Introducing EASY to 6 week old baby

[CattyPads]

Hello

I have done EASY with my two older children but I am a bit rusty here as it has been a while! I have a 6 week old baby and I want to start a routine with her now as I can see she gets cranky if OT, but she feeds every 4 hours and all the routine samples I have read seem to be with E every 3 hours so I am confused on how to go about A time as she gets tired easily because she is so young. Any suggestions please?

She is a pretty good easy baby, but I have noticed she gets quite unsettled in the mornings after breakfast, and rather unsettled in the witching hour, right after her bath. She sleeps really well after lunch for maybe 2 or 3 hours, and at night she sleeps anything between 5 to 7 hours.

Thanks!!

[CattyPads]

anyone...?

[Katet]

EASY isn't really about times, but making sure Eating and Sleeping are separated to avoid feeding to sleep.
Essentially if she feeds every 4 hours but can only stay awake about an hour (Average time for age) then you may need to do EASASE if you can't get her sleeping long enough to last 4 hours until the next time she wants to feed.
Also from 6 weeks to 3mo is the time babies are most unsettled, It's very normal to have 3-4 hours of being unsettled a day and 1 whole day a week and even a whole week a month (are ,'normal') so in many ways what she is doing is not exactly 'abnormal'
There is some research that seems to show that the unsettled periods could be babies showing their emotional needs for human contact need to be met. Apparently babies in cultures where babies are carried and families sleep in a family bed don't really have the unsettled times.
I do think (from experience) she will grow past this stage and you could tweak her routine and still have the same problem so two things 1) try not to let her have longer than an hour awake time and 2) have a plan of what to do when she is unsettled eg go outside for a walk or sit and have a cuddle.

[CattyPads]

Thank you Kate, that was very helpful.
EASY worked so well for my first two children that I am keen to implement it again, but I think maybe its a little early, possibly for the reason you mentioned about babies being unsettled until 3 months old.
For example today she napped for nearly 3 hours, then cried for food so I fed her and then she went to sleep straight away for another half an hour, so we had A after that.
As for being held, when she is very tired she gets very fed up if being held and only calms down if you put her in the crib or chair. I think I need to try to implement a routine slowly as its a bit all over the place at the moment.