How do I do the EASY routine with a catnapping 5.5 month old?

[Mayflower7]

No worries   

So, I lengthen the A times and had a couple of good naps but still no luck on the whole. This is what the first EASY looked like in the morning for the last few days

Day 1

Woke up at 6.45am
E: 7.00
A: 6.45-8.40 (including wind down)
S: 8-45-10.00 (first ever long nap in ages!)

E: 10.05
A: 10.00-12.00
S: 12.05-12.30

E: 12.40
A: 12.30-14.30
S: 14.40-14.50 

E: 15.00
A: 15.00-16.00 (very tired due to earlier failed nap)
S: 16.00-16.30

Bedtime 18.20, asleep straight away


Day 2
Awake 7.40 (I know....I should be waking him up every day at the same time but I'm so sleep deprived atm that if DS sleeps late it's my chance to catch up on sleep seeing as I can't nap when he's napping!)
E: 7.50
A: 7.40-9.40
S: 9.40-10.20

E: 10.30
A: 10.20-12.00
S: 12.00-12.40

E: 12.50
A:12.40-14.20
S: 14.20-14.50 (fell asleep in pram whilst we were out A = walk)

E: 15.00
A: 15.00-16.30
Failed nap attempts

Bedtime 18.00, falls asleep immediately, no fuss, but frequent wakings throughout the night (18.30, 19.00, 20.00, 21.30, 23.45, 2.00, 5.00.....)

Day 3 (today)
Awake 7.15
E: 7.30
A: 7.15- 9.30 (was definitely OT when going to sleep as he fussed more than usual but still less than 5 min)
S: 9.30- 10.00 

So we are back on 30 mins naps again and DS is definitely OT as he's quite fussy whilst playing.  Aaa, these catnaps are really getting me down! He will be 6 months in a few days.

Thank you for your help so far!

[Buttonbobs]

So I think as you've held on a two hour A time for a couple of days and are still getting UT naps to begin the day and then he is becoming progressively more OT as the day goes one, can you stretch out to a longer first A time - try 2hours15 for a few days and see what happens.

(I know....I should be waking him up every day at the same time but I'm so sleep deprived atm that if DS sleeps late it's my chance to catch up on sleep seeing as I can't nap when he's napping!)

Don't worry too much about this - it will be part of him self regulating. I never work E in the morning at the same time, I know some do and some LOs need it, but just keep watching his cues and go by A time for the moment.

A: 7.15- 9.30 (was definitely OT when going to sleep as he fussed more than usual but still less than 5 min)S: 9.30- 10.00 

Fussing when going to sleep is not necessarily an indication of OT, but even if it is a sign that he is tired, it could actually be that he is very tired overall due to the UT/OT spiral. The way to get out of this is still to lengthen the A time, even though it seems counterproductive. Have a go and see what happens.

((hugs))

[Mayflower7]

Thank you! I will definitely keep trying, and will post an update soon!

[Mayflower7]

Update!

So, I've been doing 2 hours, then 2hr 15 min then 2.5hr wake times for about 10 days now and ....no luck! 

All the naps are still 30 mins. Should I just admit defeat and give up now...!? DS is now 6 months

Do I need to make the first A time even longer? It's quite hard keeping him up 2.5 hours as it is as he is clearly tired after being up for 2 hours.

[Buttonbobs]

I wouldn't give up yet, ((hugs)). Have you kept a record of any of the last few days that you could post for us to have a look at?

[Sarah - Enfys' Mum]

Hiya, just wondering if he suffers with reflux at all?  Have you started solids yet? 

[creations]

Hi, I haven't read the full thread but had a browse through.
The EASYs above show LO is feeding about 10 mins after waking so the E is less than 3hrs apart (one of them is 2hrs 20) it could be that he would feed better/more if you looked at extending the E even with short naps so he can take a larger amount of milk and keep himself going until the next E I would try to get to at least 3hrs between E. Most 6 month olds (and most 4 month olds) go 4 hr between E, this is a bit harder on short naps but I think he could go 3 hrs even if 4 isn't possible, don't you think?  My thinking is that smaller feeds on short E times mean he is ready for another E during his nap so less able to self settle and continue to sleep.

I agree he prob has a 30 min cycle (I think Naomi said this before), so probably waking UT, maybe hungry and perhaps also it's that he can't transition?  You could try W2S starting at 20 mins and right through the transition until he is in deep sleep.  But I think you would need to get the A time extended to see results from W2S.

If you are really fed up with these short naps and want to go full on to get into a routine then you can commit to keeping him in his room until the end of nap time (or almost the end) regardless of nap length and then keeping him up a full A following the 'end of nap time' rather than timing the A from WU (this is like using set times for naps for a few days, after the initial training period you return to watching cues and being more flexible if a slightly shorter or longer A is needed based on level of tiredness and stimulation) .  Doing this is very hard work and it is pointless to begin if you don't see it through, there is likely to be shouting and crying and frustration as you impose the new routine, but, a routine should be established in 3 days instead of going on for weeks trying to nudge the A time up.
It's your choice though.

[Mayflower7]

Hi all

Thank you for your replies. 

Yes, have started solids but at the moment they are not really 'meals' just a few teaspoons around 'mealtimes' (usually an hour after milk feeds), as DS isn't really that interested yet.

Reflux - consulted our GP on this (at 8 weeks though) and he ruled it out, and I didn't pursue it as DS didn't show any reflux symptoms.

Creations, you raised some really good points I hadn't considered. Yes, E is very frequent, and ideally I'd like to reduce these but I'm not sure how to do so given the catnaps. I also didn't think about how this might impact napping, but your points are very good and I'll need to go over my observations to see what's happening....

Regarding your point on the 'scheduling', yes, this is something I might consider if catnapping doesn't improve in the next couple of weeks. I was wondering initially if this kind of scheduling may work - whether LOs adapt to it - and it looks like this is something that is worth exploring, as a last resort! 

Does it really only take a few days to work?

[Mayflower7]

Also, here is today's EASY. All recent EASYs have been pretty much the same

 
Awake 6.40
E: 7.00
A: 6.40-8.50
S: 8.55 - 9.30

E: 10.00
A: 9.30 - 11.40
S: 11.40-12.10

E: 12.20
A: 12.10-14.10
S: 14.10 -14.50

E: 15.00
A: 14.50-16.50
S: 16.50-17.15

E: 17.30
A: 17.15-19.15
S: 19.15 (bedtime. So far, crying/screaming in sleep but not really 'eyes open' awake, at 21.00 and 22.00).
 
Looking at this EASY above, I think the previous comments about E really does make a lot of sense. I really need to pay more attention to timings of the feeds. I think I was just doing the 'feed after each nap' just to get DS to learn that feeding follows sleep. But yes, his post nap feeds are often very short, and even his longest pre-bed time feed is ten minutes max! He wakes up a lot during the night (pretty much every 1.5 to 2 hours.... on a rare occassion, 3 hours...), and I assumed he was waking out of habit, not that he may genuinely be hungry - if I feed him at night he never feeds more than a couple of minutes.

Ok, will start paying attention to this a lot more now, thank you all for your input.