We have never made it onto EASY properly, mainly because she rarely napped for more than an hour. I never knew quite what to do because she seemed happy and awake a lot of the time after a 30 minute nap, so after trying to extend her naps with PU/PD a few times, I stopped doing that. Then randomly she would take 2 or 2.5 hour naps. And on top of that, in the past month or so, she has changed, so her routine is in flux. About three weeks ago she started to nap for longer more consistently, sometimes even 2 hours twice a day. I put it down to her eating more solids. And then about 5 days ago, she seemed to change again, and as she has become more mobile, it has been harder to get her to take naps, and we have had to stop doing PU/PD, and do the PD version.
Her routine is roughly:
between 7 and 8am breastfeed
around 9am - breakfast
between 11 and 12 breastfeed
between 1 and 2 - lunch
between 3 and 4 - breastfeed
5.30 - supper
6.30 - bath
7 - breastfeed and bed
We would normally put her down for a nap when she has been awake for about 2.5 hours, sometimes she is awake for 3 hours.She would normally need a nap 2.5 hours after waking if she is at home and crawling about. She can go longer if she is in the pram or sling and not moving around.
She wakes up at very different times in the morning. Some days she will wake at 8am, another day at 6 or 6.30am. So its a bit difficult to be schedule the naps. Sometimes if she wakes early, such as 6am, she will sleep between 7 and 9 (today she slept 7.30 to 9). Other days she doesn't fall asleep again until after her solid breakfast.
Sorry, this isn't very clear. The most routine part of the day is the afternoon, where the mornings are far more dependent on when she wakes .
She is a spirited baby, and has a strong will, though she is also has some angel qualities. I would prefer her routine to be a bit more routine (as it were) but it is incredibly difficult when she has such random waking times in the morning. Hence we try to pin the days down with the meals and with her afternoon/bedtime routine (play, supper, bath, breastfeed, bed). I have tried to make her waking time a bit more regular by making her first breastfeed at a set time but this doesn't seem to have made much difference. I have only recently stopped feeding her during the night, as this was interfering with her first breastfeed, so now she will normally wake 11to12pm, and I feed her then (and I am hoping to drip this feed certainly by the time she is 10 months).
Another small piece of information - she doesn't eat a lot of solids. So even though she has three meals a day, this is partly to give her a routine and partly to give her the opportunity to eat. She only eats home cooked food, but in terms of jars of baby food, she probably eats one jar in over about 4 days.
Paola