How to change from four hour easy to lower down?

[Northlondonmum]

I posted yesterday regarding my 13 week old who is not napping afternoons and crying to want to sleep. On the sleep forums, someone mentioned that the 4 hour easy is for four month old babies

My baby can easily go four hours between feeds but now I understand why she cannot cope with an hour plus of activity and does not reach the required naps afternoons. From the sample easy routine I have recorded, it seems the morning that she sleeps againfor is meant to be a nap hence she has too long naps mornings. I put her back to sleep in the hope that slowly her wake up time will change from 5am to 8/9am!

How can I change my easy? Is it detrimental to Lower it? I think it would benefit her in terms of less activity and less naps. But I cannot delay feeds and include activity as she's too cranky and cries before feeds and all through most afternoon and evening "nap" times.

Here's my post from yday;
Thank you @becj86

Here is a few sample days;

5.50 E
6.00 A
7.30 S

10.15 E
10.30 A
11.30 S

1.30 E
2.00 A
2.40 S

4.00 - 5.10 rocked to sleep

5.20 E
6.00 A
No sleep. Rocked or slept catnaps twenty mins

9.00 E
9.30 A
10.00 S


Another day;

5.00 E
5.30 A
6.00S

8.00 E
8.15 A
9.00 S

1.00 E
1.30 A
2.00 S
3.00 S crying. Settling in arms

4.15 E
5.00 A
6.00 s. Fighting sleep and crying to sleep.
6.30. s. Woke and crying even more
7.15. Screaming to sleep. Rubbing eyes. Burrowing into armpit.

7.15 E
7.30 A
8.00 S


Another day;

6.30 E
7.00 A
8.00 S

10.00 A. Morning bath
10.30 S
11-12 A. Class.
12-2.20 S. in pram. Outside

2.20 E
2.45 A
3.30 S
4.30 S settled back. Rocked.

5.30 E
6.00 A
7.00 no sleep. tried rocking. Crying. Five min naps maybe at a time

8.30 E
8.45 A
9.30 S



Some notes; I give her a morning bath normally at second feed. Evenings husband comes back around five or six.
I try to watch for cues and get her to settle to sleep when she yawns or rubs eyes. Evenings as husband is spending time with her, I miss the cues and settle her after she cries and husband has been trying unsuccessfully to settle her. The longer she goes without being settled, the harder it is.

Some days I have tried to change to a three hour EASY evenings as I feel she only likes small amounts of activity some days and then cannot sleep the remaining time.


Really hope you can be of help!! 🙏🙏

[Katet]

Firstly, unless you want her awake at 5am If treat that feed as a night feed and just feed and let her go back to sleep.

The other thing is that its not uncommon for babies around 3mo to have an unsettled period in the early evening. Sometimes they benefit from cluster feeding, sometimes they just grow out of it.

If she is doing well with 4hour feeding but struggles with long enough naps you could try a EASASE pattern later in the day.

[creations]

Hi there
The main thing I think is to remember that LO does not need to necessarily eat directly after sleep.  The EAS routine is to avoid feeding to sleep as a prop, it isn't intended to always feed LO as soon as they wake if this is not a suitable E time for LO (either because the nap is short and E time has not been reached or because LO is ready to E at longer stretches but not old enough or ready to have longer A times).
It is totally fine to run whatever A time your LO needs but to also run on a 4hr E time.
You will need to just check each time as you go along through the day and if you see a clash coming up you alter slightly to take that into account. For instance if E is due 15 mins after LO is going for a nap then it would make sense to feed a bit earlier, keep LO awake during the feed or wake him up if he nods off (eg nappy change) and put down for nap awake but ready for sleep.
If however the E times looks like it is something like 15 mins before the time you expect LO to wake form the nap, well he can probably manage the extra 15 mins so just feed on waking even if it's 4hr 15.  LO will not starve, he'll let you know he is hungry.

For what it's worth some LO will not eat directly after waking anyway, mine needed to wait 30 mins before food after waking or he wouldn't eat properly, he also didn't move to 4hrly milk feeds until he was 6 months old - the routine is just adapted.

Hope this helps

[Northlondonmum]

Thank you all!
I tried to elongate by doing eas aeas but she wasn't interested so I went down to a three hour easy and she's happier in that sometimes she naps longer and does a four hour easy but on the whole happy feeding every three hours and has less or more dependant on hunger. 

[creations]

Sounds like you've got it all under control

[Northlondonmum]

Lol thanks!! It doesn't feel it although I'm trying to follow any advice from
The book and here.
It is however much much better than pre baby whisperer!!

[Erin M]

I'm just going to lock this thread since most of your questions seem to be on your other thread.