down for 2 hours which is fine.  However, at night time I seem to be constantly re-plugging when she wakes (anytime between 1am up until 7am) but I can't seem to tell if she's hungry or just wants her paci.  Sometimes, she'll take the paci and within 5 minutes fall back asleep.  However, sometimes I have to keep re-plugging for and hour (or 2 or 3!) before I give up and think maybe she's hungry and feed her.  Sometimes, she'll then fall asleep after the feed but sometimes as soon as I'm done feeding and put her down, she's rooting for her paci again and the re-plugging begins.  I don't know how to tell the difference between wanting her paci and being hungry since she never cries....she just fusses and seems to be turning her head and opening her mouth.  I haven't been doing the dream feed because it's hard to get her to feed but I think I'm going to start.  During her nights she sometimes feeds at 1 and 4, sometimes 2 and 5 and sometimes just at 4.  Any suggestions?

Sorry for the super long message but I'd like to get this fixed before I switch her to a 4 hour easy.

Thanks!
Kendra and Ella

[vadensmommy]

The two long morning naps are probably interfering with her afternoon naps which, and it sounds like she is getting overtired by bedtime.  I would probably try to start lengthening her A times in the morning by 10-15min every few days to try and get her to closer to 1.5hrs of A time since as you said, you'll soon be working towards a 4hr EASY and that requires her to be able to stay awake for 2hrs at a time.  These night wakings very well could be the result of a paci addict, but it could also result from being overtired from poor afternoon naps.  So having the longer A times in the mornings will hopefully help increase the pm naps, and maybe even the night time sleep!!

If you make those changes and still don't get any night time relief, you might consider tackling that paci.  Good luck!!!!

[kim&savannah]

It could be a lot of things, but the couple thoughts I had when reading through:

Don't try to push the 4 hour EASY if she isn't ready.  Plenty of babies aren't ready by 4 months (neither of mine could make it 4 hours until around 6 months--bf babies often can't, and especially if you are still doing night feeds, I wouldn't want to cut down the day feeds too much.  ANd you can make the transition easier by doing a 3.5 hour EASY until she's ready for 4 (only I wouldn't even worry about that yet if she's struggling to stay awake).  Every baby is different and its great how well you seem to be reading her cues and working with her tired signs, even if it does seem "too early" for a nap.

Also, its very normal for the naps to get shorter through the day.  You might want to try shortening the first 2 naps by 15-30 min., although that gives you an even longer wake time to deal with, but as she will soon be dropping down to just 2 long naps and one catnap (and by 7 or 8 months, that's usually gone as well), I wouldn't worry near as much about the last naps.  I know a lot of us have taken the attitude that those late day naps, esp. as you near the 6 month mark, are for our sanity and just to make it until bedtime, but anything goes for getting them to sleep and any length nap because its going to be gone soon anyway so not too much worry about the bad habits. 

Also, you could cluster feed later in the day (which might help hunger at night) and that would make it easier to work the EASY around the shorter naps (cluster feeding just naturally happened with mine because they wanted to eat as soon as they woke, and the short nap in the pm meant they were waking at 2/2.5 hour EASY instead of 3 or 4.

HTH!  Not sure what to tell you about the paci.  I've got an 11-month old total addict   But he goes to sleep SO easily that I'm terrified to take it away.  And I did take my DD's at 6 months, but she was a nightmare sleeper until 18 months, so it didn't help.]

~Kim

[kendraandella]

Thanks a ton!  I've been adding to her awake time these last couple days by 15 min and she hasn't seemed that grumpy at all...she just needs a little more attention rather than leaving her to play on her own.  She actually had a couple of 2 hour awake times too because I had to run some errands and she ended up having great naps after that!  It has helped her grumpiness in the evening and (cross my fingers) she's had two of her best nights too.  She's still waking for her paci but not as often.  The last 2 nights she only woke at 1:30 and 3 for her paci and I've fed her at 4.  This morning she somewhat woke for her paci at 6am but she had gas and I think that's what woke her up.  I might try to lengthen some of her awake time to 1.5 hours today and in the next couple of days.  Hopefully the paci thing will work itself out!

