Hi there,
I need some guidance on using EASY with my 12 week old. Please help us!! I just went back to work a few days ago and my mom is generously watching him during the day. We've tracked the last two days and I'm not sure what to change or tweak about his schedule. Things to know: he does have reflux that is mostly under control however, I need to hold him upright for 20 min after he eats before I can lay him down; and so far, I always have to either rock/pat him asleep or nurse him to sleep. If we lay him down, he will lay quietly playing until he gets tired and then he will get really upset and when he does start crying he won't stop until he's picked up and comforted - he also gulps in a ton of air when he cries so then when you lay him back down his reflux is exacerbated...he is not a fan of the pacifier, and 4 out of 5 times he becomes hysterical in his car seat....on to our schedule...
First, our early mornings have been messy. He tends to cry in the early morning and I try to keep him "asleep" until at least 6-7am, which means I sometimes end up nursing him side-lying on and off from 5-7am...
DAY 1
WU: 7:50
E: 8
S: 9:20 (for 60 min then he cried and my mom took 10 min to resettle him)
A: 11:20
E: 12:10
S: 1pm (woke after 60 min crying, seemed hungry)
E: 2pm
S: 3pm (restless for the first 30 min, and then he slept deeply for another hour)
A: 4:30pm
E: 5:20pm
E: 6pm (my parents brought him to my house at 6 and he looked exhausted, he fell asleep while nursing)
S: 6:05pm
A: 6:50pm
E: 8pm
S: 8:30pm
I tried a dreamfeed at 11:30pm and then he had the following NWs: 1:30 (finally fed him at 2am), 3:30 (PU/PD), 5:10 (fed him), 6:20 (fussed and I finally gave him the boob but by 6:40 we mutually decided the night was over!)
DAY 2
WU: 6:40 (not hungry - see early NWs above for E)
E: 8
S: 8:20 (45 min nap, woke happy)
A: 9:05
S: 10 (1 hr nap)
E: 11:45
S: 12:50 (1 hr 55 m nap)
A: 2:45pm
E 3pm
S: 4pm (15 m nap, woke up when he heard my voice and his older brother's voice)
E: 5pm
S: 5:05 (fell asleep, but woke 20 min later)
A: 5:30
S: 10PM!!! (We tried to put him down earlier but he kept waking up almost as soon as we put him down)
NWs: 12:30, 2:30, 4, 5:30, 6:20
As you can imagine, I'm exhausted and confused! We can't get our mornings to start when I want them to and we can't get our bedtimes to work they want on them too.
In addition, the early evening is especially tough because, I have to pick him and his 2.5yr old brother, get them home (it's a very quick drive (5 min tops but baby doesn't sleep in a car seat anyway!)... and then bath, dinner and bedtime for the 2.5 yr old take place between 4-7pm, so trying to coordinate baby's late afternoon nap and bedtime is really hard to juggle at the same time.
Last, the 12 week old has become really alert and smiley in the last week which is great but also probably creating some of the trouble. Half the time when you lay him down he is looking all over the place - even if it's pitch dark and he also keeps doing these giant ab crunches so he looks like a swaddled fish flopping around. He has found his hands and gnaws on them a lot but that seems to him off instead of sooth him and he is very strong and big - sometimes he gets his arms up higher in the swaddle to his mouth and he calms down and other times he does that and then gets upset...
Sorry for such a long post. Any suggestions about any of this would be greatly appreciated!!!