Author Topic: Which do I fix first? Daytime routine or nighttime sleeping? Please help!  (Read 1617 times)

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Offline Mads.mama

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We have a 5 month old who is breastfed and being supplemented (very little) with formula (3-4oz a day). He is not on a good routine right now and I'd like to try E.A.S.Y on him. Unfortunately, he is also not sleeping through the night either. He wakes every 2 hours and I breasfeed him back to sleep. We are co sleeping right now (baby sleeps in a Dock a Tot on our bed) Which should I fix first? His daytime routine or nighttime sleep?

If I work on his daytime routine, will it confuse my baby when he wakes every 2 hours at night and I breastfeed him back to sleep?

Our LO also now associates breastfeeding time to nap/sleep time because I've made it a bad habit of nursing him to sleep.

This is our current daytime routine:

Wake up: 7am
Active: 7-9am
Feed: 9am
Sleep: 9:30am-11am
Active: 11am-1pm
Feed: 1pm
Sleep: 1:30pm-3pm
Active: 3pm-5pm
Feed: 5pm
Sleep: 5:30pm-6:10pm (catnap)
Active/get ready for bedtime: 6:10pm-8pm
nurse to sleep: 8pm

Please help!
Thank you,
Grace

Offline Ima shel Alon

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Re: Which do I fix first? Daytime routine or nighttime sleeping? Please help!
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2016, 09:58:49 am »
Hi!
It sounds like you have a prop there and your LO is using you as a soother to fall back to sleep. Would you like to change that?
It's up to you if you tackle everything at once or deal first with day time or night time. From my experience and I think there are researches about it as well, babies deal with day time sleep and night time sleep different so you won't be confusing him.

The routine in itself looks good, A times are good, length of naps are good.
IIWY, but that's just me, I would deal with the day time sleep and props first and then go on to dealing with the night. Sleep training can be hard and if you do both that means you are not getting any rest for a few days.
And who knows maybe he will get the hang of it real quick and then the nights feeds will space themselves as well. He might not be able to sleep the whole night through as he is BF, but you can get longer stretches from him.

At 5 months I would still use Shush-pat to do sleep training but some parents use PU/PD all ready. IT really depends on the baby.
Either way you need to prepare yourself to have a couple of hard days, he might be OT during those days and you may want to think about help. Perhaps you can do it over the weekend so your partner can help as well? Or your mom/friend can come and help?
You can of course do it, but if there is someone else to do it instead it might be quicker as he can smell your milk and expects to be fed.

There is info here about Shush-pat: Shush-pat - How to
and here about PU/PD: Pick Up/Put Down (PU/PD) - Everything you ever needed to know!

Good luck!
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Offline Mads.mama

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Re: Which do I fix first? Daytime routine or nighttime sleeping? Please help!
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2016, 17:25:08 pm »
Thank you so much for replying Ima!

I'm relieved to know daytime sleep and night time sleep are different for baby and that he won't be confused. In that case, I'd like to tackle the day time sleeps first. I do want to change the routine so that baby is doing E, A, S, instead of A, E, S because he tends to fall asleep at my breast and although he is gaining weight, I'm afraid he's not getting enough hind milk. I've tried to feed him the moment he wakes, but he's too excited and wants to play instead.

I'm okay sticking to A,E,S, but still sleep training him for daytime sleep. Right now, he falls asleep in my arms after breastfeeding and I have to sit there until he wakes so I'd like to train him to sleep in his crib.
« Last Edit: February 21, 2016, 20:03:42 pm by Mads.mama »

Offline Scottishmummy

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Re: Which do I fix first? Daytime routine or nighttime sleeping? Please help!
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2016, 07:48:45 am »
I know you said you want to tackle day sleep first but I think your night might be impacting on your day.

With both of mine, they have woken every 2 hrs in the night after 4months old  if I fed or otherwise AP-ed them to sleep.  The sleep cycles change around that age and afterwards so if they wake in the night they need to be put back to sleep the way they were at bedtime.  2hrly is the typical sleep cycle length for night sleep at that age.
Teaching mine independant sleep for bedtime first improved the nights.  Less frequent night feeds might also mean your baby would be more hungry in the morning so you could feed on waking at 7am and get into an EAS pattern, which I think would be better if you want to stop props to sleep.

My 2 have both learnt independant sleep for nights before naps.  Sometimes night sleep comes easier & might be the easier one to tackle first. I do think reducing your night feeds and getting IS at BT would then have a positive impact on your daytime routine too.

My DS nursed to sleep.  I had to completely separate the last feed from bedtime, doing it in a different room about 30 mins before bedtime.  I then used a gradual withdrawal method for sleep training:

First night I took him into bedroom and did a wind down and just held and gently rocked him until he was sleepy (SH-pat never worked for him). Then put him in the cot sleepy but awake and held him there until asleep. Gradually I stopped holding him earlier and earlier so he was putting himself to sleep.  It took a couple of weeks but worked very well and he has slept pretty well at night ever since.
"Touchy/Spirited" DS


"Textbook" DD