Feeding question for a 6mth old

[marilyn73]

Hi Dingo,
At 6 months, we found that a CN from 5:00-5:30 or so, got us a bedtime of 6:45/7:00.  When dd was 4-5months, the same CN had her in bed around 7:30.  Bedtime has gotten progressively earlier, and now is never later than 6:40 (at 10 months).  And, she sleeps in later (7:30am), so the earlier bedtime has come along with longer nights.
Good luck!

[Jiinx]

you got some great advice from marilyn!

hope your night went well?

yup so a catnap is just a bridge from her last A to bedtime. The A time needs to be reduced so she's not OT by bedtime..so it sounds like you put her to bed at the right time. good stuff

[dingoheid]

Hi Marilyn & Jinx- thanks for the advice....always so appreciated!!

Had a great day today with my lo!  We've now been doing EASY for 8 days and still having excellent results!  My lo slept through the entire night last night...11 hours and 5 min :-)

My husband is putting our lo to sleep for the first time...wind down and all...he's doing it now as I type (while I'm listening in on our monitor:-)

Lo had an EW during a.m. nap this morning, 50 minutes into it...her activity time leading up to the nap was 2 hr: 45 min...I'm going to read about solid food...perhaps I need to up her amounts or once again increase activity time...the p.m. activity time  was exactly 3 hours today and she was out as soon as her head hit the crib- so to speak... so perhaps my 6 month old is at the 3 hour activity mark for both her a.m. nap and p.m.?   She could also have been teething as she was making a lot of 'mmm' sounds during the EW...


My question is...for the evening block, with no cat nap, is an activity of 3 hr 40 min reasonable?  This seems really long to me  but then again, lo is having 3 hours of activity times during the day...she went down easily again tonight...only 12 min. of shh/patt and 1 pu/pd...


Cheers,
Dingoheid

[Jiinx]

it may be a bit much...I think I would cap it at 3 hours and 30 minutes max. watch her cues is the best answer I could offer and just be open to moving the bedtime earlier?

[dingoheid]

At 1:30 A.M. , lo woke up fairly alert, calm & content (but was obviously awake).  I went in to do shh/patt for max 2 min. before I decided to let her relax in her crib on her own because she was so awake (in a calm way).  I went back into my bedroom and listened through the monitor and waited for about 5 minutes.  Near the end of the 5 minute she began to become frustrated and I went in to begin shh/patt….I had a feeling this was going to be different because she immediately relaxed again in her crib, lying there, but had her eyes wide open (if I hadn't look at her eyes, I would have sworn she was sleeping, but she was far from sleeping- just lying there with eyes open). I realized shh/patting was not going to get her to close her eyes and drift off to sleep….so I let her be on her own again and when she became frustrated again, I shh/patted….her frustration escalated and she worked herself up pretty good…she was moving a lot in her crib. 

She’s a tummy sleeper and several times began nearly rolling over on to her back (arm got in the way).  I think perhaps last night’s EW was partially lo practicing rolling over…after several attempts of rolling over (I didn’t know whether to encourage the rolls or place my hand on her hips to stop the rolls so I did both on and off) she did stop moving but by then, she was SO incredibly worked up, I had to pu/pd many time 8-10 just to get her crying under control…her crying was not a hungry one, nor a gassy one, nor a teething one (not that I could tell anyway).  .

In the end, it took her 1 hr 55 min to fall back asleep and even then, in her sleep she was still doing the heartbreaking sniffles!   I will post my EASY for yesterday and look forward to suggestions, comments and advice. 

E:  6:50 …6 oz & 18 min….total night sleep:  11 hr 10 min
A:  2 hr 45 min.  & 2 tbsp cereal @ 9:00
S:  9:32 with shh/patt @ 3 min & pu/pd x 2

EW:  10:25 (50 min. into nap) shh/patt @ 30 min. & pu/pd x 4- possibly
       teething…mm sounds.
        please note:  same thing happened as during Night's EW...laying content,
        but eyes open

      …a.m. nap total:  1 hr 30 min. (including EW)


E:  11: 35… 5 1/2 oz & 2 tbsp peas @ 2:25
A:  3 hr  (start wd @ 2:30)
S:  2:35:   with shh/patt @ 1 min. & pu/pd x 0  (Syd OT)
     

      …p.m. nap total:  2 hours


E:  4:35…6 oz & 2 tbsp peas, 1 tbsp sp @ 7:20
A:  3hr 40 min… (start wd @ 7:30 w 6oz bottle)  (in crib @ 8:02)
S:  8:15:   with shh/patt @ 12 min. & pu/pd x  1 (puked)

EW  1:30 a.m.…shh/patt 1 hr 55 min. with pu/pd 8-10 times
S:   2:25

E:    7:00 (regularish time)

[dingoheid]

Hi- quick update...lo is loving her naps today!  We're going with her cues today...usually her activity time is quite close to 3 hours...a.m. act was 2 hr 30 min. and this afteroon's activity time before p.m. nap was 2 hours 25 min...anticipating a good solid nap again! 

