Getting the EAS sorted for a 4MO

[RosMum]

My  4MO has always been on a EAS structure, however due to eating issues up until now he has been a 2 hourly feeder. Note due to the eating issues my DS is quite light for his age, (hopefully all this eating will fatten him up a bit!).  Besides the eating issue (he was quietly starving himself)I have an angel/textbook baby who has always been extremely alert (aka nosey). He has been sleeping unswaddled for a couple of weeks as he was getting frustrated if he couldn't suck his thumb, he also has a paci to get off to sleep. He's always been quite good at putting himself off to sleep.

Now we have his eating sorted out (he is now on formula full time) I am trying to get him to four hourly feeds.   Currently we have got to 3 hourly without too much difficulty. However naturally I have a couple of questions.

His first feed is at 7am after his feed he is always tired, if I put him back to sleep he happily goes straight to sleep and sleeps for an hour.  Should I be trying to keep him awake?  And now he has woken at 8.30 and his next feed isn't til 10 so he often A for an hour then goes back to sleep (this "nap" usually only lasts 30min.)  If I don't put him back to sleep his EAS starts to become a ESAESA.

I notice he is also starting to sleep worse during the day.  He used to sleep for a hour at a time all day, but its becoming more like 45 minutes (and sometime just 15 then he wakes and it takes 20min to get him back to sleep and then its just 15min again).  The sleeps seem to get shorter as the day goes on.  Having trawled through this fabulous forum, I have tried to keep him up longer, and always put him down when I see tired signs.  But the longer A time isn't helping to extend his daytime naps.

How am I best to extend the naptimes.  I have been trying the Pat shush method, but my DS thinks its a huge game and spends the whole time trying to roll over and see me all the time giggling.  I find if I just put my hand on his chest it calms him down to sleep, but he still keeps waking every 15 min or so. Nighttime is not a problem bed at 6.30, DF at 10 and wakes hungry at 3.30am.  Wakes about 6.30am.

Thanks in advance for any help and insight.

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi and welcome

if his day is 630am to 630pm, then i'd definitely be trying to keep him up after that 7am feed. this is the one to work on so that the rest of your day can be on more of an EAS routine than ESA. if he is up at 630am then you could feed him a little earlier too, i wouldnt do it straight away as you dont want him to get used to eating as soon as he wakes, but maybe 645?? and then follow with some play time. once he starts showing tired signs, switch to some low key activites (walk around the house or garden, look out the window, sing some songs, read stories, cuddle with some soft toys, etc).

rather than jumping to a 4hr routine just yet, lets see if we can get him back onto a 3hrly routine in the right EASY order first. so if he is waking at 630am, aim to keep him up til as close to 745 as possible and then do wind down aiming to have him in bed and sleeping at 8am (watch his cues, if he's falling apart then put him down earlier and you'll have to extend more gradually over time). let him sleep as long as he wants up to 2hrs.

i'd keep feeds to around 3hrly for now and work on extending it once he gets used to some A time after E again. if he wakes early then it's fine to do AEAS but definitely work on having at least some A time after E even if it's just 15 mins.

let us know how you go. also future posts could you please write your routine as follows as it's just a bit easier for us to see what is going on:
E (when, how much?)
A how long (remember this is from eyes open to next sleep)
S when and how long? also note if he takes a while to settle to sleep or if you need to resettle during the nap.

[Rogue2009]

I empathize with you RosMom!  My 4 mo old is doing the same thing!  Hang in there, I'm sure we'll get these LOs sorted out!