Are we on the right track? Day 2, early morning awake, bad night, 30 min naps

[nurse2003]

Hi All
Officially implemented the EASY routine yesterday
LO is 3.5 months
(background is 36 weeker, reflux (on meds), born with cleft lip, surgery 3.5 weeks ago, healed well, all daytimes naps where in carrier, would eat sometimes every 2hrs but pre surgery was sleeping 6hrs at night)
So yesterday like clock work every single nap he woke up at 30 min (getting him down was relatively easy going, out of room within 10 min)
I can't remember everything but this is what happened roughly...
E 630ish
A7
S 8ish (woke up after 30 min tried and tried to put back to sleep but not hard enough)
E 9ish
S 1030ish (woke up after 30 min, got back to sleep in carrier and slept til 12)
E 12
S 130ish (again 30 min, resettled and let him sleep on me for next hour)
E 3
S 445 (30min
A 515 very fussy and cranky
in bath at 6
Fed and down to bed at 7pm

Was then up at 1030, 12 something maybe 2 something and just multiple times
I'm so tired it was all a blur, I know I gave him to letting him eat (being a human soother) when we should probably be trying hard to get him back to sleep right?
LO wasn't allowed a soother post surgery and now that he can he doesn't know what to do with it

Today
E 520!!! tried and tried to resettle so we could start our day at 7 and by 610 hubby got him up
S 7 (30 min resettled and let sleep on me til 840)
E 840
A 900 (full time job to keep near colic kid happy during A time!
S 1000

Any advice appreciated anywhere...
When we get our days on track will the nights follow?
How do I know if he's really hungry at night or its becoming a habit and do we need to resettle instead?
How do I break the 30 min naps!?
I know we should committ a  solid two weeks but with two older kids and hospital appts I dont' have it, so tomorrow we have an appt day and will try hard to stick to EASY and Tuesday is Doc appt too then we are home for a good week plus after that with minimal disturbances other then two big brothers

[jessmum46]

Hi there, and hugs for the rough start.  Yes once the days are on track the nights should follow (as long as you are working on independent sleep too), but it doesn't all happen in a day or two

30 min naps are pretty classic for OT.  As your LO was born at 36 weeks, he is closer to a 2.5 month old developmentally and therefore may need some shorter A times.  Typical A time is 1h15-20 at 2 months, and up to around 1h30 at 3 months.  Additionally the first A of the day is often (though not always) a bit shorter, so it may be he was just awake too long for his first nap, and that set you off on the wrong track for the rest of the day.  I'd probably aim for having him asleep at 1h15 for now and see if that improves things.

After a short nap, you may need to put down even sooner.  So for example the day he slept 8-8.30, he didn't go back to sleep until 10.30 which is a long A time anyway, but even more so given the previous nap was only 30 mins.  I would have thought he would have been ready to nap again by 9.30ish.  Obviously that can create some problems with eating and sleeping clashes, so if you can see that happening, just feed a little early. 

How are you settling him for naps at the moment?  Are you feeding at all night wakings?  Generally we would say that LOs should be able to go at least as long between feeds at night as they do in the daytime.  So for his age, at least 3h.  If he wakes before 3h at night I would try to resettle, and then feed next time he wakes. 

Does that help?

[nurse2003]

That's all great advice thanks!
He was so crabby during A times yesterday, esp at end of day. Couldn't do anything g with him
For naps dark room white noise swaddled and patting then when not crying into bed and continue patting/firm touch

Last night he was asleep at 7 and up at. 1015 1245 220 4something and 510 but only fed at 10 2 and 5
5 feed I fell asleep holding him so at six we both woke up and hubby took him for an hour and said he was crabby while time
Today will be hard but gonna at least try to stay at 3hr feeds and naps the best we can as we have a follow up appt at the hospital and big brothers to take to camp
Will aim for shorter A times

[jessmum46]

Good luck and let us know how it's going x

[nurse2003]

We started so good on Fri/Sat/Sun with him settling into naps within 5-10 min
Then it all went downhill, Monday we had an appt at the hospital 30 min away and it just threw the day right off for napping, napped in car seat in carrier etc.
Tuesday he had his 4 month appt and it came right in the middle of nap time and he only slept 15 min so when he fell asleep on the way home, he slept in the car seat for an hour then in the carrier for 2 hours, Tuesday night he had a good night and was only up twice.
Wednesday he generally happier during his A times but thrown off again by some mandatory car outings we couldn't avoid.
So today, finally home all day, been very challenging to get down for naps, started with 30 min nap this a.m then fell asleep on me for an hour post nursing, was then fussy for daddy during A time and only slept 20 min for next nap, fed and was generally happy and A was about an hour, I knew he needed a good sleep so used baby carrier and slept two hours, so so mood during A time, started yawning about 1hr, so sang quiet songs, stimulus free, quiet low light room and well I've just had to tag off with hubby, all the white noise swaddle pats that worked like magic on the weekend he's fighting me tooth and nails on now, maybe the yawn wasn't tired but bored and it was too early, or its too late?
Feel frustrated

[jessmum46]

(((Hugs))) am dealing with similar myself today, sigh. 

Ok, this is not the end of the world.  He's probably OT from a few days of bad naps and it's just caught up on him a bit.  It's inevitable if you go out and about that the routine gets thrown off track, unless you have a complete angel baby who will sleep anywhere.  But it doesn't mean it won't come back.  Get through the day, and start again tomorrow with the attitude that it's a new day and anything can happen.