Possible teething and EASY? Help please!

[LRayWag]

Hello! Any help would be much appreciated!  We are so confused on how to proceed. We've been following the 4-hour EASY schedule for 3 days now, but also suspect that our almost-5-month-old is teething. The first day she did well, the second day ok but not great, and today her schedule has been all over the place...very short naps which is throwing everything off.

First off, if our DD wakes early from a nap and is AWAKE, is it ok to just keep her up until the next time she is sleepy/ready for a nap? I understand that part of the success in PUPD is consistency, but if she is wide awake it almost feels cruel to put her through 40+ minutes of crying and still not get her back to sleep.

Also, if she truly is teething and that is why her sleep is erratic, would it be best to put EASY on hold for now and do what we need to do until the teeth come in? Our gut is telling us this may be the right decision, but I'd love any advice or experience (I'm a FTM).

We began using PUPD 12 days ago when we successfully weaned her both from swaddling (cold turkey) and nursing to sleep. We plan on leaving these crutches out, obviously, but do you think at this point it makes sense to just follow the EASY order of events, but stay flexible about length of naps and not be so rigid about PUPD until things calm down? I don't want to confuse her by seeming flaky or inconsistent, but also want to make sure she is feeling completely supported in a time where she may be experiencing discomfort.

I've been sticking to feeding her (EBF) every 4 hours, including at least 1-2 NW. However, her daytime feeds haven't been as active, and I'm finding it hard to pick up on hunger cues if she really is teething.

Ugh, I know this is a lot. I truly believe in the BW methods and want to follow them correctly, but worry I may be too rigid at a time when my DD may benefit more from extra cuddles and consoling until she feels better. We really just want to do what's right and have only the best intentions for getting her settled into a routine sooner rather than later. Thanks so much in advance!!! 

[jessmum46]

Hi there, I'm sorry you've not yet had any replies.

Could you post the routine you're aiming for?  And what's actually happening on a real day? The 'standard' 4h EASY often needs a little adjusting for babies older than four months as the A times may not be long enough, so that may help with some of your settling and/or short nap problems.

In response to your questions, yes, if LO is awake and clearly not resettling after a shorter-than-desired nap, I would just get her up and then try again for a nap when she's next ready.  This is particularly relevant if she's doing short naps because she's undertired (UT) as there's no way she will resettle if she isn't tired enough.  That's why posting your routine could help

If she's teething, have you tried pain meds so you can be confident that's not causing problems?  It's really up to you whether you continue sleep training or not, but it can be very difficult to find a window that is free of teething, colds etc with these LOs and sometimes you kind of just need to get on with it.  That's not to say don't comfort her if she is truly suffering, absolutely do that, but given how far you have come (great job by the way!) I wouldn't go back to props if you can help it.

You don't need to be 'rigid' though in the sense of she must nap at *exactly* this time for *exactly* this long - sticking to the EAS order where you can (if she has a very short nap you may have AEAS and that's ok) and then being consistent in HOW you put her down, even if the WHEN changes a little, is absolutely fine.  EASY was never meant to be a by-the-clock schedule so you can adapt it to meet the needs of your family and your LO as she goes through different phases.

Hope that helps

[LRayWag]

Thank you jessmum46! It's been a while since I've been on the forum, but I so appreciate your response, and wanted to let you know how much it's helped to allow for some flexibly in our EASY. I was so focused on doing everything correctly and by the book that it made me forget about how highly nuanced an infant's schedule can be (particularly a spirited/touchy infant like my DD)! Shortly after my last post in this thread, we reviewed what we were doing and gave the schedule a break for a few days (and frankly, fell back into a few bad habits...ahem, nursing to sleep)! However, the "teething" passed (teeth never resulted), and we have been somewhat successfully incorporating the 4 hour EASY for almost a week now. Things are finally beginning to regulate. She is beginning to put herself to sleep, and we are working on naps and minimizing night wakings. All this to say, I am a believer in EASY...for my baby, at least! I have to keep telling myself that every day will be different and that sometimes she will have to have short naps, or nap on the go, and that's ok. Life does go on and as long as my DD has consistent elements of routine in her daily life, the little hiccups do not have to turn our whole day upside down.

And as a side note...I am sooooo happy to now have a routine in place for when she is properly teething. Even though I'm sure that may throw some things off, I think having this routine will help her manage potentially stressful times like that much better now! Thanks so much for your time and advice.

[jessmum46]

Great update, glad you are feeling more positive about things