What do I do now?

[Mostyn]

Hi,

My LO is on 19weeks old, today and is on a 4-hour easy, he is mainly breastfeed with 1 top up of formula (150mls), which I am trying to wean so I can go back to EBF. Anyway my problem is that at12 weeks he started to have daytime naps of 35-45 mins and with the use of shh/pat he is now extending one of his days sleeps up to 2hours, although it take me between 10-45mins to resettle him with shhh/patt and sometimes white noise. How do I get him to resettle himself? I should say he is swaddled, pacified and I only need to use shhh/pat to resettle.

Our current easy is this

E-6-7am
A-6-8
S- 8-10 (extended with shhh/pat etcsometimes taking 45mins)
E 10
A 10-12
S 12 - 1
A 1-2
E 2
A 2-3
S 3-330 (other get half hour with this one)
A 330-5
E 5:30
A bath,
In bed by about 630-7

Dropped dream feed last night as I was to tired and he slept thou until 6:15, only the second night in the last 3 weeks. He was previously sleeping thou to 5am so introduced dream feed to see if could get him to sleep longer.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, welcome to BW!  Have you read Tracy's books?  I assume that you have since you are familiar with shush/pat and how to help extend naps.  Sounds like you are working hard at it!  What you are doing will teach him how to resettle himself.  You won't have to use shush/pat forever, although it does feel like it at the time.  I think I spent a full 2-3 mths in my LOs room during all his naps lol 

At nearly 5 mths we would normally see kiddos having around 2-2.25 hrs A time.  Do you think he's ready for an increase?  He could be getting caught in an UT/OT loop where they have a short first nap with not enough A time behind it and then the next nap is OT and so forth.  45 mins is normally a classic UT nap for a lot of LOs.  Do you think his morning nap could be UT before you extend it?  Then when you extend his nap he has a lot of sleep and again short A time behind that sleep so he's getting a shorter nap next time because he's not as tired after his long nap, which leads to OT in the later part of the day due to short naps.

Could I also just clarify why you introduced the bottle top up and why you are ditching it?  There's a big growth spurt coming up at 6 mths.

[Mostyn]

I did the wake to sleep technique with his first nap this morning and he slept 2hrs and 15 mins, his 2nd nap of the day I went in and tried it staunchly it didn't work he still work up with a bit of a jolt. I used PU/PD to put him back to sleep and got an extra 30 mins. With a catnap of 30 mins this afternoon.

I've just managed to get him on 2nd A do you think I should try and increase that?
I'm also confused as to how long I'm meant to leave him up if he does EASASE with the first A been 2hrs and the nap been 45 mins, what would the next A be?

The reason that I introduced the bottle top up was because I needed a break and I got My husband to do his last feed of the evening with EBM eventually I couldn't express enough to feed him so swapped to formula, but he seems not to be coping with the formula, he has very green, foul smelling poop and seems in a lot of pain when he goes as well as small patch of redden skin so im trying to build my supply back up to allow for this feed. Im having difficulty as this feed is around dinner time in the house and with two older children, homework and dinner to prepare im not able to express straight after his feed.

[Tweakster]

Unfortunately there's no magic formula for figuring out how much A time after a short nap, I wish there was because it would have made my life a lot easier from months 1 - 7.5 lol  After a 45 min nap I would watch him carefully and follow any signs you see.  Keep activity low key and less stimulating.  It's likely he will manage 1 hr 30 but beyond that is anyone's guess.  Some LO can handle a full A time on a 45 min nap, it also depends on their first A time...and what their night was like...and whether they are hungry or not...a million different things.

It sounds like he may have an intolerance of some kind, have you noticed any issues with the breast milk?  If not then yes, it's probably best to stick with that for now.  You could also try other formulas, there might just be an adjustment period as they switch from breastmilk to formula.  Have you checked with your doc?

His naps look ok from what you have posted up there...W2S can help sometimes, especially since you have other kids and can't spend the time in his room.

How has it been going?

[Mostyn]

Yesterday was a horrible day, his first sleep was only 1.5hr with me doing W2S. And I think that might have mucked up the rest of the day. He only had a 45 min sleep with a fitful stretched sleep to 1.5hr, then 20mins and another 30min nap. He was really grumpy all day too. I think I might have been I an UT/OT cycle yesterday.

Today I have started the day by extending his A time to 2.25 hr and will try W2S very soon. Then I will keep the rest of the A time to 2 hrs for the rest of the day.

[Tweakster]

Hi there, actually 1.5 hrs is a great nap.  It's perfectly restorative.  Eventually you won't need to do shush/pat or W2S or HTTJ for naps, but napping is actually a skill that they have to 'learn'. 

Is your LO teething?  A 5 mth old with that reasonable amount of sleep shouldn't be so grumpy, even if in an UT/OT cycle, wondering is he's having some discomfort?

[Mostyn]

Everything has gone to complete custard here, his first nap is now 30 mins with me trying to extend with no luck. His second is about 1.5 and for two days I haven't had to intervene for this one but this are both before lunch and so the rest of the day he has only been having 20 min sleeps x 2. Today he has only had 2 16 min sleeps this afternoon, I think he is getting sick thou he has a runny nose which is unusually for a 5 month old.