5 months old - off schedule

[kdewolde]

Hello,

I have been doing the EASY routine since my son was very young. He has always had sleep issues, however, he was always great with the EASY routine. My issue is that he seems to be cutting out naps then eating and falling asleep at the breast. I do not want to complain because he has been sleeping straight through the night lately. THis is our day

7am - wakes up and eats (in bed with me and coos until we go to the living room at approx. 7:45)
9 am - I try to put him down but he shows no signs of sleepiness
10:30 or 11 - eats and falls asleep at breast

11:30 or 12 - wakes up and I feed him again to try to stay on the EASY routine (I'm not sure if this is right)
2pm - try to put him down for a sleep but again does not seem sleepy and will cry if I try to get him down, cooing etc. as soon as we leave nursery
3pm - feed again because he is hungry (will fall asleep at breast but doesn't stay sleeping after I remove from breast)

5pm - Cluster Feed (may fall asleep but won't stay asleep)
7pm - Cluster Feed and give him rice cereal
7:30pm - Bath
8 pm - Bed (will go down easy for this), sometimes he wakes up once at 10ish, eats, and then goes back down

I am quite discouraged as he was on a consistant EASY schedule and I could use sh/pat to get him to sleep with out any difficulties. Now if I do sh/pat he gets so mad... and won't go down, will stay awake until his next feed and then fall asleep. Today I tried to just put him in his crib and tried pu/pd but he couldn't be calmed even when I picked him up so I don't quite understand how to go from there. I don't understand why this has changed suddenly!!

Please help! Thank you!

[*Kara*]

I would first try to push his first A time.  I would be willing to bet that he is UT when you are putting him down and that gets him into the UT/OT loop for the day.  You are very lucky that he doesn't wake multiple times in the night

At 5 months, his A time could be a touch higher than 2 hours... especially if he is closer to 6 months of age... also, the time spent in bed with you may not actually count as "full" A time - meaning that 45 mins might be more like 30 mins in terms of calculating his A time, KWIM?

Here are typical A times:

5 months 2 hours - 2.25 hours
Late 5 months/early 6 months 2.25-2.5 hours
6.5 - 7 months 2.75-3 hours. Some are getting more.

[kdewolde]

This morning he just went down for his morning nap... he woke up early today at 6 so I waited until he seemed tired. We sat down read 2 stories in the nursery he was fussy so we stopped and I started to sh/pat in the chair. He screamed and screamed, arched his back etc. for 20 mins and then I bf him (he drinks a full feed, so he seems hungry) and he is now asleep. I think he is tired but he seems hungry so he can't sleep. I don't know maybe I will try to push his A time longer when he wakes up and see if this works.

The only thing I don't get is how to push A time without him getting hungry. He eats every 3 hrs because he is bf (and 21lbs so he is a big boy and needs lots to eat).

Thank you fro your help

[*Kara*]

How long was his first A time?  There are people all over the world on this site - so our time zones are likely different.  Please be sure to include times in your posts so that I can get an answer to you quicker

Do you know what his BW personality type is?  Sounds to me like he doesn't want a very long wind down... for example, my DD's WD at that age was a bum change and a couple mins of snuggles and into the crib.  Anything more would just irritate her - it took about 3 mins.

You can always do a top up feed before a nap, just make sure that he has that feed a few minutes before you expect him to need a nap - or make it part of his wind down, just change his bum afterwards to ensure that you don't feed to sleep.