Starting EASY with an almost 3 month old!

[mljlmr]

Hey girls, im new here. a friend of mine suggested looking into baby whisperer and i have read some of the posts and really want to start DD on a schedule like this! with my almost 3 year old i didnt really know how to do that. Bre is almost 11 weeks old, and she eats (bottlefed) every 3 hours, and takes maybe 4 30-45 minutes during the day, and gets up 2 times to eat during the night.
heres what her schedule is normally.
 
7 up and eat

8:30 -9:15 nap

10 eat
 
cat nap at 11:30 or 12

1 eat

2:30-nap till 3:30 or so

4 eat

up till 7, eats a little, then is asleep. i feed her at 9:30 to fill her up and she goes back to sleep till about 1, eats then is up at 4 to eat, and the schedule starts.

My question is  how do i start getting her to nap more longer? any suggestions would help thanks!

[LŠuren]

Welcome to TBW mljlmr 

The routine you have posted looked pretty good already, at 3 months I was bottlefeeding my DS;
Up and eat 7, then 10, 1, 4, 6 & 8, we have always done a clusterfeed at night (still do to an extend) with no dreamfeed.
You could try;

7 up and eat

8:30 -9:15 nap

10 eat

cat nap at 11:30 or 12

1 eat

2:30-nap till 3:30 or so

4 eat

6 or 6:30 eat

Bed for 7pm, then dreamfeed between 10 & 11pm - no later.


It may be work trying a clusterfeed in the evening with your DD  :(see above)

i take it from your post her bedtime is 7pm, that sounds good as you have a 12hr day.


The nap issue could be lots of things, how do you put your LO to sleep for her naps? does she fall asleep on her own? how long does she usually have? Do you use a prop? Is she overtired when you put her in bed? 

It may also be worthwhile finding what type of baby you have i.e. textbook, angel, etc.... https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=52283.0


HTH's

[HeatherC]

I found this thread in the Naps Forum that might give you some ideas on how to teach her to sleep through her sleep cycles.  She's not yet able, it sounds like, to resettle herself after she comes out of the first cycle (at 30-45 mins).  I'd also be interested in knowing how she goes to sleep. 
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=39164.0
Something else to consider is the length of time she is awake between naps.  Her first period of A time is 1.5 hrs.  You might want to bump that back to 1.25 hrs and start her wind down at 8:00-8:15.  Do you have a winddown routine?  Secondly, the second period of A time you have listed is 2.25 hrs which might be too much for her.  If she wakes early from her nap, you'll need to adjust the next nap time from the time she wakes.  So, if she wakes at 9:15, then eats at 10, you'll probably want to try for a nap around 10:45.  I know that doesn't seem to fit the EASY routine, but sometimes you must tweak it to get the sleep in and prevent overtiredness.  She might even have a few cycles of EASASE if she takes short naps.  That's the way it was for my dd for quite awhile as she only took 30 min naps.
Basically, you'll probably need to research about using shh/pat to teach her to go back to sleep after the first sleep cycle, or use it at the beginning of naps if she is not falling asleep on her own. 
Like Lauren suggested, you may want to try a dreamfeed, it can be a great salvation!
HTH, let us know.  By the way, do you have Tracy's "Solves All Your Problems" book?

[mljlmr]

Thank you both for replying!! i appreciate it. For her naps i rock her to sleep, then put her in the crib. For bedtime she sleeps in her playpen in our room, and she goes down by herself and lays there a while then falls asleep on her own. DO you think i should stretch her feedings to 4 hours? sometimes she goes 4 hours, sometimes not. I havent purchased any books, My friend told me about this today, so i plan on getting the books this weekend. I appreciate any help you can give me. I do feed her at 9:30, the last feeding at night. She was born small (5 pounds 13 ounces) and right now at almost 11 weeks is 10 pounds 3 ounces, so i know she may have to wake up for a few feedings, which is fine. The night routine is actually going good, its the naps that arent going great. So you think she stays up to much and needs to sleep more? thats what i figured also. Any other help would be great!
jen

[owelley]

Tracy suggests 4 hours for 4 months old in her book.  IMO I think it makes sense as their tummies are a bit larger.

