Hello! I am new to this but really need advise on a couple of issues. We have been using the EASY routine since day one with our LO. He is now 7.5 months old and had been sleeping through the night from 1 month until 4 months old. Then I switched to the 4 hour and everything seemed to go down hill from there. He started waking at night and wanted more to eat. We introduced solids at 4.5 months old (we're in Italy and that is what they do here) also to help increase calories during the day. He is BF by the way! He slept better but still not great..didn't need/want to eat but still woke. Around 5.5 months, he started screaming every time I would put him down for the morning nap, so after debating it, we just took it out and let him do a nap in the afternoon and a little CN before dinner. This just made him so fussy all the time. So for the last of couple of weeks I have really become a stickler about getting the morning nap in and one in the afternoon. Cut out completely the cat nap. My thinking was that not having the nap in the morning was making him way OT..fussy..etc. To balance activity time with rest time. We got the naps to last a little longer finally the last 2 days. When I started again with the morning nap, he was sleeping only 30 minutes. Now he sleeps from 1-1.5 hours in the morning and 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon. Great, except he still wakes at night.
Here is our routine:
A 7:45 Wakes and has BM
E 8:30 cereal and fruit or yogurt
S 10:00 BM, story, then Nap for about 1 hour
E 11:30 Veggies, cereal and fruit
A
S 2:00 BM, story, then Nap
E 4:00 wakes and has yogurt or fruit
A
E 6:00 Dinner with veggies, cereal, etc
A 7:45 BM, Story wind down
S 8:00 bedtime
When he wakes at night, I just have to turn him on his side, give him his pacifier and then he generally goes back to sleep. It seems like he hates to sleep on his back and if he moves onto his back at night, it wakes him. This happens starting at around 11-12 and he wakes every one or two after that. He goes to sleep on his own. I just lay him in his bed on his side (he usually rolls to his tummy) and leave and he just talks for a minute or two and then we don't hear another peep out of him until 11 or 12 when we can hear fussing. I don't go immediately to him to allow him a chance to get resettled on his own but it usually escalates and I go in immediately when he starts to cry. I should mention he sleeps in our room in a separate bed. If we are already in bed, then I always still give him the chance to try and resettle before intervening.
Today I have started to lay him on his back from the beginning during naps to see if that will help. I am also considering getting rid of the pacifier. I know we made mistakes (taking out the morning nap, pacifier still, problems adjusting to the 4 hour easy, etc) but would like to help him get through the night because he wakes up tired. Any ideas as to why he's waking? Maybe the paci falling out? Hates sleeping on his back? We would really appreciate any advice! thanks!
