15 wk old on 4 hr EASY for feeds but not naps

[brenda2]

great you got a good first nap!  often that first A time is short so keep it the same for now and after the long nap aim for 2 hours, i agree she likely needed more a time here.  then you did the right thing by reducing A time after the short nap to 1 hour 25 min, but since she did a 1 hour nap here i think she may have been able to tolerate a bit more - maybe aim for 1 hour 35 min after a short nap if it happens again.

outings are tricky, so i won't comment on the evening...it won't be your typical evening anyway.

so tomorrow if she does a catnap in the evening i would aim for bedtime 1.5 hours after she wakes from catnap.

tweaking takes time.  give yourself a week of being consistent with the A times and shortening them after a short nap and then hopefully she'll be back on track

[lilac83]

Here's how today has gone so far:

E: 6oz @ 7:45am (she went 12.5 hrs last night!)
A: 7:40am - 9:10am
S: 9:10am - 10:45am

E: 5oz @ 10:55am
A: 10:45am - 12:00pm (short A time but we were out to lunch and she was extremely stimulated and tired when we got home)
S: 12:00pm - 1:00pm
 
E: 6oz @ 1:40pm
A: 1:00pm - 2:30pm
S: 2:30pm - still sleeping as of 3:30pm

She seems to want to revert back to eating every 3 hours by the afternoon, although her naps are definitely improving (thank you for that!) I think her 30-45min nap issue has been resolved for the time being. She's also sleeping better at night (if that's possible). She slept for a straight 12 hours last night!

[brenda2]

naps look great today!  the short A  time was followed by a 1 hour nap which means she was Ut for that nap and could have done probably 1.5 hours.

i'd say she's comfortable with 1.5 hours A time.  some babies take a while to transition to 4 hour EASY which is totally fine, just stretch her really slowly.  we weren't on a 4 hour routine until closer to 5 mo, especially for the first A time which always seems to lag.  there's no rush.

keep us posted.

[lilac83]

The weekend was a little crazy with the holiday, but for the most part she is taking 2 good naps but still resisting the catnap. I think it's probably due to the fact that 5 of the 7 nights we are out running errands. She will sleep in her carseat in the car but as soon as the car stops her eyes pop open. So she is having 2 short catnaps in the afternoon.

I have been putting her down at 7 instead of 8 and she is still waking the same time she was when I was putting her down at 8. So she has increased her night sleep an hour each night as well!

She is on 4 hour eating schedule and is actually doing very well at 1h 45m to 2hrs of A time, so basically she is following the 4 hour EASY! I am surprised!

Just wanted to update and say thank you for all your help!

[brenda2]

sounds great!! keep it up!  if the 2 short catnaps is working for you and for her (sounds like it is) then that's fine.

[lilac83]

Hi, I'm back
Everything was going great, then we had a crazy long weekend which I think caught up with her on Wednesday. She was so OT, had EW and was just a general mess. I think I've worked out the OT again doing what we had talked about previously, but now today she's been consistently taking 45 min naps. She's going down easy and waking extremely happy, so I believe she is now UT! *SIGH*

Also, with her new earlier bedtime of 7:00 (8:00 was worsening the OT) she started waking at 5:30 to eat. This would have been 10.5 - 11 hours since she last ate. I know she's hungry so I've been treating it more as a NW than as an EW. However, she will not go back down! I think part of the problem too is that she hit a growth spurt because today she's been eating every 3 hours pretty much and drank 32oz when she usually drinks around 25oz!

Here's how today went, and I'm just wondering if I should take the chance of OT again and keep her up for 2+ hours of A time and what I should do about the NW/EW if it happens again.

Awake: 5:30
E: 5:45 6oz
A: until 7:45
S: 7:45 - 8:15 (She was definitely still OT for this one)

E: 8:45 6oz
A: until 9:30
S: 9:30 - 10:20

E: 11:40 6oz
A: until 12:00
S: 12:00 - 12:45
A: 12:45 - 2:10
S: 2:10 - 2:20 resettled 2:25 - 2:35 (woke completely happy)

E: 3:15 6oz
A: until 3:30
S: 3:30 - 4:15 (she didn't fall asleep at the bottle, that's how fast she drank I did 1 min wind down and she was out)
A: 4:15 - 5:45
S: 5:45 - 6:05ish (catnap during walk)

E: 7:15 8oz (geez!)
S: 7:40

Thanks!

[brenda2]

well gs do throw things off.  that may be why she's waking to eat at 5ish and if she is hungry then feed her as you have been and try to get her back down.  but if she is awake and stays up then it really is an EW which means OT as does the 30 min nap you got this morning.  if she wakes that early again i would do a rather short first A time, less than the 2 hour,maybe 1.5 hours.  she's waking early because she's OT so won't be able to handle a long A time first thing.

then i would shorten up the A times for the rest of the day.  you're doing well to get in lots of naps (except that 10 min nap which wasn't much good  )  it can take a while to get caught up on sleep.  your a times looks good, just keep truckin and try to keep them short and fit in naps.  hopefully another few days of the short A times and lots of naps and things will start getting better for you. 

you were getting long naps is that right?  so she probably just needs some catch up time.

[lilac83]

Yeah, she was giving me 2 hour naps for a few days. It was wonderful. Then with Labor Day we were gone 2 days in a row all afternoon and by Wednesday it really hit her. Plus a gs on top of it. I will try my best to get her caught up this weekend, but we have my dad's birthday to go to on Sunday, so...
Things just never slow down around here and she's not a very mobile sleeper. I don't know why she never learned to sleep on the go as my husband and I never stayed home with her. She already had been to walmart at 3 days old!
So the battle continues...
Thanks for the help once again!