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Offline ashleykaryn

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Starting EASY?
« on: October 23, 2007, 19:10:10 pm »
I am trying to start my 5.5 month old on EASY. He has always had a routine that we have follwed everyday. But it wasn't using the EASY method. He eats every 4 hours during the day, so it makes sense to jump right into a 4 hour routine. I just have a few problems, I am trying to overcome...or maybe they aren't even problems, I just need to tweek the routine a bit.

In starting EASY, I am trying to go by the clock at first, to get my baby used to the new way of doing things. But its not really working. Should I not be doing that?

Idealy he would wake up at 7 amd the day would start then, having naps at 9, and 1 and then a catnap. And then the day ending at 7 or 7:30. But he is instead waking up at 6-6:30am, and wanting a nap at 8-8:30, which I guess would be fine, but he only naps for 45 min at most! So that means he is up at 9:30 at the latest from his moring nap. Meaning his whole EASY routine is thrown off. His next nap would be 11:30 or sometime 12, if I try and stretch it. And then he only sleeps 45 min again! Si short of either h aving 4 naps, or putting him to bed at like 5 for the night. I have no clue what to do? Am I even going about this the right way?
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Offline vadensmommy

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2007, 00:58:44 am »
Hello and welcome to the boards!  Hope you find some great info! 

At 5.5mo he may need a bit more than a 2hr A time - might be able to handle more like 2.25-2.5 at most, and that maybe why he is having the shorter naps.  Other than extending his A time, I had been reading on another board that one mom really tried to keep the first E and S times of the day at a very consistent time - so if you want your ideal wake up time to be 7-try not to feed before that time, and if the ideal nap time is 9, then work your way slowly towards a 9am naptime.  So if he is waking at 6 and wants to nap at 8, every few days keep him up a bit longer to work your way toward a 9am nap instead of 8. 
So the first few days you could put him down at 8:15, and then a few days after that try for 8:30.  I haven't tried this myself as our early morning wakings are better currently, but she said it has really worked for her.  I think it was Isabella and Jasmine's mum on the nap boards - you may want to check it out.
Her theory was that an early wake up only gets reinforced by an early bedtime, and you really don't want to make up the A time at the end of the day and have an overtired baby by bedtime which can cause early wake ups as well, so try and make up the A time with that first A time of the day.  Hope that gives you some guidance!!!  Good luck and let us know how things go!
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Offline ashleykaryn

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2007, 01:05:22 am »
That is a great idea. In the morning it seems he is so fussy and I know its because he is still tired, but he doesn't want to go back to bed, and so we end up with a early nap! Today he woke at 6 am and I tried to do pu/pd for 45 min, to get him to go back to sleep, but he wasn't having it. So after the day is through we ended up with a bedtime of 6:15pm!
Tomorrow we will see when he wakes, and then I will do just as you said. I was already doing the consistent first feed at 7am. But I'm sure trying to stretch that first S to 9 will help to.
I will keep you posted. Thanks for your help.
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Offline vadensmommy

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2007, 01:17:54 am »
Good luck, I'll be interested to see how things get along for you both.
Here is a link to the post I was talking about:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=104895.15
It is the last post on the second page in the way I have my posts sorted, so it may be different for you, but either way I think it would still be on the same page.  In the post we're talking about babies in the 8-9mo range, so I am not sure how things would differ for a lo his age, but you might post there and see what they say. HTH!
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Offline MJMom

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2007, 14:49:29 pm »
the clock is only ok to have an idea of when your LO shows their cues.  Although there is the ideal day, each LO is different and you want to tune into their cues more than the clock.  That may mean an EASAY or EASY or some variation thereof.

As far as the naps go, have you tried any of the nap extension techniques?  It's a learning process for your LO to get beyond the 45 minute mark as well as it's the shift from one sleep cycle to the next. 
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Offline ashleykaryn

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2007, 19:44:38 pm »
So far today has gone well. His night last night wasn't the greatest. But I'm trying to get our days fixed first in hopes that helps the nights. So he woke up at 6:30 am. I left him in his crib till 6:45 when he started crying. I fed him as 7:30. He played happily, and went down easy for a nap at 8:45, and napped for 1 and 1/2 hours! Yeah!!!!! So maybe the extended morning time by 15 min helps, maybe it was a fluke, who knows. So he was up at 10:30, ate at 11:00. And went back down pretty easy for his second nap at 12:45. Which gave him another awake period of 2 hours and 15 min. So we shall see how he naps. Do you know how many hours a LO this age needs of naps in the day, to not hurt his night sleep? I wil ask on the nap board as well. Thanks!
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Offline vadensmommy

