extending morning wake up

[kingston's mama]

my lo usually gets up around 530am so i'm struggling to get him on a 12 night/12 day sched ... getting him down earlier than 7pm is tough for us and 8pm is best case ... so getting him to sleep later is really important ... on a good day, he'll fuss around in the crib and then knock back off until 630am ... my lo is 6mths, i am bf'g and pumping bottles - we started the 4hr e.a.s.y. this week - we're making progress - he slept 8pm to 530am last night without a wu, naps not so good, not lasting  longer than 30 to 45min at a time, lots of crying ... working the hmm/pat and the crying seems to be lessening - here's our daily routine ... any feedback would be greatly appreciated ...

I   6:30, 6.5oz bottle
   read, play
   7:30, rice cereal
   bathtime
   8:15, naptime
II   10:30, 6.5oz bottle
   read, play
   12:00, naptime
III   2:30, bf
   read, play
   3:30, rice cereal and fruit
   4:00, catnap
IV   4:30, 6.5oz bottle
   play, outdoor activity
   7:00, 6.5oz bottle
   bathtime
   7:30, bedtime

[RachelC]

I think your lo is undertired.  At 6 months, most los can handle at least 2-2.5 hours of awake time. http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64158.msg689373#msg689373   Not getting the A time in, the naps are short and the overnight sleep is lessened.

I wouldn't make the jump to 2.5 hours overnight, but slowly increase the A time over a couple days.

Do you leave him awake for naps, or are you there until he falls asleep?

[kingston's mama]

ah, okay - that makes sense - you know i've been struggling to get in feeds with a 4 hr easy ... he's only taking 6.5 oz per feed of bm by bottle ... and i'm trying to get a min of 30 oz in him ... i'm planning to step up the oz's in time, but i need to go slowly ... last night he spit up about 1/2 of the last bottle, but he did have a 10 hr night : ) today's napping was all over the map - here's the sched - put him down way too soon - i work early in the am so he's the one on early shift ...
E: 615, 6.5oz bottle
A: ?
S: 7 to 730 - cried til 8am
E: rice cereal and fruit (815)
A: bathtime
S: 9 to 945, 955 to 1125
E: 1130, 6.5oz bottle
A: read, play
S: 1 to 145
E: 2:30, bf
rice cereal mixed w/fruit
A: walk
4:30, 5.5oz bottle
A: read, play
6:00, bathtime
6:15, 5oz bottle
6:30, bedtime

[kingston's mama]

oh, and to your last point - i put him down awake ... hum/pat with music on in the background and in the past day he's been to sleep w/i 15 min or so - usually the crying escalates and then he's out ... the S above is an exception - i gave up at 8am and picked him up and fed him rc - the S that followed worked well - in fact i had to get him up 1125 ... 

[RachelC]

He probably wasn't tired enough and then when it was nap time at 9 he thought "this is more like it" 

Just to clarify, he's not crying himself to sleep, right?  Tracy was very much against allowing an lo to cry it out.

[kingston's mama]

for the most part, i stay in the room, if and when he cries, try and talk him down, hum, pat his back - i will go out for a 5 to 10 min break to get a hold of myself ... and during that time, low and behold, he has actually fallen asleep - so, the intention is to be there every step of the way, but sometimes if i don't remove myself, i'll cave and pick him up, or worse, start crying myself ... all in all, he seems to be crying less and less time each time and not to the point of heavy sobbing anymore   

[kingston's mama]

you are good rachel ... extended A to 2hrs this am ... he went to sleep w/i 5 min of going into the crib and is currently working a 1.5+ nap for the first time - ty ty ty

[RachelC]

FABULOUS!

You are very welcome