Help with our routine please

[ericapt]

Hello
Just curious if anyone could take a look at our routine and tell me what I could do to improve it.  LO is 5 months old now and still only stays awake about 1.5 hours at a time, except for after his afternoon nap.  He generally sleeps through the night --If you count waking up 5-10 times because paci fell out or got out of swaddle--we USUALLY just have to go fix swaddle or paci and he goes back to sleep.  Here is our routine:
E  6 am
A  until 7:30
S  7:30-9 am
E  9 am
A  until 10 or 10:30
S  10 or 10:30-12
E  12 noon
A  until about 1:30
S  about 1:30-2:30 or 3 **this nap has recently been more difficult, harder to put down and not sleeping as long
E  3 pm
A  until 4:30 or so, but again he is VERY difficult to put down at this time and often doesn't nap again for the day
S  sometimes about 4:30 pm, but often not at all
E  5 or 5:30
A
E  about 7 pm
S  about 8 pm

**He is usually in bed/sleeping until 6 am, but as I mentioned at the beginning he has been waking himself up several times a night because paci fell out or he got out of the swaddle.  I'm sure we have a lot of things going on here, but would like to know how I can help him SLEEP through the night rather than wake himself and us because of props.  Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.  Please help if you have any advice.  THANK YOU ALL!
Erica

[akvareli]

Dear Erica,

Have you tried extending his A time very slowly, one cycle at a time? 5 months is old enough to last without feed for 4 hours so maybe you should start moving in that direction? Keeping him in 3 h EASY might be causing your problems with two last sleeps. When my dd was 3,5 her whole routine crashed because i failed to start moving her to 4 hours in time, it took us 10 days to get her back on track. thankfully now it's all fine.

one more question, do you generally prefer using the paci to thumb sucking? i am no expert but i do not think there is a way to stop him from waking up when his paci fells out other then to help him learn how to do without it...

good luck and keep us posted!

[ericapt]

akvareli-
Thank you for your advice, I will try to work on extending his A time gradually to get closer to a 4 hour EASY routine.  My only concern is that he is breastfed and I have read so much about how important it is to get at least 5-6 feedings per day which would not be possible on a 4-hour schedule.  As far as the paci goes.  I'd be totally fine with him sucking his thumb which he does occassionally during the day, but while sleeping he is unable to control his limbs yet and they always end up at his eyes/moving around when they are free of the swaddle.  Maybe this means he isn't ready yet?  I don't know, but I will try anything.
Thank you again!

[Grace's Mom]

A lot of mom's I know that BFed or are still breastfeeding didn't have a problem when going to a 4 hour EASY at 4-5 months.
Of course all babies are different, but their bodies are amazing and know to take in more when there are less feeds.

With a four hour EASY you'll get 4 full day time feeds, a df and possibly one night time feed if still needed....that's 5-6 feeds right there. 
And, some will only need 4-5. 

You can try the Aussie swaddle.
It allows them to be swaddled and still suck their thumb.

Melissa

[akvareli]

Dear ericapt,
my dd is also EBF, never given her anything else. The key is to move to 4 Easy gradually - so that your little one has the time to learn to eat more each time - this way the amount of milk he gets is the same, he just takes it in in larger portions and not so often. Of course, it is all up to you.
Just a little story from my experience to illustrate the point. When my dd was some 3,5 months I decided to try feeding her more often in the evening - before that she'd be on 3,5 EASY with feeds at 6, 9.30, 13.00, 16.30  and 18.30. After her last feed she had her bath time and went to bed. I thought that if I feed her at 18.00 when she woke up from her last catnap AND top her up after her bath time at 19.30, she will be less hungry at night and would sleep longer (shame on me, she already slept some 11 hours, what else did i want). well, this technique did not help her sleep any longer, but i have noticed that the time she'd spend at the breast at 18.00 drastically decreased - from 15-20 minutes to 5-7 (and just during this feed). the same went for that 19.30 feed. when i decided to drop this technique i had troubles weaning her out of that last 19.30 feed and increasing the intake during the 18.30 feed since she has learnt to eat less each time and started to actually NEED that 19.30 feed. So i learnt that in that case the number of feeds did not help her get more milk at all...

my dd is now the age of yours and she eats 4 times during the day+ df and sleeps 11 hours at night. Maybe in your case it will also be possible. Just try implementing the change slowly

as far as paci goes, i wrote to you in your other thread, i tried putting my dd on her tummy and it worked wonderful. she is also spirited/touchy with considerable textbook part though, but she just would not go to sleep on her back - so many things going around, no way. she was looking around herself, hand flailing, eventually she'd start crying and there was nothing i could to to put her to sleep. once i put her on her stomach to minimize the visual stimulation it got better - and it was way easier to sh/pat her, too. SO in three days she learnt to fall asleep on her own. that was our success story.
 
We will be waiting to hear news from you!

hugs!

Katka