4 month old chatting in cot

[Cluckylollie]

Hi it's me again 
Lately my LO wakes up in the morning and just chats happily in his cot. Although I have a monitor he doesn't usually wake me. So when I do wake and hear that he's awake I go in and he has big smiles for me.
The question is how do I know how long he's been awake for?
He seems to be starting his babbling after naps too. I'll write his EASY down starting tomorrow but it will be all over the place. He's on a 4 hour EASY at the moment but we're struggling to extend naps and A time.

[~Sara~]

The question is how do I know how long he's been awake for?

That's hard to say, hon...is there any way that you could set your alarm to wake up and listen for him?

Unless his naps are short--and he's waking up babbling from them--I think he just sounds like a happy little boy   If his naps are on the short side, then increase his A time by 10-15 minutes every 2-3 days until his naps are long again.

[Cluckylollie]

Thanks Sara
I was going to get up early to figure out when he's waking but he tricked me and woke at 5:30 and I couldn't get him to settle without a feed. I thought he was treating it as a night wake as he usually doesn't get up until 6:30-7 but I couldn't get him to go to sleep. He just smiled and talked to me for an hour until I gave up and got him up. Oh EASY is sure going to look odd today.

His naps are short so I'm trying to extend his A time gradually. He was at 2 hours but has struggled to get back up there after his last growth spurt where he was pretty much just eating, sleeping and grizzling. We're at 1 hour 45 minutes for the last two days.
I was just able to extend his morning nap in the first time in over a month!
Very excited Mummy over here!

[~Sara~]

I was just able to extend his morning nap in the first time in over a month!

It's the little things that count, right?

Well, let me know how you're doing, okay?

[Cluckylollie]

Just a little update.
I've been extending DS wake time to 1 hour and 45 minutes the last few days and he's doing really well. I haven't been able to stretch him to two hours yet Due to shor naps.  We've been out and about a bit so I've decided to devote the next three days to staying at home to get his naps sorted.
His wake ups are still all over the place but I'm hoping that will settle once his A time is up to 2 hours.
Today is looking lovely so far.

WU/E: 0645
A: 0700-0830
S: 0830-still asleep now! That's nearly two hours. I extended twice and it's definately getting easier to settle him.

So I'm aiming for a two hour A time after this nap.
Thanks so much for your help

[~Sara~]

Wow--that's fabulous!!  I hope things have been just as great these past couple of days

Re: wake-up times--as in when he starts his day--I had an allowable 15-20 minutes on either side of the norm.  For DS, it was 7am, so if he woke between 6:40-7:20, that was normal for us.

Keep me posted!

[Cluckylollie]

Everything is just such a mess now that I don't know where to start. DS NEVER wakes at a regular time, sometimes treating 6am as a NF and sometimes as WU. Today he woke at 6am and I attempted to resettle him three times and he did drift off only to wake 5 minutes later. He wasn't really showing hungry signs but I ended up feeding him at 645 and he fussed a bit. He always takes a full feed but vomits if he didn't really need it. He has reflux. He seemed tired but still wouldn't settle so I got him up. We made it only until 730 and he's back to bed. I tired to stretch him until 8 but he was starting to fuss.

Some other info is that he had a quite late night feed at 240am(usually around midnight). At 6 he had wet right through which happens everynight now(I'm making some bamboo inserts for his cloth nappies as he wees through everything including disposables). He screamed when I was changing him which he does when he's tired.
Just now before I put him to bed his nappy was dirty but he wasn't bothered. He went down easily swaddled with his paci and lovey.

It's hard to have a good day when it starts with me all confused and DS having a short nap. I'm also worried because since I've been trying really hard to extend his naps with shh/HTTJ i think I might be becoming a prop. He used to settle to sleep easily and sleep well up until the sleep cycle transition but now I need to HTTJ and shhh for the first cycle too.
I don't know where to begin. Should I just start over and observe for three days?

This post I all over the place but I guess I'm a little all over the place ATM.
Please help. I'm feeling desperate.

[~Sara~]

Oh dear   I didn't know he has reflux...is he on meds for it?  If so, is his dosage right?

Can you post what his day looked like for either yesterday or today (just a 24h glimpse)?  That will help get a sense of what's going on...

*hugs* hang in there!

[Cluckylollie]

Thankyou for the reply.
We actually had really good naps yesterday but I'm still confused about the WU/NF business. Here is yesterdays EASY:

WU:0600ish (I didn't hear chatting just his coughing call out noise)
E:0645 (after I couldn't settle him back to sleep)
A:0700
S: 0730-0815 (grizzled for 10 minutes but couldn't resettle himself)
S: 0830-0915 (fussed for 1-2 minutes then back to sleep himself!)
WU: 0930 (may have been woken by DH getting up. Chat for 20 mins before calling me)
E: 1000
A: 1015
S: 1130
nap extended twice easily with HTTJ
WU: 145
E: 2pm
A: 2:15
S: 3:15 (fell asleep in the car)
    3:30 moved into cot, woke slightly
    3:45 resettled himself
WU: 4:40
E: 5pm
A: 5:15
E: 6:45
S: 7pm

NW: midnight
NF: 0200
NW: 0400
WU 0630

So our EASY was more like AEASY but such a big improvement.

He is still waking overnight at his old feeding times of midnight and 4am but resettles very quickly with his paci. TBH his old feed times are much easier because of the long stretch between 4am and his WU. Now that he wakes at 6-6:30 I don't really know what he wants. He'll have a feed but seems to want to go back to bed.
Do you think he just needs a short first A time of 1 1/2 hours?

Today's EASY started at his 0630 feed and his first nap at 8am. I hope today is as nice as yesterday!

He is medicated for his reflux and only seems to be bothered by it when it's getting close to his med time. He's on the maximum dose of losec for his weight (although here in Aus the doses are tiny).