4 mo will not do A longer than 30-60min without crying

[lalue8]

Mu LO is a touchy spirited baby. I cannot get him to stay awake longer than 1 hour as he will become overtired and really hard to calm down. His naps also only last 45 minutes. I have tried to increase his activity time but then was incapable of putting him to sleep for over tiredness. He needs 5 naps a day. Bedtime is 7 pm and up around 8am, feeds twice at night, around 3 and 6am. Activity is very low key. Help, as I feel like I am putting him to bed all day, and you time is very short, cant accomplish anything in 45minutes.

His bed time is getting more difficult too, he now starts screaming when I put him down and I have to do pupd for 45 minutes. He then wakes again 2-3 times in the next few hours. Before used to be much easier... 

[amayzie]

Ugh! Sounds like hard work!! The troubles you are having though with the short naps, the nap refusal and the bed time refusal are all realated to that A time being short. I am wondering if he's getting bored with the activity and instead of going to bed he needs a change of scene? Have you tried changing location or changing the activity when he starts to get grumpy? Also- do you have a carrier? Can you just put him in the carrier for a bit when he gets grumpy?

[brownc623]

That sounds a lot like my LO, he gets grumpy exactly at 1 hour after he wakes up. Its definitely hard on a mom having your baby fuss all the time, and short A + short naps = short fuse for me!

For us, we figured out that it was 1 hour after he ate that was the problem. I was misunderstanding his signals and thought he was tired when actually he was refluxing. He's much easier to manage when I have him on the right dose of his medicine. Have you ruled out medical issues?

Here's hoping there's nothing medical involved!

If its not medical, is your LO distractible when he's grumpy? If he is you could bounce from distraction to distraction for a couple days in order to acclimate him to a more age appropriate EASY.

I found this FAQ Starting E.A.S.Y. at Four Months or Older, and tried it recently. I set aside my fear of overstimulation and pulled out the big guns (toys with lights and music, and lots of funny noises with my mouth, as well as anything else silly I could think of.) It took about 3 days to see an improvement, but after 2 weeks I'm finally seeing 1.5 -2 hour long naps, what a relief!

Every LO is different, and you know your little guy best. I'm just tossing out a couple of ideas, I hope they're helpful!!

[lalue8]

Thank you. I agree that I should increase his activity time. I too am scared of overstimulation, as putting him to sleep then is terrible. Of how long should I increase his activity time? Straight to 2 hours or gradually. I am thinking gradually, but what do you think?

Maybe he is indeed bored with my low key toys. I could try more stimulating toys.

He now refuses to be in my carrier 

What would be symptoms of reflux? He is fine at night, so I always dismissed it...

[AnnaMommy]

Hey! I was reading this and you asked about reflux. Don't dismiss it because it isn't an issue at night! My daughter has had a rough time with reflux but it has only seemed to bother her at night a few times. Her symptoms include a lot of spitting up. She will squirm and sometimes cry when she is being fed. She used to get the hiccups constantly. She had a lot of wet burps. I could just tell when it was burning and bothering her. She would be very squirmy and arch her back.... She was just fussy and difficult and so much milk was coming back up. I just wanted to let you know that it rarely has affected her nighttime sleep. Also there is silent reflux to consider as well where the baby doesn't spit up like with regular reflux!

[amayzie]

Here's a thread to give you some more ideas too- great list already though from the previous posters!
Reflux 101 - General reflux information

[brownc623]

Definitely increase the A time slowly.  I tried 15 min at a time holding for 3 days before increasing again,  it worked well,  but you could even go as slowly as 5 min increments if you need to.

[lalue8]

So I have increased his activity time, but since then he has been getting worse and worse. He now fusses all day, cries during feedings, naps even shorter than 45 minutes, more like 20-30, and wakes every two hours at night. Settling to bed is still as difficult. Example of our days lately. Since he sleeps only 20-30 minutes, I have had to decrease the 4 hour easy. Pu pd is awefull, he cries the whole time, so I unfortunately gave up.
E7am
S9
E 9:45
S12
E 12:45
S 3
E 3:45
CN 5
E 5:45
Activity, bath, feed last time.
Sleep 7. Multiple wakings after, then a waking after 45 minutes, then every two hours plus minus.

[Fiver]

I know you might not want to hear this, but could he be hungry?  4 months is prime growth spurt territory.  I didn't see you say how he's fed, but you may need to move your feeds a bit closer together for a couple of days until the spurt is over.  If you're feeding on a schedule he might just be over hungry by the time you're getting to him, hence the not feeding so well.

[clairebear79]

Maybe you increased his a time too much too soon? I see youve gone from 1-2hrs in just a week & thats a huge jump at such a young age, esp with a touchy. My ds was also touchy & i could do no more than 5-10mins every few days. 2hrs a is more like what a 5month old would do so perhaps pulling it back to 1.5-1.75hrs may suit better.

Cant post link as on my phone but if u look on the easy board faq's theres a aticky called 'average a times and is my baby ready to increase his a time' which will gove you some guidance. The faq's also include sample easy routines for babies of same age which you may find helpful. Hth.x

[lalue8]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I am now trying to slowly increase his A time, with no success at increasing his nap times, but at least now the past few nights he was back to sleeping as before.