How to change from E-S-A-Y to E-A-S-Y?

[lucasbbc1]

This is my first post ever and hope to do it right. I am trying to get my son to go from Eat- Sleep-Awake-You to EASY. no matter what I do, he just screams before sleeping unless he gets a bottle. I realize this is Accidental Parenting. (He also wakes every three hours at night but that is another board). He is awake for 2-3 hours and naps 45min to 2 hours, depending on where we are.
MY question is-how do I transition from ESAY to EASY? I am guessing that if I get the EASY routine down he will sleep better at night. Sometimes he does an EAESY, so that is progress. I hope this makes sense.
I have a good routine for him besides that. We have breakfast together, play, bottle, nap, eat, walk, nap, dinner, bath, book, bottle, bed. I just need to eliminate the bottle part.
Any help would be great.

[lucasbbc1]

Forgot to mention that he is a 7 month old VERY spirited baby and I have read in the 'Support for Moms of spirited babies' thread that sometimes it is more challenging to do EASY with a spirited baby.

[estherofi20]

the really important thing i see here, is that he has to stopp asociating food with sleep. Have you tried PU/PD?

[Nay - Mateo's Mom]

My little guy was the same at first... since he'd always been nursed to sleep in the past. 

So at first, to break him from this nasty little mommy-created habit, I fed him anywhere but his room or ours (since he would also sleep in our bed) That way he disassociated eating time with sleepy time. At first he would only stay awake for like 15 minutes after each feed, but at least he started to get the hang of not going to sleep right after being fed.

PU/PD worked miracles for us, so give that a go if you haven't already.

[HeatherC]

Can you give us as many details about your current routine as possible:  morning wake time, bottle times, solid food times, nap times and lengths, bedtime?  I agree with the other posters that you will need to use Tracy's sleep training methods to teach him independent sleep.  And, spirited babies can be tough in that their tired cues can be hard to read, and they can reach the point of overtiredness very quickly, and that makes it very difficult for them to settle in for sleep.
Also, tell us about his nightwakings-usual times, what you do when he wakes.
Do you have a winddown routine, what is his sleep environment like, does he take a paci/soother, does he have a blanky/lovey/transitional object?

[lucasbbc1]

Wow, thanks for the support! All great suggestions to get both me and my son out of our habits,
Ironically, my son slept through the night last night with one small stir around 4am.
My schedule:
7am: wake screaming- bottle
8:solids-oatmeal
8:30-10:30:play
10:30 bottle then nap for 45min -2 hrs
12: solids, veg, rice.
1-5pm outing with other Moms or my Mom, usually naps around 3pm.
5:30 pm-Daddy's home-yay!
5pm-exercise with Mom and Dad in backcarrier
6:30-dinner, solids, rice, veg
7pm-bath, book (always Goodnight Moon) bottle, bed by 7:30-8pm.
wakes 9pm at which time DH or I give him a bottle, and soother.
11pm df
wakes at 3 or 4pm bottle and soother.
repeat

Writing all of this out has helped me to see my bad habits. I am okay with the soother for now until we get the sleep sorted. Is this a big mess?

[lucasbbc1]

Bear with me here, I will answer some more of HeatherC's questions.
Our windown routine is bath and book and swaddling. I use the swaddling more as a sleep cue than anything else as he escapes within a few minutes. He sleeps in a crib in our room (small apartment) with a sleep positioner. We are both hooked on the soother. It seems that we are very prop happy! (oops)
I have tried tracy's pat/shush technique in the past with success but we moved and I guess I got lazy and would rather give him a bottle instead of putting in the effort. I see now that it will require short term sacrifice of sleep to achieve long term results.
I am also not sure what all these abbreviations mean, is there a post to explain them?

[estherofi20]

here is the link for the site acronyms: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=51772.0

I see now that it will require short term sacrifice of sleep to achieve long term results.

yep... it will take a lot of hard work, but in the end you'll see results for the long term. You will have to do PU/PD to teach him independant sleep without having a bottle, this also works to extend naps, and to get him back to sleep at 9pm if the paci doesn't work, 'cause if you give him a bottle, it counts as a night feed. I don't think its such a mess, 'cause he is napping twice a day, having 3 solid meals, but the eating-sleeping thing does come to view.

Just so you can have an example of an EASY day,  this is my DS's routine:
7:30- bottle
8:30- breakfast
10-12- 1st nap
12:30- lunch
2-3- 2nd nap
3:30 bottle
5:30 dinner
6:30 bath and massage
7 bottle and book
7:20 bedtime


here is the link to other EASY routines so you can see more examples: https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10386.0

[lucasbbc1]

Thanks so much for the help Thing 1- love the shirt!
I will discipline myself for the long term goal.

[estherofi20]

I will discipline myself for the long term goal.

LOL 

i'm glad you like the shirt!!