soooo confused - is DS ready for 4 hour EASY?

[OriginalSunshine]

DS is one week short of 4 months. He's been on 3 hour EASY since he was 4 weeks old. He was born on time, but at 2.9kg (6lb3oz) and is now about 6kg (13lb).

He was doing great on a 7,10,1,4,7,10 routine and waking between 6&7am. The last week or so he has been waking up erratically at night, and his naps are shortening to under 45 minutes and getting cranky during the day. He's a touchy/textbook baby.

The thing is I work mornings (7:30-12) and I breastfeed exclusively - he gets a bottle of expressed milk at 10am.

How can I tell if he is ready to go on to the 4 hour routine - what clues should I look out for?

I'm scared that if I start transitioning him then it is all going to go horrible wrong!  

Please help!!!

[estherofi20]

hi there!!!

i changed my DS's routine to 4hr when he was 12WO, 'cause he was acting just as your lo, and he wasn't hungry at the 3 hr mark, so everything got messy, so i decided to change to 4hr EASY, and it was perfect. But i did it cold turkey, from one day to another, and he took it rather well, but here the link to transition your DS at a slower pace https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=41061.0

good luck with the transition!
hope this helps

[OriginalSunshine]

cold turkey!? that's brave! 

how did you hold him off for the extra hour?!?!

[estherofi20]

well i tried to distract him by taking walks and all which he loves, he did become a bit grumpy, so i also put him to nap a bit earlier (he has always ben a really good napper, so that wasn't hard), our day used to go like this:

8:00 bottle
8:30-9:30 activity
9:30-9:40 wind down
9:40-12:00 1st nap
12:00 bottle
12:30-1:30 actiivity
1:30-1:45 wind down
1:45-4:00 2nd nap
4:00 bottle
4:30-5:30 activity
5:30-5:40 wind down
5:40-7:00 cat nap
7:00 bath and massage
7:30 bottle and book
8:00 bedtime
11pmDF

he sometimes woke at 4-5ish for another feed, but i gave him just an oz or two, 'cause if gave him more he wouldn't eat very well the 8am bottle.

cold turkey!? that's brave!

LOL, i remmember those days i was pretty nervous acctually 

hope this helps

[LŠuren]

thanks Esther 

[OriginalSunshine]

thanks ladies!

wow - what a night I had after I posted! 
10:30pm dream feed
DS then woke up from 11:30pm until 12:30am, just mantra-crying (but still so hard to listen to / rocking) in a quiet darkened room - completely abnormal and has never woken at this time before except when he was really tiny!
then he woke again at 3:30am, and after trying to settle him we changed his nappy (again, quiet, dark) and I nursed him. he took 15 minutes one side and went back to sleep.
woke AGAIN at 5:30am, morning whinging because he had rolled over from tummy to back and turned 180degrees! held him off until 6am and fed him.

He stayed awake until recently! DCP fed him a bottle of EBM at 10am, and he finally went to bed at 11:55am. Poor DCP said it had been a rough morning. I got back from work at 12:10pm. It's 12:30pm here now, so am going to see if I can get him to last until 2pm..... not holding up much hope though as his naps have only been lasting 45 minutes tops the last two weeks.

will keep you updated as to how it all goes.......

[OriginalSunshine]

wellllllll.......................

I had to wake DS up at 2pm  right little grumpy arse as well soooo funny to see! he had a good long nice feed and then played for a while. got grizzly around 4pm, so I put him in his bassinet and gently rocked him and sung a lullaby to him to get him off to sleep after 10 minutes (yes, I know it's a prop but shhh/pat didnt work as he fought it too much - I guess I'll deal with the prop thing later on).

Anyway, he woke at 4:45pm in a great mood. We chatted for a bit in his play-ring. Then he got bored so we sung nursery rhymes until 5:30pm. Took him for a walk around the block. At 6pm DH came home and bathed him, and I fed him from 6:10pm and put him straight down to bed. It's now 7:15pm and he's asleep (no prop needed for this feed). I'm going to wake him at 10pm for his dream feed.

And then it will be fingers crossed for the night....... wish me luck!