[LŠuren]

Jen

Let us know how you get on with our routine suggestions.

DS gave me the signs he wanted to change to 4hr EASY when he was 15/16 weeks, but he seems to do most things early    If you are really not sure watch her cues for a couple of days to see when she wants fed, that is what I had to do. You will also find that she is due another growth spurt in the coming weeks, so you need to watch out for that.  Going to 4hr means dropping a feed, and I'm not sure from what you've said that she is ready for that.

Take one thing at a time, you have established a good feeding routine, its up to you if you want to try the suggested routine I posted, I may eventually cut out the first night feed. Here is more info on the dreamfeed https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=54662.0

For your short naps you could find some info here: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=43311.0  if you have specific questions about naps & props (rocking), etc  you could ask them on the sleep forums and the ladies there will be able to sort you out. 

HTH's

[mljlmr]

Thanks lauren. I probably will wait to do the 4 hour easy. Question: When bre gets up to eat at night, she only drinks maybe 1-2 ounces, and that sometimes makes her want to eat 3 times during the night. sometimes she eats at 12:30-1 and 3:30-4, but like last night, it was 12:30, 2:30 and 5:00, and she only drank 1-2 ounces during those feeds. Do you think i should cut out one of the feeds? like the 12:30 feed? i feed her at 9:30, she drinks 2-3 ounces then goes back to bed. i dont know how to keep her up to drink the whole 3 ounces. thanks about the suggestion on the naps, ill check it out.

[LŠuren]

I really suggest trying the d/feed it will cut out the 1230 after no later than a week. This means she is more likely to take more at her d/f. Moe the 7pm feed to 6.30pm then bed for 7pm.

How much does she drink during a daytime feed?

[mljlmr]

She drinks 3-4 ounces during the day. So move the 7 feeding to 6:30 then dreamfeed at 9:30?  She goes 3-3 1/2 hours during the day for feedings. I will try that.

Today i started the EASY, she got up at 7, ate at 8, then went down by herself for exactly 45 minutes, so i went in there and got her back to sleep after about 25 minutes, patting her and telling her its time for naps. then she slept for another 1/2 hour, so she got up around 10:45. She at at 11:10, and by 12 she was getting fussy and sleepy, so i just put her down in her crib, patted her, she fussed for maybe 10 minutes and no shes sleeping. So far am i doing this right? Im excited shes sleeping, and hopefully she catches on to it. I will try the d/f like i said tonight, and see if that cuts out that feeding at 12.

[LŠuren]

The dreamfeed needs to be between 10 -11pm, if you think she will not stretch to 1000pm and will wake before, try and build up to 10pm in 10 minute intervals  (from her usual 9.30pm feed)

So she always gets between 10 - 11pm. She shouldn't be waking for it, as it is a dreamfeed she needs to be sleeping - all your doing is tanking her up to last a longer stretch over night. Remember it could take up to a week to see any benefits.

[mljlmr]

 ::)alright will start dream feeding her at 10 instead of 9 or 9:30. I think that will help. Thank you so much for all your help. so far today hasnt gone so bad, at least shes sleeping a little. normally she would only nap maybe 2 -2 1/2 hours during the day, which made extra fussy at night, and i know she needed to sleep more, but i cant hold her all day and let her nap on me, i have an almost 3 year old too. lol thanks again. im sure ill have more things to say.

[HeatherC]

Wow!  Your success at extending her nap is awesome.  Way to hang in there and keep at it.  She'll be on her way to transitioning herself in no time.  Keep it up.  Hope the df works for you.  Just to let you know, though, I have friends that had lo's that woke earlier than 10 and they counted that as the df (9:30ish).  Also, my dd wouldn't take the feed asleep, so I had to wake her almost completely, but she always went back to sleep right away.