Hi there
I've got a few issues with my 12 week old son - I'm pretty sure he's Spirited/Touchy.
We've been trying to do EASY since he was 3 weeks old and sometimes it works brilliantly - I think he's had about 8 'perfect' days in that time... I'm exclusively breastfeeding, with him taking breastmilk from a bottle with his dad on the weekends.
At the moment, his routine looks standard at the beginning and end of the day, but it's all over the place in the middle, with naps ranging from 45 mins to 2 hours.
So it's hard to post the routine, but here's a pretty standard example:
7am Waketime - in the last few days he's reduced the amount he eats at this time until he had absolutely NOTHING this morning.
8am Sleep (sometimes this is a 2 hour, sometimes a 45 min-1 hour)
9am Eat
9.15 Activity
10am Sleep
12pm Eat
12.15pm Activity
1pm Sleep - 45 minute intruder usually pounces
2pm Eat (He's usually not hungry, but I'm trying to stick to the program!)
2.15pm Activity
3pm Sleep - usually 45 minute intruder again
4pm Eat (As above - not hungry, but trying to 'start over' the cycle)
(and this is where we have our evening routine TOTALLY sorted and working like a charm, regardless of what kind of day we've had)
5.15pm Activity or Sleep (we go for a walk in the pram when dad gets home)
6pm Bath
6.15pm Eat (long, relaxed feed 25-30 mins)
6.45-7pm Sleep
10pm Dreamfeed (long feed - around 25-30mins)
Usually NW any time between 2am-4am (so between 3.5 and 5.5 hour stretch)
7am wake (he just wakes up himself and cries a bit to get me to come in and start the day).
Some other notes -
He has started eating less at his feeds - obviously because there's too little time between them in the daytime, but I don't quite know what to do about that!
He simply cannot handle awake time of more than about an hour at the moment - believe me, I've tried, but he starts to grizzle and cry if I try to push through his early tired signs. Even just being cuddled in a dark room with nothing stimulating doesn't seem to help (and he gets plenty of stimulation during his A time - whether it's play gym, a story, tummy time, a shower, etc, but I watch closely for signs of overstimulation)
However, it seems like he might be ready to go longer between his feeds in the daytime - at the moment he eats way more at the end of the day and at night, and almost nothing in the morning and middle of the day. But his awake time is only an hour and his naps can often be only an hour, too! What should I do? Should I just start doing his feeds every 3.5 hours, regardless of where he is in the EASY routine? (Obviously not if he's just started a nap).
(As a side note, he cries and wrestles before he goes to sleep, EVERY time. We sit quietly holding him and shush-patting when necessary - he does not respond to shush-pat in his cot. He will cry like the world is ending for 3-8 minutes, then suddenly stop and relax, ready to go down in his cot. It's weird.)
(Also, he ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT sleep while we're out. Sometimes he'll sleep in the pram or car for 20-30 minutes if we're moving, but as soon as we stop, he wakes again. The other ladies at my antenatal group have babies that will sleep on them, or on the floor, or whatever, but no matter what I try, he just will not sleep away from his cot and the dark room. And within an hour, of course, he's over-tired and then he's howling the place down, red-eyed and wired like some kind of addict.)
(ALSO, if there are more than 2 other people in the house, he won't nap. We've tried white noise, at different levels, but he just lies there listening to it until he's overtired again...)
Help, please - has anybody got any advice for me? When he's awake and not tired, he's a lovely happy chappy - full of smiles and coos. But I'm chained to the house and things seem to be all over the place at the moment - I end the day exhausted with trying to keep him on target!