EASY Tweeks needed for 5mo

[thirstymama]

Hi There,

I have a few tweaks to our EASY that I could really use some help with that I can't seem to find answers to elsewhere. My very spirited DD2 is just over 5 months old now and is doing pretty well and is on 4-hour EASY most days. I've followed BW since bringing DD1 (Angel/Textbook) home from the hospital and DD2 has been quite a challenge but we have come a long way! We got over the 45min nap and she is now doing decent naps (however, not always very consistent times) of 1.5-2.5hrs. She has also (dare I say this too soon??) started STTN which is amazing because not that long ago she was doing 1.5+ A time during the night. But now even though DD2 is STTN (hooray!), she seems to be consistently waking at 6-6:30 whether she's in bed at 7 or 8:30. So perhaps 6ish is her natural biorhythmic waking time, I'm not sure.

So my first question is when should we drop the third nap? Is 5 months too young? I knew DD1 was ready when she wouldn't take the last nap, but DD2 takes it just as easily as the others. Right now DD2 is doing almost 2.5hours A time, although that may be a bit much. OT could be part of what is going on here, not sure. She's only just 5 months and it seems a bit early, I think most babies are dropping around 6-8 months? The days are getting very long with her last catnap making a 13+hour day.

Which leads to the other issue of EW. Anyone know how to tell the difference between natural waking time and an EW? Some nights are only 10ish hours, which doesn't seem like enough. I am trying to get her to bed a bit earlier but we are having trouble dropping off to sleep.

Which leads to our last problem of dropping-off/independently to sleep. I've never been able to get DD2 to drop-off to sleep very easily/quickly and I'm getting quite frustrated and feeling like I'm turning into a prop, or maybe I already am? She is quite spirited and doesn't seem to relax until the moment she goes to sleep. Our wind down routine includes a bath, I recite a bedtime story while putting on diaper, feed, then sleep-sack, quiet & darken the room, quiet then lullaby and my final bedtime cue "time for sleep..", then popping her down on her tummy. Right now she is rolling around all over the place and squawking until she finally relaxes. I try to leave her (she's not really crying), but she just keeps rolling around and getting excited so I turn her over until eventually she cries out of frustration and I pat/shush her to sleep. So anyone have tips to help her sleep more independently? I've read-up on PU/PD but she's not crying. We may be in an OT cycle but I fought her A time at night, so I might just be scared to put her down too soon.

Today's EASY looked like this:

6:15 wake-up yelling, then quiet
6:30 E
8:30 E
9:00 S
10:30 E
12:30E
1:00 S
2:30E
4:30E
4:50-5:25S
A Family Dinner, Bath & Bedtime routine
7:00 E
7:20 in bed, took 15min or so to get to sleep…
10:30-11 DF

..then cross fingers for the morning!

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions!

xo

[Honeymonster]

Hello! I'm by no means an expert and still struggling to get into a routine with my own LO who's just 5months aswell, all I can say is that after a 30min catnap my LO is often ready for bed before 2hours. Maybe 1.45 including time to fall asleep.. It does seem quite a long day. My LO is currently the opposite and mostly doing a 12.5hr night and 11.5 hr day just now. But we get a 6am wake up when she's OT. Also the wide awake until asleep sounds slightly like my LOs OT crash out. What happens if you don't go in on the ew? Sometimes my LO just goes back to sleep with a little mantra. Two suggestions you could maybe try but I'm sure you'll get loads more from more experienced BWers on here.. Have you tried treating the 6am ew as a night feed? Don't talk and keep things dark etc and put LO straight back down? If I get and ew cos of overtiredness she usually actually looks wide awake but when I treat it as a NW goes right back down and sleeps until 7.30/8ish. I do a top up feed on wake up then start the day.
Second suggestion is maybe just try and put her down 15/30 mins earlier..what's the worst that can happen? She won't go to sleep and you get her up for ten mins then try again? Maybe worth a try?

