This is my very first mom post, yay!
My little one will be 4 months on Monday and sh** has hit the fan in our dreamy little household. Initially, like many other moms, I thought our sweet son hit a growth spurt and I kindly obliged his added nighttime feedings (2-3 per night) thinking all would be well again within a few nights. When a few nights had passed and nap time became a tough battle, I took to Google for answers. We are going on three weeks of this not so glorious new schedule and working very hard to find our new normal. His regression has given us the opportunity to drop his last nap, move bedtime up and discover this amazing forum!
I've followed the idea of EASY, though I never quite accomplished the routine I hoped for in lengthening to a 4 hour EASY plan and moving his bedtime up to a kid-friendly time. His routine starting at about 2 months old was 1.5 hours of awake time, 1-2 hour naps and he slept through the night from about 10pm - 7am. Most naps lasted 1 hour; 2 hour naps were pretty rare for us. We counted our blessings and went with what worked for us.
So, here are my questions on what I'm not finding to be so easy, as I've been stuck on the hamster wheel with a 2.5 hour EASY routine (recently making it closer to 3 with some tweaking - yippee!)...
E - I'm trying to stretch him to 30 minutes after he wakes. This has been the most helpful tweak in getting a longer routine down. It doesn't always go over well and work as planned, and I still don't understand how I can accomplish a 4 hour EASY when his tummy won't allow longer stretches? I'm barely getting a 3 hour EASY.
A - 1.5 hours of awake time was his magical number and he's now ready for about 2 hours (I think?). He has started completely fighting me at nap time with his regression and I've found that pushing it back a little is less of a battle.
S - The only thing I have found that will help him sleep longer stretches during nap time is feeding him a bit more before his nap. I admittedly have done so out of desperation when I've truly needed that "Y" time to get important things done. Otherwise, it is completely random when he sleeps for longer than 45 minutes to 1 hour during the day currently. His first nap of the day is where I have the best shot at a good nap length. Everything I've tried to help him resettle works against me, he's wide awake and ready to play! He's truly never taken really long naps unless of course daddy is watching him. That just reiterates the idea that daddy thinks mommy has it soooo easy during the day!
As I was typing this, I was also nursing him and he fell asleep. Would you take advantage of the extra sleep when this happens (because it does at times) or try and stick to the routine?
Y - I'm willing to work hard to get those 1.5 hours - 2 hours that everyone talks about!
Notes (that may or may not be important):
We wake him for the day at 8:30am and he goes to bed about 8:30pm. Bedtime was 11pm at 1 month, 10pm at two months and we kept moving it up until just recently accomplishing 8:30pm within the last week.
He is breastfed and takes about 4-5 ounces per feeding. I give him an expressed bottle about 1 hour before bed and nurse him after his bath, just before bed. It's my way of "cluster" feeding him before bedtime. The last few weeks he has been waking 2-3 times per night to nurse (wah, wah, wah).
Alright moms...it seems the only thing standing in my way of a 4 hour EASY is a hungry little tummy and nap time? I don't want to create a habit of feeding him twice during his A time to accomplish longer naps. That would kind of defeat the purpose of aiming for 4 hour feeding stretches, right!?
Enjoying being a first time mom and thankful for forums such as this!