[OriginalSunshine]

stacy - sometimes (when his nappy NEEDS changing) he is fully awake, but most of the time, I just do a quick peek to check, and then pick him up and latch him on. feed him, lift him up and around for the other breast, and then put him back in the cot - most of which is accomplished without fully waking him up.

well - for the rest of the day, we had the dream feed at 10pm until 10:30pm, he woke at 2:20am, nappy change & full double feed, woke again at 5:30am, had soaked his nappy, his sleep suit, his sleeping bag AND the bedsheet! he also had turned from his tummy to his back and was the other end of the cot! fed him at 6am, he grizzled and sicked up. fed him again at 7am before going to work. I'm exhausted 

DCP said he had half an hour from 9:30am until 10am, then he played until 11:50am when he fell asleep. and now I am going to wake him for his 2pm feed, followed by vaccination 

his cradle cap & eczema is really bothering him as well.

what happened to my 10wk old angel that slept well at night (until 7am!?) 

[OriginalSunshine]

stacy - sorry for the delay in replying - parents have come to visit & are staying in spare room where PC is!

yep - have always dream fed.

4 hour schedule was going really well, but problem is he now seems to be sleeping tooooo much during the day. He's taking two big long 2hour+ sleeps (8:30am-10:45am) and (12:30pm-2:45pm) and one 1 hour one in the evening (4:30pm-5:30pm) which in itself isnt too bad  but he has over the last couple of days become much harder to settle to sleep at 7pm.

He insists on his day naps and really arches his back and yells if he doesnt get to sleep soon - I cant stop him from sleeping during the day.

He has a 7pm bath & then feed, and the put down in his cot to sleep. Normally it's lights out straight away but now he grizzles.

I was thinking of dropping the DF but last night he actually woke up at 10pm for it! And afterwards it took DH 15 minutes of sssh-patting to settle him after he had fed for 45 minutes breast feeding - this is not normal as again it is "lights out" with a dream feed.
And then he woke at 2am, and again at 7:30am.

 

[OriginalSunshine]

might well be a growth spurt and/or developmental as we have found him on occasions completely upside down & spun around in the cot. he is desperately trying to roll himself over! 

well, I'll let you know how tonight goes. he had a sleep from 8:30am and woke at 10am, so I kept him awake for his 11am feed. we then went out and he napped in his pushchair but no real sleep. currently napping again now at 5:30pm.

fingers crossed for this evening......

[OriginalSunshine]

well, nap lasted 45 minutes.

fed at 7pm post bath, and DF at 10:30pm. still woke around 2am. DH changed his nappy, and tried to put him back to sleep but after an hour, and ever increasing fractiousness I gave in and fed him again around 3am. He then woke at 6am!   

at a loss now 

[TDR'smom]

Dream Feed never worked for my DS.  It made him wake up more?!?!?!?!  Just a thought.

[OriginalSunshine]

thanks stacy - yep, have realised I should feed him. have done so last night, although he woke up at 1:50am and 5am again last night.
*sigh*

TDR - it's a thought. the last time we tried that though was when he was 2 months old, and he woke at 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am instead so scared us off trying again! 

what did you do? how did skipping the DF work for you? when did you try that?

[TDR'smom]

We did not discover Baby Whisperer till DS was about 3 months, so that is when we tried dream feeding.  We found that it made him wake up more often (or just as much as without).  So for example if he got a bottle at 7:30PM and a dream feed at 10:30PM or 11 PM, he would still wake up at 1AM or so.  If we skipped the dream feed, he would still be up at 1AM.  So we just decided to not stay up for the dream feed and try to get a little sleep before the 1AM wake up.

DS is fussing in the other room, will check back and write more details later.  SORRY!   

[OriginalSunshine]

ah - ok.

well last night we had a relatively good night and after the DF, he only woke at 4am, and I changed & fed him & he went back to sleep immediately. He then woke with the sunrise at 6:30am.

I think we just have to hang on in there I guess. He's now starting to crawl (already!? no! I'm not ready for that yet!  ) so I guess it might just be developmental waking?