Can't comment on the dropping the catnap issue but if both fist naps are 1.5 hrs I'd say it'd be a push to drop it soon as it'd leave too long an a to bedtime. Will keep watching for any other advice you fet. Good luck

[jessmum46]

Have you seen this? All about the 3-2 transition- 5/6 months

If she is doing decent naps then it's perfectly possible that she could be almost ready to drop the catnap.  We were done with it by 6 months with DD.

My understanding is an EW is a WU less than 10h from the time LO went to bed.

The EASY you posted looks pretty perfect!  If you think her nights are getting too short or BT is becoming a battle I would cap her catnap to 30/25/20/15 mins (may want to shorten progressively) and aim to have her in bed for 7pm if you can.

With regards independent sleep, if she'd not crying then just leave her to it.  If she gets upset and it's a real I need you cry, then use pat/shh to calm her (if that works for her) but don't continue it all the way to sleep.  As in, just do the minimum needed to help her calm down but let her fall asleep by herself.

In terms of winddown, DD never comes out spirited on the quiz but I'm pretty sure she is, goes at 100 miles an hour until she sleeps.  Literally will be jumping around her room 5 mins before sleeping!  I found a short winddown worked best for her at that age and then giving her space to settle herself.  My efforts to calm and soothe I think
had the opposite effect!

One last thing (just for the benefit of any others who may be reading) - just wanted to highlight that safe sleep recommendations are that a baby of this age should always be placed on their back to sleep rather than their tummy.  We'd always recommend that any alternative sleeping position should be discussed with a health professional

[thirstymama]

Thanks for the note about tummy sleeping, you are totally right. I was super resistant to do that too, DD1 was a back sleeper no problem and I could shush/pat her on her shoulder. DD2 needs it straight on her back and I waited as long as I could. She just wouldn't settle, so when she started rolling over and escaping the swaddle I made the switch. I fully realize it's not recommended but she is sooooo mobile now I'm not concerned. I'm fairly sure she will crawl any day now.

Thank you so much for both of your suggestions. I didn't want treat it like a night feed because by the time I feed and put her back to bed it's when everyone in the house is starting to get up and it makes the rest of the day wonky because she's not hungry when I wake her 30min-1hr later. I was cutting the catnap shorter and shorter but I thought it had to be a full cycle of sleep (45min-ish) to be worth it? Maybe that's for younger babies, I could be wrong. It just ended up being more work to get her down than the length of the nap itself.

So things started to get really crazy, she started waking from naps at the 30min-45min mark, taking up to an hour to settle at night and EW at 5:30ish, so I have decided to drop to two naps. I was just resisting it, but all the signs were there, she's still so little!! We dropped to three naps early, so I guess she's just on the early side of things. Today is day 2 and yesterday went ok but she still EW, I'm wondering if she was OT because I stretched her out a bit too long for the second nap (which she woke up three times from). The weather is getting really warm here too and no AC, could be a factor. Next time (if I'm crazy enough ) I'm having a fall baby so we can start out in the dark and cold LOL!! Anyone know what the max amount of daytime sleep she should be getting at this age? Yesterday she did a 2hr20 and a 1hr30 nap (which was very interrupted).

That link is super helpful! It's the first time I've seen 5 months when talking about making the transition, so that made me feel a bit better about my DD dropping the catnap.

Settling to sleep is still an issue, I'm never quite sure if I've caught the window and if she needs me or if I need to let her self settle. She is quite a vocal girl and doesn't really cry but makes loud, frustrated noises/yelling. Sometimes I go in and just pat her but I'm trying to leave her more, unless she is doing a full cry. Rarely does she just go quiet and go to sleep often she starts rolling over and playing with the bars on her crib or moving until she's stuck in the corner. The pat/shush normally puts her to sleep, so I think that is the definition of a prop...if I stop, she starts making noise again unless she goes to sleep. Still looking for help on that but I guess we're doing okay otherwise...I think.

[jessmum46]

Quite a number of babies can do pretty much a full A time after a 45 min nap, so cutting it shorter can mean the A time afterward isn't so long and LO is ready for bed earlier

This link has some typical numbers for day and night sleep: Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep

How are the two nap days going?