6month old - still doing 2hr EASY

[sarahbears]

Help.....were stucking in a 2hr EASY during the day! I'm struggling to extend my DD A times.  And when I extend the A time she still wakes on the 2 hr mark and ends up OT by the end of the day.

About 3 weeks ago she would sleep through the night 7 to 7. And then do an hour up and an hour sleep.

I have tried to extend her A times by 15min. The first few times resulted in her sleeping longer. But now she will wake at the 2hr mark for E. Which means her S time suffers.

She is now also going down for the night earlier,  around 5 or 6. Which results in her waking earlier.  Luckly she has settled back to sleep after a feed.  I'm not sure if this time change is the result of the sun going down a bit earlier now we are headed into winter.

How do I go about extending the cycle,  or should I be leaving her schedule alone and still put her down for sleep after an hour A when she show tired signs. 

This is my second. My DS was a lot easier to extend!
Oh and she's BF

And she had silent reflux but seem to grow out of it by 3 months.

[Buntybear]

So she is wanting to feed every 2 hours in the day? Have you introduced solids? Could you post your EASY?

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

I'm guessing she has a bit of a snacking habit going on (unless the reflux is still bothering her?) as even a bf baby would most likely be able to do a 3/3.5 or even 4 hr EASY by 6 months depending on baby of course!  As for showing tired signs after an hour, by this age the classic tired signs can also be signs of boredom &/or just learned tiredness (ie she is so used to sleeping at the hour mark that she shows signs even if she could go longer). This link shows average A times and she is well below that for her age.

Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!

[*Ali*]

How long after the NF is she waking to start the day? I'm just wondering if she isn't hungry on wake up because of the late NF and so isn't starting the day on a full feed and is then snacking.

I think the major issue is the mega short A times. At 6mo most LOs would be on A time well over 2hrs and more likely closer to 3hrs. I'd keep extended in her A times and see if she will go to sleep at the 2hr mark (just to start with) without a BF and then keep adding 10-15 mins every few days. If she is awake from the nap too long before the feed then she is likely to want feeding earlier. If you can get her sleeping longer for the last part of the time before her next feed then she is more likely to go longer.

[sarahbears]

Yes I have started her on solids, 2 meals so far. Morning and night.

If she does a night feed she will usually go 2 to 3 hrs.  Last night she slept through again.

I agree that I need to extend her A times. Do I extend all A times in the day, or work on one? And by how much should I extend it?

I have been etending it by 15 minutes most A times, and it end up eating into her S time and she still wakes on the 2 hour mark.  Should I be trying to keep her awake longer to try and push her over that?

The tired signes I look for are red eyebrows and jerky movements.......but definitely could be learned tiredness.

I know she get frustrated at times as she hasn't quite learnt to sit by herself and she desperately wants to crawl.

[*Ali*]

I would keep her awake at least 2hrs. Feed her again after an hour if you have to but I would t be putting her to sleep before that.

[sarahbears]

Thanks Ali for tbe quick reply.

This is where I start to get a bit frustrated........it doesn't seem to work as expected.   So far the day looks like:

E: 6:40am
A: 6:50am
S: 8:25am

E: 9am


So her awake time was about 1hr 45, but she only slept for 35 minutes,    so only added 20 minutes to the cycle even though she was awake 45minutes longer, and now she's had less sleep.

Do I stick with trying to keep her up for 2hrs?

[*Ali*]

Yes I would because 2hrs is still really short for her age.

No chance of resettling after the 35 min sleep?  You'd probably have more chance if she was OT but maybe not after such a short A time.

[sarahbears]

Ok, I'll keep going.

I've never been able to get her to sleep but patting, shhing etc.  She's a self settler - blesing at times, frustrating at others!. If I try and settler her she just gets frustrated. Sometimes she puts herself back to sleep if left long enough. I'll leave her a bit longer if she wakes earlynext time.

[*Ali*]

Ok, if she wakes early and isn't crying I would leave her to see if she settles back down. Even if she doesn't it is more restful than being up.

[sarahbears]

E: 6:40am
A: 6:50am
S: 8:25am

E: 9am
A: 9:10am

Solids 10am

S: 10:40am
Woke at 11:20 but went back to sleep within 5 minutes to 12:45pm

E: 12:45
A: 12:55
S: 2:35pm
Only slept for 30 minutes. Left her there for 15 minutes, but she wasn't going back to sleep

E: 3:25pm
A: 3: 35

Solids: 5pm

E: 5:50pm
S: 6pm

The last awake time was longer than I wanted, but due to needing to feed my DS (2yr) I had to keep her up until my DH was home.  I did try and put her down after 1hr and 15min, but she wouldn't settle so I got her up again.


So about a  30min nap, 2hr and another 30min nap  And only 5 feeds today compared to the average of 7.

I'm hoping she'll sleep through the night as usual.

Please tell me we're headed in the right direction!

[Shdef]

Have you tried and stay with her during a nap? And resettle on the first stir? We never have any luck resettling when wide awake, but it does work when he isn't awake properly.

[sarahbears]

Thanks Steffi. I've never been able to settle or resettle her. But if I keep getting short naps I'll try it. Although it may have to be on a weekend when my DH is home as I don't think I will be able to distract my DS for long enough

[sarahbears]

She's done a short nap again this morning.  I'm starting to wonder if she is snacking, or not taking enough at a feed.  I felt like I had more milk left after her last feed.  I haven't got her up yet, been 15mins since she woke and she looks like she is tdying to go back to sleep, but sucking her fingers like mad, which is what she does when hungry........she may have gone back to sleep.

Will stretching the time between feeds help stop snacking?  I didn't want to go down the path of feeding her twice in a chcle as I feel that will  make things worse.

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yes stretching the feeds will help because if she goes longer she will take a fuller feed next time which in turn will help her last again.