winding down routine

[hatshetsut]

I have been trying to implement EASY into my 4 week old daughters routine. She is very social, even at this age, and tends to get over stimulated easily with even minimal activity. Also, she isn't showing yawns until she is very tired. I have tried to cut back on the activity time, but she still has a hard time winding down.

My question is, is it OK to breastfeed as part of winddown time if she isn't being breastfed to sleep. I try to make sure she is awake, just quite sleepy, when she goes to her crib. We then use PT/SH to keep quiet. I tried using a passi to calm her, but it became a HUGE prop, and she would drop it after 10 minutes and we were back to square one every time.

Our current routine looks like, eat, diaper change, tummy time or flirt with baby, swaddle, breastfeed to calm, then to bed.

Any help would be great.

Thanks!
HJ

[debo620]

I would not include breastfeeding as part of your winddown routine. The feeds need to be at the right intervals for EASY to work. this snack before nap may then effect the next feed and she may not take as much and then you have a real cycle of snacking. If you want to use a paci--you may just have to persist with it. I didn't and kind of wish I had.  My son is also very active and hard to wind down. For the most part, our wind down is short and he almost never really relaxes during it. I do it more for consistency. Anyway, I always feel that he is not very relaxed but he calms himself down in the crib by a bit of fussing/mantra crying and then falls asleep. although he is 4months old and can self sooth now for the most part.
Deborah