Having trouble moving to 4 hour EASY....

[mommynow]

My daughter will be 5 months old next week.  Since 4 months old she finally started to extend her naps on her own.  First she extended her morning nap (1.5-2 hours).  Sometimes she will extend the other naps.

I am so happy that she is extending her naps but I don't know what to do because she is still on a 3 hour EASY.  She rarely can stay awake longer than 1.75 hours without getting fussy and crying.  Here is what our schedule looked like yesterday:

awake 8am
sleep 9:30-11:15
awake 11:15-12:45
sleep 12:45-1:20
awake 1:20-2:50
sleep 2:50-4:30
awake 4:30-6:15
sleep 6:15-7 (we used to try to keep her awake here and she was just cranky!)
awake 7-8:45
sleep 8:45

I thought by 5 months she should be able to stay awake longer.  I feel like I can't go anywhere because she needs to nap so often.  If I keep her awake longer she wakes up after a short nap and wants to eat.

How do I move her to a four hour EASY?  How do I get her to go longer without eating?

Also on a 3 hour EASY she is eating only five times a day and then gets up once or twice a night.  If I put her on 4 hour EASY will she wake up more at night?

Thank you for your help.

[Noelle]

Hi there!
Really, her schedule looks good, is she BF or formula fed?  I'm thinking that she just might be later than the usual for a 4 hr easy.  Can you post her eating schedule too?  Maybe that will help with the night wakings.  Do you clusterfeed or dreamfeed?

Thinking about it,  waking at night is sometimes a sign of needing to go to a 4hour EASY.   As far as getting her there, it's probably best to go in 15 minute increments if she gets real fussy/cranky. Has she always woke at night to eat?  Is it always at the same time?

Sorry for all the questions, the more we know the better we can help 

 

[Deb_in_oz]

hi - i notice your lo is spirited - it seems to be a big thing for spiriteds that they are slower to increase their awake time (get overstimulated quicker than others) and go to 4 hr EASY.  we made the move at 5 months when her A time finally reached 1 3/4 - 2 hrs consistently and it grew from there.

just do what works for both of you and as her ability to stay awake grows over the next few weeks you can move her to 3 1/2 hr EASY and then 4 if that works better for you (we just kind of tried it at 5 mo because a few times the week before we had not been able to get her to bed after usual length of A time and she seemed ok so we dove in head first)

[mommynow]

awake 8am
EAT 8
sleep 9:30-11:15
EAT 11:15
awake 11:15-12:45
sleep 12:45-1:20
EAT 1:45
awake 1:20-2:50
sleep 2:50-4:30
EAT 4:30
awake 4:30-6:15
sleep 6:15-7 (we used to try to keep her awake here and she was just cranky!)
EAT 7
awake 7-8:45
sleep 8:45

Then she got up at 12:30am and 5:30am.

More and more when she wakes at night she isn't eating a lot.  It seems more like comfort nursing.  I used to do a dreamfeed but she seemed to wake up earlier from it  :? Something is not going well though.  Last night looked like this:

slept from 6:15pm-7pm
EAT 7pm
when she was tired dh put her in bed at 8pm.  she then played/talked for 1 1/2 hours!!  Then started crying.  I got home from my sisters house and fed her at 10pm.  I put her down and she talked again for about 20min and then started crying out of control.  My dh finally rocked her because she was so frantic.  She then slept 11pm- 5:30am at which point she again seemed to comfort feed.  Then she woke at 9am and ate well.

Should I be waking her up at 8am even if she didn't sleep well at night?

Also the day before she woke up at 10:30am so could that be why she wouldn't go to sleep at 8pm....even though she was tired?

A couple things to note.  Two weeks ago she got her first two teeth.  I have no idea if she is still teething.  I can't feel anything.  Also we recently moved her from the miracle blanket to a sleep sack.  For the first couple nights she talked herself to sleep just fine (she used to cry when we put her down).  Last night though it seemed like she "couldn't settle".  We have to get her out of the MB though because she keeps rolling in it with her arms pinned down. 

Thank you, I feel like I have not idea what to do.