My 3 mo. old (14 wk) ds weighs about 16 pounds, and when he didn't seem very hungry at 3 hours I started extending his EASY. He has never taken good naps (only 30-45 minutes) but he started to be willing to go back to sleep as the EASY got longer. When he slept for 2 hours for both morning and afternoon nap, he automatically put himself on a basic 4 hour routine. So he would get up at 7:45, sleep at 9:45, get up and eat at 11:45, sleep at 1:45, get up at 3:45. The next part was tricky, because he would go to sleep about 5:45 for his catnap, but he thought he should eat after waking at 6:15, because he always eats when he wakes up. If anything interesting was happening, though, like going somewhere or sitting in his swing, he would forget about eating. Then I'd put him in pajamas, feed him at 7:30, swaddle him below the arms (he likes to suck his fist/thumb and throws a fit if his arms are constrained) and put him to bed. If I tried to shorten the time between waking and feeding, he didn't want to sleep when I put him in bed.
Well, that's what we've been doing the last few days, and he seems to have been adjusting well. He's never gotten this much naptime sleep before, and when I do a yield for breastfeeding, he seems to be taking about 8 oz at a time. He drinks from one side unless he's still hungry, in which case I give him the other. So daytime is going fairly well, but he's started waking up on the hour during the night.
We do a dreamfeed about 10:45, and he wakes about 1:00. He fusses until someone goes to him, and he gets longer and more insistent if we wait. Eventually he would get into a cry. He's not hungry, because he'll happily take his pacifier and go back to sleep. Then he wakes at 2:00 and does the same thing. At 3:00 last night he didn't go back to sleep, and I had to keep giving him his pacifier until I gave up and fed him at 3:30, which put him to sleep until 6:45. He was still crying which meant he wasn't ready to get up. (When he wakes for the morning he coos) After taking the pacifier for awhile he finally slept through his regular time.
He's getting more physically active, holding himself on fully extended arms and kicking more, and I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. No cereal yet. A time varies, because he may nurse as short as 10 minutes or as long as 30. So A time can be as long as 1 hr and 40 minutes. I've given up on a long winddown routine, because by the time he's decided he's tired, he just wants to have his pacifier and go to sleep. He always has fallen asleep for his nap very quickly- generally less than 5 minutes. It takes him about a half hour to go to sleep at night. There, I think that's the miscellaneous stuff you would need to know.
Any suggestions to help him sleep at night? I could feed him to sleep once or twice more a night, but that seems like we'd be moving in the wrong direction. He's slept fairly well through the night before this, but he always wakes up to feed at least once after the dreamfeed and before he wakes up for the day. His days are going so well since we switched to the 4 hr that I'm reluctant to move him back. Do you think he'll slowly adjust on his own? Once he's in a deep sleep he doesn't need a pacifier. Sorry this was so long and disjointed. Thanks for your help.
