Time to move to 3 naps? 4 hour EASY?

[RebekahDSC]

DS will turn 4 months next week!  I suspect he is starting to need less daytime sleep as he is waking earlier in the am and sometimes having a nw besides his 2 feeds which he didn't used to do. About a week ago we switched from 1 hr 20 min a times to 1 hr 25 min and the last couple of days we've been experimenting with 1 hr 30 min a times. It is hard to judge exactly what works best for naps as he still takes most of his naps in the baby carrier on me and when he is sleeping in his bed during the day he wakes up a lot no matter what a time we do. Here is a sample of our typical easy (I realize it's later than most but it works well for our family):

Wake up 9:00
Eat 9:45 (too close to second night feed for a feed immediately on waking)
Nap #1 10:30- 11:10 in bed, 11:30-12:20 on me
Eat 12:45
Nap #2 (slightly shorter a time to compensate for broken first nap) 1:30-3:00
Eat 3:15
Nap #3 4:30-5:15 (for some reason he likes this to be his catnap... Sometimes he wakes on his own)
Eat 5:15
Nap #4 6:05- 7:35
Eat 7:45
Bedtime 9:00
Usually has 2 night feeds, between 2:00-3:30am and between 5:30-7:30am... Lately sometimes has one or two other nws, not counting multiple wakings between the second feed and getting up for the day... Thus the fact I think he needs less day sleep to take a longer night

By the way, he also recently started teething

Do you think it's time to move to 3 naps and/or a 4 hour EASY? Any other issues we should address? Thank you so much!

[Buttonbobs]

I do think you are right about the need to increase A time and move towards a longer EASY. You're approach seems good too - just adding a few minutes at first. You're also getting good results by using a shorter A time after he first broken nap so I'd definitely say follow your instincts.

The only "issue" to note, although I hesitate to call it that, is the napping in a baby carrier rather than in a cot. I say this because the "ideal" EASY is aiming for independent sleep. There is a risk that your lo could become dependent on being I the carrier to nap. However, he Is still really small and hey grow big so quickly, it is not a negative to enjoy this time with closeness. Also with an older LO it can be harder to find time to sleep train at this stage, with so many naps. So really what I'm saying is this is on,y an issue if you begin to feel it is, and you can deal with it then.

Hope that helps

N xx

[RebekahDSC]

Thank you for the reply, Naomi! I'm trying to figure out whether to keep pushing his a times longer and have a longer day and shorter night for awhile or whether to stick with an hour and 30 a times but move to 3 naps which may not be enough total a time in a day. or maybe try jumping straight to an hour and 45 a times with three naps. What do you think is the best approach to the transition? I'm also unsure of whether to increase all a times at once or one at a time. Any thoughts?

About the carrier...We actually had him sleeping in his own bed most of the time when he was really little but then at a few weeks old we started having reflux-like symptoms and found he slept better upright on us. Now we got that under control with me on a dairy-free diet since it seems to be mpi. But I think it already became a prop. We'll have to sleep train him eventually, I know. Starting EASY from the beginning I thought we would do so well at avoiding props but the mpi really messed that up!

Thanks again for the great advice!

[Buttonbobs]

What do you think is the best approach to the transition? I'm also unsure of whether to increase all a times at once or one at a time. Any thoughts?

At this age, I personally think a gradual transition tends to work best. I always increased A times across the whole day for E as she is fairly textbook and coped well with the increases across the board. If your LOs temperament is such that you think this would be too much, you could always go with getting the first A time increased first and then work on the second etc.

I would definitely expect the day to get a little longer first and then as you drop the CN the day will get shorter again. If you see what I mean.

About the carrier...We actually had him sleeping in his own bed most of the time when he was really little but then at a few weeks old we started having reflux-like symptoms and found he slept better upright on us. Now we got that under control with me on a dairy-free diet since it seems to be mpi. But I think it already became a prop. We'll have to sleep train him eventually, I know. Starting EASY from the beginning I thought we would do so well at avoiding props but the mpi really messed that up!

Don't worry about it for now, E had reflux and this also affected her independent sleep at the start. She's now a good IS and after the occasional blips, it doesn't take much to get her back on track. You can work on this when you're ready and having an age appropriate routine will help this process. In the meantime, just enjoy the baby snuggles