Need help with tweaking 13 week EASY

[Sabine]

My routine is as follows for my 13 week old.  I would love to make some changes and any advice to do so would be helpful. He is big--16 lbs and was big to start with.  Still on

6am E--falls asleep  until 7am (sometimes wakes at 5 other times 7--would love to get him to wake at 7--tips???)
7am--wake A
845 am--S
10am--E
1030--A
1145--S
1pm--E
130pm--A
3pm--S
4pm--E
6pm--E --cat nap in b/w
8pm--E and sleep
1030--df

I am still gtting up at night at 3pm and then anywhere from once b/w 5-7.  I would love for him to wake up more consistently at 7.  Also, are people changing their lo's at night--if I do this he is up and difficult to put to sleep.  How about burping at night--something I hardly do again I don't want to wake him??  Tips for tweaking my routine??

S

[Deb_in_oz]

hi - as far as 7am starts - they are really luck of the draw in my opinion.  every baby is different and although you don't want your baby up at 5am thinking it is a good time to start the day, it is just normal for many babies to wake sometime between 6 and 7am to start their day and i woudl personally not stress too much about starting at 6:30 vs 7am if you can get the rest of your day running smoothly and get lo to sleep through eventually (there are a lot of people whose baby wakes at 7 but it is after a night feed at 3am, i'd rather have no feed  :wink: )

you have your lo awake for 1hr 45 for each cycle and then he naps for 1hr 15.  are you waking him up from his nap in order to stick to a 3 hr feed?? if you are, then i would say to let him sleep a bit longer at these naps (as long as he is happy sleeping up to 2hrs i woudl say).  if he is waking at 1hr 15 each time - how is he when you put him down at 1hr 45??  this is quite a long awake time for 13 weeks.  if he goes down for his naps without a problem (nothing more than a little settling fuss) then ok - but if he is needing your help to settle and is fussing a lot for a while, then i would say he needs to go down a little earlier.  try 1hr 30 and see if his nap lengthens a little?

are you breast or bottle feeding?  how much/well does he feed at the 6, 8 and DF feeds? 
if he is not taking a lot at 8 and DF i would try to get rid of the 8pm cluster and that way he will be hungrier at the DF and take more then which can extend his night sleep a bit.

a 3am feed at 13 weeks is totally normal!  he will naturally eliminate this soon enough. in the meantime what you can do is try to get as many calories in him as you can between 7 am and DF. you can also try moving the DF to 11pm and see if that helps (especially if he has not been taking too much, this way he is hungrier and takes a bigger feed)

let me knowabout these things and we can see if anything helps.  sorry with limited info i asked questions and made comments based on possibilities - if i am off base at all let me know and i can try again to give more specific advice.

[Sabine]

Thanks for the reply!!!

As for the naps...his naps have always been short.  If I am lucky he will sleep 1.5hrs.  Usually 30-45 minutes.  He wakes after his naps and will feed usually 2.5-3hrs.  When he wakes after 30min he will not go back to sleep..believe me I have tried everything.  I have tried putting hiim down sooner but then his naps are even shorter!!  He goes to sleep on his own for naps..he will suck his thumb and put himself to sleep.  I don't know why his naps are sooo short.

I am ebf.  he feeds shortly and fusses at the 6 and 8 feeds but DF well.  I will try your tip of feeding him at the 6 pm and dropping the cluster to see if he takes more later and hopefully htat will extend his sleep. 

ANy suggestions in regards to increasing his naps??

S

[Deb_in_oz]

It is up to you whether you want to try this (and you can go to the naps forum to ask for more help there...) but the only element i can see off the bat is the awake time of 1 hr 45 - i would try to bring it right back to  1hr and see what effet that has.  you can then add 15 min every 3-4 days and see if there is a magic awake time that will lengthen his naps.

otherwise i would say to examine what you are doing in his awake time. be careful that he is not getting overstimulated.  maybe try hard to keep the last 15-20 minutes or so very low key (play quietly on your bed, walk around the garden, go for a stroll, etc) rather than him ctively "playing".  make sure you have a bit of a windown. the more stimulated he is the less inclined he is to nap longer...

just be consistent in trying to resettle him if necessary after giving him a good bit of time (10-20min) to resettle himseldf (assuming he is not getting upset and crying)

[Sabine]

Thanks for the reply.  Tried putting him down after 1hr and woke at the 30 min mark..wouldn,t go back down.  Tried at 1hr 15 and 1h30 and same thing..  1h45 will sleep for 45-60 minutes.  Perhaps I need to extend feeds to every 3.5h??

S

[Smarti]

Your schedule and nap problem sounds exactly the same as my LO.   I have uped his intake by a 1/2oz. at each feeding and he has started to sleep from om 10:30 to 4am and after that feed he will go until 8am- 8:30.  If he wakes up between 10:30 and 4am I put his pacifier back in and try to hold him off until 4.  It seems to be working.

I am slowly trying to work on his naps.  He has the 30-45 min. nap problem also.  I will try extra wind down time.

[Deb_in_oz]

a couple of last things - you never mentioned when he wakes early form naps is he happy and cooing/ smiling or is he cranky/crying / fussy?  how is he in his next cycle of EASY after a short nap?

45 - 60 min naps are better than 30 obviously, but i suggest you try one last thing and go further back and start windown at 40 min and in bed at 45 min - keep your morning low key and see if it makes a difference.  when he wakes give him 10-20 min to resettle imself (unless crying a lot) and then try pat/shh - don't give up until he has been in his cot for 1hr 30 and then get him up.  if you give in at 30-45 min and he is not happy then he will just get stimulation from being up (vs. staying in his cot - firstly learning it is still nap time and secondly away from toys and noise, etc)  if you give it a couple of days of really low key and consistency in his settling, you can then compare and decide whether he needs extremely short awake time (45 min)  or take it in the other direction (with starting point being 1hr 45 awake = 45-60 min nap)

consider this an experiment to see if he is better off on longer vs. shorter awake times and then you have a better clue about which direction to head in.  does this make sense ? i understand if you feel you want to pursue the 1 hr 45 and hope for the nap to extend soon, but am just curious if he is overtired or not.