Help - trying to follow EASY with 4 month old who has only ever had 30 min naps!

[bn2016]

We've just started following the EASY routine and doing pu/pd with our 4 month old as we had got into bad accidental parenting habits by carrying him to sleep (he's now breaking our backs and he cries before going to sleep each time)! We have unwittingly mainly followed EASY without realising but he's been on a 2.5 or 3 hr cycle as he was able to extend his A time but has only ever napped for 30-40 mins during the day (very occasionally he'll have an hour or two in the afternoon). Can we get him onto a 4 hour EASY routine or not as he just doesn't sleep for the required time and never has? Thanks, xx

[Buntybear]

Hi there, would you be able to post your EASY as it is now for us to take a look?

Thanks

[bn2016]

Thanks for your reply! Here is my EASY from yesterday.


Woke and
E: 7
S: 8.50-9.09 pupd slept 9.09 - 9.35 couldn't go back to sleep
A: 9.40 - 10.50
E: 10.50
S: 11.15 - 11.35 pupd, then played by himself until 11.50 cried then slept 11.57 - 11.24. Tried to resettle but woke up and smiling.
A: 11.40 - 14.10
S: 14.10-14.20 (but he looked hungry - tried feed 14.20 - falling asleep while bf and unable to keep awake so back upstairs
S: 14.30 - 14.35 pupd, 14.35 slept till 14.58
E: 3pm
A: till 5
S: 5.00 - 5.19 pupd, slept 5.19 - 5.50
A: 5.50 - Bath 6.30
E: Feed 7
Bed 7.30 pupd slept from 8.11pm - 6.45am

It feels like it's all over the place and because he is feeding 4 hourly but sleeping 2 hourly some overlap, which doesn't work out! But last night was the first time he slept through the whole night! I can believe he didn't wake for a feed! I've tried dream feeding but I couldn't wake him enough to feed. Any help would be great! Thanks

[lily_layne]

Hi! Looking at that EASY , I would say your LO is a bit OT and that's leading to short naps. The transition to a 4 hr EASY can be tricky, especially if your LO is doing short naps. For a while, your routine may be AEAs or AES until the naps lengthen. I would pull back that first A time a bit to try and get a longer nap. I would aim to have him asleep around 1h45 after he wakes. That said, sometimes we just need to accept that falling asleep takes longer when sleep training so some OT is an inevitable part of the process so don't panic if you can't get him to sleep on time. With consistency, he'll learn to go to sleep faster.

After a short nap, I would aim to have him asleep after an 1h45 A time.