To sum up-I have no idea how to start E.A.S.Y. with child #3.
I have a 6 yr old boy, 2.5 yr old girl, and a 3 month old girl. E.A.S.Y. was fairly easy with my first. DD1 came along and my son was happy to play independently while I worked with the baby to get into an E.A.S.Y. routine. A bit harder than doing it with one child, but we got there.
I have no idea where to start with DD2. The only predictable thing she does is fall into a deep sleep sometime between 8 and 10, and often sleeps through the night. Sometimes I can rouse her enough for a DF at 11 but not always, and she'll often sleep through the night, waking about 6:30 or 7:00. I try to start the day following E.A.S.Y. but it soon falls apart, mostly because the older two children have made it very difficult for DD2 to get any sleep during the day.
Example:
6:50 A, Eat
8:00 almost got her to sleep, when chaos broke out in the other room and woke her. I put her in her crib to clean up the orange juice, fell in some water DS spilled and didn't wipe up, and got the biting to stop.
8:10 tried again to get her to sleep, no go.
8:30 nursed her to sleep on the couch, held her for the "nap" (she usually wakes if she falls asleep like this and I try to put her down).
9:30A wanted to eat again, but I put her off until 10:00
10:00 E, A, dozing a little while eating
11:00-11:30 trying to get her to sleep, nursed down at 11:30, put in bed, woke up 11:45 wants to nurse to sleep again but I put her off to try and get lunch for other two. Very overtired by now.
Now what?
I can usually get DD2 to sleep (unless one one of the older ones comes in loudly needing something or crying from a fight). If If get her in the crib and wait for the first few startles, she'll sleep for about 10-20 minutes and wake on her own...IF she hasn't been woken up by the other two before then. Resettling hasn't worked so far.
Things fall apart when I leave the other two alone to try and get DD2 asleep, they fight or DD1 will get into things and I don't dare leave her unsupervised. I've ended up just sitting on the couch to hold DD2 through naps while I try and parent the other two. This isn't working well either, DD2's naps are a bit longer but nowhere what she needs, so she ends up dozing and snacking all day, and DD1 quickly learned to ignore me while I have the baby. I have no idea how to get the day back on track when I miss the first nap or it only lasts a few minutes. She won't nap in a swing or bouncer either.
Having activities for the older two while I work with the napping hasn't worked -it just takes too long and they get bored. I've tried using the TV as a babysitter while I try to lengthen naps, but that has caused issues with the other two as well, they now expect to watch TV all day. I've limited TV the last two days and they are going through withdrawals.
I feel bad that nobody is getting what they need. We'd made good progress with potty training DD1 before DD2 came, but we are back in diapers because I resorted to pullups the first few weeks and she stopped going in the bathroom at all. DS1 is not getting the attention he needs either and I get frustrated with him too much.
We desperately need a routine but I don't know how to do it.