Author Topic: 4 month - help with naps and transition to 4hr EASY  (Read 723 times)

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Offline MFly

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4 month - help with naps and transition to 4hr EASY
« on: December 13, 2015, 21:52:50 pm »
My son is about 4.5 months old and has never been a good napper. We did shush-pat when he was about 2 months old to get rid of pacifier and it worked pretty well. We figured if he could learn to self-sooth without paci, and could learn to fall asleep from drowsy, maybe he would be able to extend his naps past 45 min. He did learn to sooth without paci and can sometimes go to sleep from drowsy but never managed to get full naps. I tried going in before he woke, tried shush putting right away as soon as he woke up but eventually ended up accepting two short naps per day and then "helping him" usually by rocking him for the second half of a nap or letting him nap in the carrier for the other two so that at least he got two longer (1.5hr) naps per day.

After extended  sickness  and then traveling, his Routine needed reinforcing  and he started waking frequently in the night. To help with this and to tackle the long standing nap issues, since he is older now, we are trying to move from a 3-hr EASY to a 4-hr EASY. We are finishing the third day of the first transition (day 6 if you count the first days of observation).

He does pretty well falling asleep, often on his own or with a little shush patting. The problem is he is still waking early (like after 30-45 min) and either tries to self sooth for the rest of the nap (so far unsuccessfully, but this is good, right? I should just leave him?) or is just awake and happy - he resists the shush pat and as long as we don't persist, he is too happy to do PU/PD. if we just use gentle talking or putting a hand on him and shushing he will remain awake and happy for the rest of the nap time. If we insist on shush-pat ( because he is awake and "playing" but it's nap time) this is what will result in crying and then we end up doing PU/PD which so far has not led to him calming himself enough to sleep but has just made him more upset.

What I have now is a baby who is completely OT - he hasn't had a proper nap in 3 days so he falls asleep immediately when we put him down but wakes even earlier than usual and won't go back to sleep. Do I just carry on with the transition plan (ie move on to the next days with new schedules?) and hope he catches on? Do I rock him for one or two of the naps so he's not so OT? When he's awake and happy but not sleeping (and clearly still tired), what should I do?

I'm not sure if this question should be in the naps or the EASY forum... But any advice would be appreciated. Thank you!

Offline Buntybear

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Re: 4 month - help with naps and transition to 4hr EASY
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2015, 18:19:19 pm »
hello and welcome to the forum  - I am so sorry that your post has been missed. How are things now?