7mth old EASY & EW

[wellywooder]

I have read that it is best to avoid the CN unless it's really needed and that an early bedtime works much better.

My LO suffers from EW...usually 5.30am! I have been letting her do a catnap late in the day as I feared putting her into bed early at night would just mean she'd wake even earlier in the morning. She's pretty consistent with two 1.5 hour naps, so would you just recommend that bedtime is no later than 3.5 hours after the 2nd nap finishes? ie. if she wakes from 2nd nap at 2.30 then bed would be 6pm? Wouldn't that mean she'd only sleep till 5am? My LO is still also waking in the night for a feed (she's 7 months today and we're only on two solids per day). Thanks!

[*Liz*]

Quite often if you drop the CN the night sleep extends to make it up. So then you get a big stretch of 11-12hrs sleep and that leaves them more rested. They still wake too early as they went to bed early, but as they are more rested you can push the first A back a bit and move naps back a bit. How long is your LO sleeping at night now though?

Could you prehaps post your routine in EAS format so we can have a proper look and see what needs doing to that wake-up time?

[wellywooder]

Thanks for your reply. Here is what happened yesterday:

E -woke at 4.55am so I treated as a night feed, but wouldn't resettle so I brought DD into our bed and we dozed on and off till 7.30am
E - 7.30 b/f
A
S - 9-10.30
E - 10.45 b/f
A
E - 11.35 solids
A
S - 2-3.30 (should have been 1-2.30 but we were out)
E - 3.30 b/f
A
E - 4.45 solids
A
E - 5.55 b/f
Bath - 6.10
top-up b/f (one side only)
S - 6.40

We are just starting today and LO woke at 6am to start the day. which would be fine, but she was also up twice in the night! Once at 1.30 and again at 4am.

I should add that I've always found it difficult to know when my LO is hungry so I've usually stuck to particular times to feed her. I've wondered if we should just try to resettle her if she wakes prior to a particular time in the night (say, before 3am). And anything after 3am would be a night feed. We've also never had any luck with the dream feed and I'm guessing it's way to late to be making an effort to get that going?

Thanks for your help!

[*Liz*]

Do you do a DF?

How is your LO getting on with solids?

Yesterday was good on paper - but I'm guessing that isn't standard with the back to sleep part?

What usually happens with the EWs.

[wellywooder]

We have never had any success with the DF. And I guess it's prob too late to introduce as most people tend to start weaning from this at 7 or 8 months??
DD is usually really good about going back to sleep after a night feed - no assistance required. I just worry that by feeding her at night it's affecting her appetite in the daytime and we're in the middle of a vicious circle.
When DD EW's my partner usually gets up with her and keeps her entertained until about 7am when I get up to do the first feed.

[*Liz*]

No - I wouldn't add one at this age either.

What do you do with the first nap after an EW? Today was only 1.5hrs A time before the nap - do you do A times or are you pretty much doing set nap times at the moment?

I think we need to shove her day back really and avoid a late CN.

[wellywooder]

The morning above was only 1.5hrs A time because she hadn't really been sleeping since 5am...just having the odd 5 mins here and there until 7.30, so I just went by tired signs and that was about 9am. Usually if she wakes at 5.30am I put her down about 8.30am.

[*Liz*]

Perhaps the best palce to start is trying to push that first nap back by 10-15 mins and see if we can just push the day forwards a bit - kind of the same as we would do for times changes. As if the clock said it was 6.30am and not 530am then all would be well really  .

Have a read of this
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=161836.0

Perhaps increasing the A a little might also make the naps closer to 2 hrs and then it would be super easy to do without the CN anyway.

[wellywooder]

Thanks for this. Last night LO was asleep by 6.45pm after having one 1.5 hr nap and 2 x 45 min naps and she slept till 3am, had  a feed, then back to sleep until 6am. I wonder if she only needs max 3 hours sleep per day?

[~Kiki]

Wow! Sorry no help here, but wanted to let you know you're not alone. I was just going to post almost the exact same post

[*Liz*]

That sounds like the right amount of sleep for a LO of this age.

Would be better if it was 2x 1.5hr naps though.

Do you think the A time between the 2 might have needed to be a bit more?

But YEY to the great night 

[wellywooder]

I think the problem is that we were out in the morning and DD was either OT or UT (we were at a Gymbaroo class so could be OT).

I just about don't want to put this in writing for fear of jinxing us, but we're just starting the day now and LO was asleep by 6.45pm last night, woke at 3.15 for a feed, then up at 6am to start the day - not bad!

LizJ - Thanks for all your help
Kiki - Thanks for your support - hope your LO sorts out and my LO keeps going the ways she has for the last two nights!