4 month old. Foster Care

[jussiemariee]

Last night we took in a little one, who will be 4 months old this week.  LO is a very good sleeper but seems to be used to staying up very late and sleeping in.  She is also on a 2 hour eating schedule per her grandmother.  I would like to shift her to a much earlier bed time (she settled last night around midnight) and get her on an EASY.  What is the first thing you would do to move her to EASY?  She woke this am at 6am but would not eat more than 2oz was awake until 7 and fell back asleep on her own.

[creations]

Oh how lovely to have a LO with you

Not sure how late she is used to sleeping in in the mornings after the very late nights but if it is a long way from where you want it to be I'd move it in stages every couple of days (lets say it is 8am then move to 7.45 for couple of days, then 7.30 for couple etc) then try to run a regular day on 2hr A times and see where you end up at the end of the day, she might just go down for a better BT you never know. Or it could be that she does a very late nap then another A and then BT for a few days and you can gradually get it into a more suitable time.
If she's eating every 2hrs I would not try to jump to 4hr EASY but perhaps edge her out to 3hr over a week.  If she is asleep it will help make it to the next E time more easily.  Again in steps 2hr 15 for couple days then 2hr 30.  See how she responds, if it's awful there could be reason for the short E time but she might just take bigger feeds and be relatively happy to extend the E time in which case you can move towards 3hrs.
If she is used to feeding to sleep though you might find it more difficult and perhaps need to do more of a gradual wean of the prop, this may be why she eats every 2hrs.

Hope this helps - let me know if you have more questions or how you get on

[jussiemariee]

This am (its 10:15 here) I have only been able to keep her up for 1 hour followed by 1.5 hour nap and 1.5 hour awake,  I think she is 12 am to 12 pm honestly.  She is  not even interested in eating, just wants to go back to sleep.  Where until midnight she wanted to eat every 2-3 hours.  It feels like she has a routine firmly in place, just not one that works for us early to rise early to bed people.

[creations]

OK, sounds like a night/day mix up there. I don't think we have a FAQ on it but you can shift in two ways, faster or slower.
Faster - you'd wake her at 7am (if that's when you want to start the day) and get going on the routine, 1.5hr awake then down for nap, she'll be hard to keep awake initially. Then ride it out until she's in the routine. If you go this way you will make BT 7pm and just stick with it.  It will get better after a few days or a week.
Slower - shift by 1hr each day which will still take about a week but in small increments each day.  Day 1 wake at 11am keep her up 1.5hr then nap etc. Day 2 WU at 10am, day 3 WU 9am etc. And each day stick to the routine.  If you go this way you will move BT 1hr earlier each day to match WU time.

It's a bit of work and a bit of riding out the rough patch whilst you get into the routine and I'm afraid it's a bit of forcing LO to shift those times but I don't see how you can let her continue on a midnight to midday routine as you need sleep yourself.  it's also not a very natural rhythm to be sleeping so late in the day or staying up so late at night.
Whichever way you choose you also need to keep the "day" time bright, lots of natural light, outside if you can for sunshine.  Keep the "night" dark so from around 6pm try to dim the house and have everything as dark as possible at 7pm.

As she appears to be doing 1.5hr A time with 1.5hr nap I would stick to the 1.5hr A time for now rather than the 2hrs I mentioned in my previous post.

Do you have any support for this coming week perhaps whilst you get her onto a better routine?

[deb]

Aw, bless you for doing this important work! 

Do you have any idea how long at a minimum you'll have her for? That might make it easier to decide whether you want to move faster or slower toward a new EASY schedule.

Also, depending on her individual circumstances, it's hard to say how much of this is her old routine vs the change FROM it, if that makes sense. Do you know or can you tell if there's an element of reflux? I ask because at 4 months she would normally be on more like a 4-hour feed schedule, but reflux can make babies want milk to soothe the acid burn, as I learned the hard way with my DD, whose feed schedule was all over the map until I realized it was less a schedule and more self-soothing the pain in her esophagus.

I'm noticing that you're not able to keep her up more than an hour right now; this may be a residual result of being kept up so late. I remember reading a long time ago that the sooner before midnight most babies get to bed, the better their overall night sleep; not sure why, but that did seem to hold true for both my kids (and still does as tweens/teens LOL).

Is she waking in the night for a feed? Do you by any chance do a dream feed?

No worries, we'll help you suss it out. <3

[creations]

Thanks for stopping by deb x

I remember reading a long time ago that the sooner before midnight most babies get to bed, the better their overall night sleep;

Yeah, isn't there a window of sleep opportunity which fits in with natural rhythms? Can't claim to know much about it other than having read similar and that it does seem to be true.