10 week old EASY help!

[JCN]

Hey!

So LO is now exactly 10 weeks old and we seem to have hit a bump in the road. He was feeding well every 3hours (4oz ish) but now seems to have dropped that to 2.5-3oz so I’m thinking he’s not hungry enough and perhaps I need to switch to a 3.5h EASY.
We’ve also got nap issues - he gets cranky and yawns after about 1hr A and normally I can get him off to S by 1h15 (he is not great at self settling though and this is another issue to tackle) - but then he’s only napping for 45mins (sometimes 1h) which messes up the whole schedule - bevause tonstretch to a 3.5h routine (or to even stick on 3 hrs!!) he needs to nap for 1.5-2hrs!
So we’ee Ending up in this horrible vicious cycle of EASAES 😔
Any advice on how to start correcting any of the above would be most welcome! Maybe I should stretch his A time more but he gets SO grumpy after an hour, but then doesn’t sleep for very long!!

*edit - update*
So this morning I have successfully managed 1hr30 awake time, three times, but then still
Only had a 45min nap!! Every time! And it’s not to do with an inability to self settle as the first Nap was in the wrap sling on the school run (the sling always used to keep him asleep forcages!) and the second was in the pushchair (I then successfully extended by holding him, then the third nap he was held and unsuccessfully extended.

[creations]

You may just need to keep trying to extend the naps. LOs need to learn to sleep longer if they haven't already, it can be habitual to wake after one cycle.  You can also try extending before he actually wakes which is the W2S (wake to sleep) method.

[JCN]

Thank you - I have tried wake to sleep but it doesn’t seem to work. Perhaps I need to try going in even earlier. He wakes around the 40/45mins mark so I am going in at 35mins and waiting for him to stir and then placing a hand on his chest and ssshing (he’s not a fan of patting but the hand on chest seems to work to reassure him) - but he just keeps wriggling and stirring until eventually he’s awake again. I’m wondering if 45mins is UT/OT? Could I be putting him down at the wrong time? He is 11 weeks today and I’m starting WD at 1hour 15 and putting him down at 1hour 30.

[Katet]

It's actually really quite common for babies in the 2,3, 4month old age to sleep 40 or so mins & it is more often than not developmental rather than  UT or OT & its sometimes more a case of needing to do EASASE to prevent overtiredness.  One thing that can help is more visual stimulation in terms of being outside & seeing trees etc.

My DH's workplace is a unit (attached to a Hospital) that provides day & residential stays to help mothers & babies with sleep... I know a number of the nurses (DH is CFO) & so I hear a lot of the knowledge v expected details on sleep & A study showed that Swedish babies who nap outside (even in winter) sleep for longer in naps than babies who are inside for most of the day, so it could even be that he's needing a change in his stimulation when he is awake to encourage longer sleep.

[creations]

I agree with Kate that the stimulation level has a big impact which is often not considered.
45 min naps are usually considered either UT or inability to transition from one cycle to the next (ie needs to learn to transition) but it can also be US (under stimulated) which can lead to LO not  being tired enough even on a good length A time...just in the same way that OS (over stimulation) can lead to LO being either tired sooner and needing to go for a nap earlier than normal or if given the normal length A time resulting in what looks like OT behaviour (crying, nap refusal, short napping, in ability to settle).

My own DS liked a super short wind down and for his A time to be FULL of stimulation right up to the point of being tired, then a really quick nappy change,one song and down to sleep. If I attempted longer wind downs or low key activity he actually got pretty fed up and frustrated.