I will offer her the cat nap...hoping sometime b/n 5-6...based on her cues....will check in later...also hoping for a better night sleep for my lo....

[Jiinx]

I wish I knew an "EASY" answer for you, but your routine looks good. Since our kids are at that age where there's a tremendous amount of milestones - there may be disruptions in their sleeping that are totally unrelated to their day, yw? I know that's not as satisfying to hear

teething also throws the routine a muck and it manifests mostly at night.

hmm but your naps look good. Your As look good. The last A was a touch long. It doesn't sound like an overtired wake up..

See how tonight goes? in the meantime I'll think about possible answers...

[dingoheid]

Dear Jinx

I know that's not as satisfying to hear

On the contrary- your help has been so very much appreciated!  It gives me some peace of mind to know that I have somewhere to go for help!  I can now say, that on day 8 of EASY, I am getting much more confident in reading my lo cues and being able to figure out whether a cat nap is needed or not...I'm also realizing, many of the unknowns are up to my darling lo!   Today went awesome!  Nice long naps and great (shortened) activity play time!  I know she's probably catching up on her sleep from last night and her activity times will once again need to be lengthened towards 3 hours soon, and I'll be watching for those cues, but so far, so good!  Thanks a million:-)

[~Sara~]

Also want to agree with Sarah to wait and see how tonight goes before trying to "fix" a NW.  Sometimes our LOs like to keep us guessing.  I'm more of the mindset that once you notice a trend in a behavior or sleeping pattern, THEN you look at tweaking the overall routine.

Good luck with tonight!

[dingoheid]

Hi  A quick update- had a great night...11 hours 40 min of sleep!  Only woke up @ 5:20 in the morning...after a quick shh/patt, lo was back to sleep until 7:00!  We practiced rolling a little bit before she went to sleep last night...hope everyone else had a great night too!  Looking forward to a winter walk:-)

cheers
Dingheid

[Jiinx]

so wonderful to hear. You two are doing great. Keep it up.

[dingoheid]

Hi!  I have a tech question...I downloaded a pic...now working on the 'lilypie'...where oh where do I paste the ULR for my lilypie?  Can't seem to figure it out. ..and I really would rather not take all of my lo's p.m. nap time to figure it out   Too much laundry to do!  LOL.  I appreciate the help:-)

[Jiinx]

under your 'profile' and then copy and paste it into the space titled 'signature'

your daughter is adorable!

sarah

[dingoheid]

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for the info!  Plan on doing it right now!  It's all quiet here...hope you have a quiet evening too:-)

[dingoheid]

Hi!  Here's an update...

Overall, still going well...I think however that the honeymoon is over for now...I find myself getting frustsrated and thought I would share...

Overall...it seems shh/patt & pu/pd are getting longer especially the last few nights and especially during the EW...basically to get her to go back to sleep during an EW during night time, she needs to cry herself to sleep...I guess my concern is that I don't really think she's becoming an independent sleeper...she relies heavily on crying herself as a way of wearing herself out and then the shh/patt will work, but only once she's exhasted...I did see a steep reduction in shh/patt time in the first week, but now in the third, I think the 'getting her to sleep' once in her crib is becoming longer and longer...having said that, I am also very aware of how important it is to get her activity time right...she is close to 3 hrs for her morning and well over 3 hr for the afternoon block...

Last night I though I had timed everything perfectly, with an activity of 3 hr 40 minutes (20 of that being shh/patt) as her head hit the pillow I thought she would fall asleep by herself- that's now calm she was...she was incredibly relaxed...and then after about a minute, she got riled up and ended up crying (while I was pu/pd and shh/patting).  Just like this afternoon's nap, it was the crying that tired her out and then the shh/patt was able to work....


I'm having a hard time with the crying...It feels like every time I try to put her down, she ends of crying for most of the time...I feel like I'm doing something wrong...it's not that she's scared of her crib....because she doesn't fight me as I'm taking her off me to place her in her crib, she just cries and cries....

I'm hoping it's just a short phase because both my husband and I are so impressed with the results we got in the beginning, but now three weeks in, it's turing out to be a different story! 

Advice and thoughts are so apprecaited:-)

Cheers