16 weeks & 4 hour EASY?

[Jlamarie]

Hello! First time poster, long time lurker/fan of BW here

My LG is 16 weeks old and has been on EASY since birth. She's been a total angel for the past 4 weeks, which I completely credit BW and these forums for! I started shh/pat at 6 weeks, and starting from ~12 weeks on she's slept through the night completely, no NW, self-soothes to sleep for all naps & BT and can for the most part connect her sleep cycles on her own (although we did have a rough week or so of serial cat napping). We had been on a 3 hour EASY but I then noticed she wasn't hungry at the 3 hour mark, and occasionally even stretched to 4 hours (due to extra long naps) with no issue. So we're currently on ~3.5 hour EASY.

Our issue is in the last 2 days, it's as if she's completely un-learned how to self soothe and is NOT settling for naps, resulting in crazy long AT. She's swaddled with one arm out (I tried both arms out in a sleep sack a week ago and she just flailed and wouldn't settle, so I'll try again a bit later) and we've had the same sleep time wind down routine since she was 6 weeks old. I'm really not sure what this could be - is it the 4 month regression? Is she telling me she needs more AT? Do I need to re-evaluate my wind down routine?

If someone could have a look at our routine below, and let me know what I'm missing, I'd really appreciate it. I'm hoping she's just telling me she needs a schedule change!

Here's what our routine looked like before:
WU: 7am
E: 7am
A:
S: 8:30-10:30am
E: 10:30am
A:
S: 12:10pm- ~1:50pm
E: 2:00pm
A:
S: 3:40-4:30pm
A:
E: 5:00pm
A:
BT: ~6:30pm

Here's yesterday:
WU: 7:30am
E: 7:30
A:
S: 9:40-11:45am (whoa!! She would not fall asleep, she did her normal chat to her invisible friends but took about 30 minutes with this and then started full on crying, I went in and SP until she finally went down)
E: 11:45am
A:
S: 2:12-2:47pm (yikes, again a crazy long AT! same as before, just would not self-soothe and worked herself up to a full cry)
A:
E: 3pm
A:
S: 4:37-5:17pm
A:
E: 5:50pm
A:
BT: 7:08pm (I tried an extra long wind-down routine and she fell asleep within 3 mins of laying her down)

Here's today so far:
WU: 7:15am
E: 7:20am
A:
S: 8:47-11:15am (she was yawning & rubbing her eyes like crazy and was asleep within a few mins of laying her down awake)
E: 11:20am
A:
S: 1:23pm - ... (absolute scream fest to get her to sleep! She nearly fell asleep on me during our wind down routine starting at 1h 30 AT, but the second I laid her in the crib it was a total nightmare. I can hear her now making noises in her crib, and it's only been 26 minutes!)

[ginger428]

Hi there,
I do think she needs a push in her AT to at least 1.45.
The reason she may have gone down at 1.30 mark today is because she's OT from the previous couple days of long ATs due to her resistance.  After a good nights rest, see if you can stretch AT.  Of course, watch her for her sleepy cues bc it seems she gives definite signs if she is tired.

She also may be going through sleep cycle changes that happen at 4 months where they easily wake around the 25-30 min mark. They're not quite able to transition into the deep sleep cycle and may need your help. If she does start to persistently wake at the 25 min mark even after the routine shift, try going in a few mins before and as you see her shift or move, lay a hand on her.  Not quite W2S yet.

[Jlamarie]

Thank you so much for replying so fast!

Do you think her first AT should be 1.45 right away, or should I gradually increase it? And then would the remaining AT's get longer as the day wears on? I read that the shortest AT is the first one so I was holding on to that 1.30, especially since we get such a nice 2 hour nap first thing.

And I'll keep an eye on the naps to see if she starts consistently waking at 25 minutes. I was really hoping that since we got on such a good routine and she's an independent sleeper that the 4 month "regression" wouldn't be too hard on her! Fingers crossed the AT shift does the trick.

For reference, here was the rest of the day today:

S: 1:23-1:51pm (I tried waiting 10 mins to see if she'd connect her cycles but she was full on crying and I couldn't take it )
A:
E: 2:15pm
A:
S: 3:53-5:08pm (took nearly 20 mins to get her down, she started crying at 25 mins but just as I was about to go in her room, she dropped back asleep!)
A:
E: 5:30pm
A:
BT: 6:55pm (she was slightly fussy, but I aimed for the 1.45 AT after reading your reply and she was asleep within a few mins of putting her down!)

[ginger428]

I think work on the first nap to 1.45 slowly... maybe 5 mins or so every couple few days. This one was tricky for us bc it did stay short for a while, the. All of a sudden he needed a big jump. But i agree, if the first nap is long and good, stick to what's working! If it begins togove you trouble again, start lengthening the AT.

Awesome to hear about the last nap! And yea, if she cries go in and see if you can help soothe her back to sleep. Two good long naps out of 3 is great! If we can get it to be the first two naps, even better.