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #6 on: October 24, 2007, 21:29:49 pm »
Well, you ds is probably getting close to dropping the catnap I would think, i can't really remember when a lo is "supposed" to be ready to drop the catnap because dd did it early - I think she was 5months and not catnapping.  But 2 good 1.5-2hr naps with a possible catnap thrown in the mix and 11-12hrs a night is probably plenty of good sleep, but I'm sure some better sleep folks will give you better numbers than I can think of right now. 

Since you had good results today from the 2hr 15min A time, you might want to just try that out again tomorrow.  You may have just hit on the "perfect" A time for him right now.  Keep playing with it, and try and keep a log of what you are doing and maybe you can see patterns better.  Good luck, and keep up the good work!
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Offline ashleykaryn

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2007, 23:32:05 pm »
You may be right about him dropping the catnap. Today his second nap was only 30 min :o, so I set out to give him a catnap. It took 30 min of pu/pd, he is finally asleep.
So once the catnap is dropped then what type of routine would you use? It seems like so long to be awake between the second nap and bed.
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Offline vadensmommy

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2007, 00:15:51 am »
That is a great question.  For a long time we had a pretty early bedtime to try and combat OT since she had dropped the catnap so early.  You can try to continue to stretch his A times a little at a time each few days, but honestly I wouldn't push the A times a whole lot more just yet since he had such good naps today.  I remember that the A time between the pm nap and the catnap was one of our longest, so for now you may need to give more like 2.5hrs A time between those naps, and then try for the catnap.  It may push your bedtime a tad later, but hopefully won't interfere with night sleep.  The other thing you can do to preserve bedtime is maybe cut the catnap to 30min.  If he continues to refuse the catnap - you can move up bedtime a bit, and if he consistently refuses it, I would probably start pushing the A times again - 15min or so at a time every 3 or 4 days.   

Our routine has never been ideal when it comes to naps because dd is at a sitter's during the day, and doesn't nap really well there.  In fact she is starting to go to 1 nap already because of the sitter situation, and it is pretty premature I think.  So all that to say I hate to post what our routine was because I don't think that was what was ideal for her.  But basically like I said, we just did an earlier bedtime - BUT many days she would have a really late pm nap because of when I pick her up, and often she would sleep 2.5-3hrs to kind of make up for the fact she was only getting 2 naps.  HTH!
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Offline MJMom

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2007, 15:11:42 pm »
Whenever I tried to put my DD down early after refusing the catnap, she would just wake up earlier.  No FUN for mommy!!!  The magic number for us was 30 minutes.  Any more than 30 mintues would result in an early morning.  What I found worked very well is during the time she should be catnapping, I thought of it as a freebie. If she napped, great, if not, oh well, but I made sure she had "quiet" time.  Sometimes it was quiet time in her crib (she would play with he paci, or the little ridges on the bumpers, or her lovey), or we would go for a walk in the stroller where she could have quiet awake time.  It wasn't as restorative as a nap, but it did the trick to get her to bed time.

HTH
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Offline vadensmommy

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2007, 01:19:24 am »
It's so funny how all lo's are different isn't it! 

On days where dd refused the catnap and we did an earlier bed time, it usually meant a LATER morning the next am for us.  If it continued for a few days, then yes, an earlier bedtime did get dangerously close to reinforcing an early wake up.  But, I have had my share of 13.5hr night time sleeps for dd.  So strange!  Just gotta find what works for you and your lo!
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Offline MJMom

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2007, 15:22:44 pm »
true true true!  That's why Tracy's advice of "follow your LOs cues" are key!
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Offline ashleykaryn

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Re: Starting EASY?
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2007, 01:18:07 am »
The same as vadensmommy I have found over the past month or so as well, no matter what time Jalen goes to bed he wakes up around the same time. I had started his bedtime at like 6-7 pm depending on the day, and in trying to get him to sleep through the night my DH suggested a later bedtime, so we set on 8-8:30, still like clock work he woke up between 6-7 am. I wish it were as simple for me as putting him to bed a little later to get to sleep in a bit more!
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