messed up EASY???

[aMei]

DS2 will be 16 weeks old tomorrow. His EASY seems to get more muddled the harder we try. I'm getting so confused as to what to do anymore.

When he wakes up early from naps, I do my best to postpone his feeding until its been 3 hrs, but sometimes he fusses too much. But, what do I do for his A time? Technically it will have only been a short time since feeding (for example 20 min), but a long time since he's been awake (for example 1.5hrs). So, then what happens to the EASY? Does everything just get bumped earlier? Do we just add another round of EASY? He is breastfed only. His nursing time has gotten shorter and shorter. He used to take 15-20min to nurse, now he takes about 5min, unless he's sleepy. Does that mean he's ready for a transition to the 4 hr EASY? But, he starts acting tired about an hr or so of A time.

Here is his EASY:

E 7am wake and feed
A 1.5 hrs
S 1hr 15 min (this is usually the best stretch where he'll sleep continuously)

E 10am
A 1 hr 15 min
S 1 hr  15 min (with a jolt that requires intervention usually at 45min then will sleep another 30min on some days)

E 1pm
A 1 hr
S 45-60min (with a jolt that requires intervention usually at 45 min and usually will sleep another 30 min)

E 4pm
A
S 45-50min

E 6pm
A
E 7pm
S Normally it takes 5-10min to settle him to sleep, but the past week this round will take 30-60min. He then continues to wake up every 60-90min. resulting in a nursing around 9:30-10pm, depending on the night. So then it's so close to the dream feed, I try to wait up as long as I can handle and dream feed again around 11-11:30pm.

He then wakes again 3.5 hrs later between 2-3am, then I nurse, then he wakes again around 5:30am (its only been 2-2.5 hrs since last feed) and I nurse, and wakes again for the day 7-7:30am.

Last night was the worst. Went to sleep for the night at 7:15pm. Did he continuously waking up, so I nursed him again at 9pm. Dream fed at 11pm. He woke up again at 1am, nursed. This waking may have been caused by his older brother. He then woke again at 3:30am, then refused to sleep until 4:30am. Woke up again at 5:30am and nursed. Then woke for the day at 7:30am.

What's going on? What do I need to tweak? I'm so tired that I can't think straight. Before the night time craziness, he would dream feed at 10:30pm. Wake around 2:30-3am and nurse. Wake for the day between 6:30-7:30am. Those days are long gone!

Please help!

[aMei]

HELP! What is happening? Here's what happened last night:

Last feed at 7:30pm. Took about 30 min to settle him into sleep, but he only slept for 40min. It then took about 45min to resettle him.
Dreamfed at 10:20pm.
Woke up at 1:10am, nursed.
Woke up at 3am, took 30min to resettle back to sleep.
Woke up at4:30am, nursed. Slept from 5-5:30am. Woke up at 5:30am. Needed help to sleep.
Woke up at 7:30am, nursed, fell asleep.
Woke up at 8:50am.

[Ima shel Alon]

Hi!

I think there are two things happening. One, is that you hit the 4m GS and he he wakes up more frequently at night to feed. This should stop in a day or two, it's a pretty big GS.
The second thing is that his A times are not anymore age appropriate, resulting in too short UT naps, difficulty to settle to sleep and by the end of the day he might be OT because he didn't get enough restorative day sleep.
If you look here: Average A times- BOOKMARK ME!! you'll see that the average A time at his age is 1:45-2h A time, so IIWY I would work on slowly increasing his A time to that. You can do that by increasing his A time by 10min and stick to it for 3-4 days to prevent him from getting OT. After those days you increase again by 10min and do the same till his A time is longer and he is giving you better naps.

Another thing is, as he is EBF, I wouldn't expect him to go 3h between feeds. If he does then great, but if he is showing hunger signs earlier than that then I'd feed him. Not many EBF babies this age can go 3h between feeds. It's ok if the EASY order changes a bit, if you need to feed in the middle of A time or short before a nap because he napped too short, it's rare that the EASY cycle is perfect at this age, yk? As long as you don't feed to sleep (though I have to say that's the only thing that worked for us ) then you are doing great. If you feed short before a nap you can always wake him up a bit with nappy change and then put him for his nap.

HTH

[aMei]

Thank you for the advice. I've started increasing his A time today.

DS2 refuses to feed to sleep during the day. He always pops off wide awake. At night time, he then will usually feed to sleep. It's okay in the middle of the night, right?

In terms of feeding more during an EASY cycle, do I just look at the total A time for that cycle? I'm getting a bit confused by how much time between feedings and A time...

[Ima shel Alon]

It's okay in the middle of the night, right?

Of course, you don't him to wake totally up in the middle of the night anyway.

In terms of feeding more during an EASY cycle, do I just look at the total A time for that cycle? I'm getting a bit confused by how much time between feedings and A time...

A times are A times and feedings are feedings, don't mix them up. You count A times to suit his age, but feed when he is hungry. Surely if he wants to eat every hour and he is not going through a GS then he is snacking, but if it's been 2-2.5-3h since feeding then he is probably hungry.