[jenandben]

I agree with Kim.  Remember, EASY isn't a schedule.  So, if your lo isn't ready to go to the 4 hr. plan, don't bump it up yet.

[vadensmommy]

Great work!  Keep it up - you'll be so grateful you did!  Keep us posted on how things go!

[kendraandella]

She had another good night last night but today her naps weren't great.  She only napped 45 min her first nap and then 30 min her second nap.  However, we had company over for thanksgiving and I think it was too much stimulation.  I finally put her down at 2pm and she's been sleeping for 2 hours...thank God!  Hopefully the rest of the day and tonight go well.  We're going on our first plane ride the day after tomorrow so I'm a little worried about that but I've got my fingers crossed (and my husband is flying with me too!)

[vadensmommy]

Sounds good - I'd always rather have a good pm nap and crappy am naps then the other way around.  I'm usually ready for a good pm nap myself so that is always nice   Hope the flight and your trip goes smoothly!!

[kendraandella]

Well the flight went relatively well.  Our first flight was awesome.  She fell asleep during take off and was content during landing.  OUr connecting flight was okay.  She slept well but cried during the whole descent.  I couldn't get her to keep sucking her soother and I think her ears hurt.  However, I CAN'T believe it, she cut her first tooth on Wednesday and she just cut another one today!  She's not even 4 months old yet!  She's not too grumpy though...thank goodness!

[vadensmommy]

Glad your flights were decent.  That is early for teeth isn't it.  Dd STILL doesn't have one YET!  Funny how all babies are so different isn't it?

[kendraandella]

I know.  I talked to my friend who's a dentist and he said that baby's, on average, don't get their first teeth until about 7 months! 

[vadensmommy]

Yeah, that's what the "what to expect" book says   Other than BW that is the only baby instruction book I go by.  Soooo we're hanging out at the 8.5mo mark with still no teeth.  I know one day all of a sudden I'll notice a tooth or something and then start scratching my head trying to remember if it had been poked through the day before.  Last week dd's naps were horrendous.  Had to give her some form of pain relief for each sleep, and I just knew something would break through, but no.  And this week sleep seems to be back to normal thank goodness.  Speaking of naps - how are your dd's naps working out so far?

[kendraandella]

Her naps are getting MUCH better.  She's staying awake anywhere from 1 hour 10min to 1.5 hours and she usually only needs a replugging of her soother around the 45 min mark.  Sometimes she goes back to sleep and will sleep a total of 1.5 to 2 hours and sometimes if she won't take her soother, she's just up for good.  However, if she has a short nap she'll usually have a really good one after that and she hasn't been cranky at all so I'm pretty happy. 

The nights still aren't too great.  Last night was particularly painful...I think she woke up nearly every hour for her soother.  I dream fed her at 11 and she woke at 1:55 am and after re-plugging continually until 2:15, I finally fed her.  Then she woke at 4:30, replug, then again at 5:30, then again and was really restless from 6-6:30 so I ended up feeding her again.  Then she slept great until I woke her at 8.  However, last week she has some really good nights.  I guess we'll see.

Because of the time change when I went to visit my day, she's now waking at 8am instead of 7am which I like in the mornings but I'm not sure in the evenings because then she doesn't get to bed until 8:30 or 9 pm and it's less "me" time.  However, I hate to wake her in the mornings when she's sleeping so peacefully...finally! 

[vadensmommy]

Have you thought about weaning the paci yet?  I know there comes a point for some "addicts" where it can really disrupt their sleep, and need constant replugging.  I don't really have any advice or opinions on the subject as dd never would take one.  I am now grateful that is something that we don't have to wean or take away, but in the beginning there were definitely days where I just wished she would have taken the stupid thing and shut up and gone to sleep 

[kendraandella]

I don't know.  Last night, we thought we'd see if Ella would go back to sleep on her own if we didn't go in and give her the paci but she just got increasingly upset and was awake by the time I gave up and went in there to re-plug.  I'm not sure how to wean her and I'm still a softy and don't want to hear her cry.  She's been pretty good during her naps now that she only needs re-plugging once so I'm not concerned about that.  It'd just be nice if she wouldn't wake up so much during the night.  Maybe I'll post something on the props section on how to stop her wanting it at night.  I guess I'd probably have to get rid of it altogether.