Fishing for A times?

[empowered mama]

Hi BW friends,

Just started shh/pat with almost 4 month old DS 2 days ago and things are rough.  He has managed to get to sleep on his own without the paci, but is crying for 30-60 minutes until he gets there.  I feel that I am missing his A time, as yesterday he feel asleep for the morning nap without a tear at 1h45min A time.  I tried it again this morning to no avail.  At this point, I know OT is building up and I'm wondering if I need to tweak the A time to avoid all this crying?  Or is this just his learning to self-soothe?

Hoping for help!

[Ima shel Alon]

I remember you from when I first joined BW! You helped me on some thread and I was wondering where you disappeared. Congratulation on your "new" baby, glad to see you again .

It could be that this is his reaction to the ST and for things suddenly being different. I am not sure how you put him to sleep before ST but I guess there was some AP. There is usually a resistance when you start and do things in a different way.

Saying that, at 4m there is usually a big increase in A times when LOs transition from 3h EASY to 4h.
Are you sure he is OT with the 1:45h A time? He should be able to manage more than that by now or at least manage that. Would you like to post your day in an EASY format and we can have a look at the whole day?
You can also read more about the transition to a 4h EASY here: Time to Transition - 3hr, 3.5hr or 4hr EASY and 3-4hr EASY Transition – In 5 Minute Increments
HTH .

[empowered mama]

Oh, it is so lovely to see you again!  It has been about 3 years since DS1 and here we go again

You may be right on the adjustment to ST, though with my first he caught on right away and was a much more difficult sleeper than this one (he was spirited and this one is angel).  I think I was expecting it to be easier and we would have made a lot of progress by day 3.  He will settle in pretty easy at BT and the occasional nap, which is why I wondered A times.

You are right, we were using the paci for AP and now we need to make a change I do believe.  He will be 4 months in 3 days, so perhaps he could use a little bump in A time.  Can you remind me - if he takes a 45 min nap, how much should I shorten the following A time?  15 min?  30?

My EASY is all over the place right now due to ST.  I will try to scrape one together today to post...

So thankful to have BW support in these trying times - and wonderful to see us all pay it forward (and back again!)

[Ima shel Alon]

I would shorten the A time by 30min and take it form there. If the next sleep is UT (45min) then you know it's too much to reduce and he needed more A time.
Some babies (like mine was) need a full A time after a short nap :p but first I would try and shorten rather than offering a full A time.