Need help starting EASY at 4+ months

[hawkeye1315]

Hi,
My wife and I are starting EASY with our son after discovering The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. The author recommends the following method for starting EASY at this age on page 230 of the book to get to a 4 hour EASY:

Days 1-3
E: 7
A: 7:30
S: 8:30 (1.5 hrs)
E: 10
A: 10:30
S: 11:30 (1.5 hrs)
E: 1
A: 1:30
S: 2:30 (1.5 hrs)
E: 4
A: 4:30
S: catnap
E & A: 7
S: 7:30
E: 11 (dream)

Days 4-7
E: 7
A: 7:30
S: 8:45 (1.5 hrs)
E: 10:15
A: 10:45
S: 12:15 (1.25 hrs)
E: 1:15
A: 2
S: 2:45 (2 hrs)
E: 4:15
A: 4:45
S: catnap
E & A: 7:15
S: 7:30
E: 11 (dream)

There are further routines for days 8-11 and 12 -15 but my problem is with Days 4-7 (were on Day 4). If you look at the routine, the times don't add up. Sleep at 12:15 for 1.25 hrs does not add to Eating at 1:15 but rather 1:30. Further, Sleep at 2:45 for 2 hrs certainly does not Eating at 4:15. The text of the book states:

"Days Four to Seven. Feed your baby at 7 when he wakes up, extend his morning activity time 15 minutes and for the rest of the day his feeds will be 15 minutes later - for example, the second feed will be at 10:15, instead of 10, his third at 1:15, instead of 1. He will still have three naps (1.5, 1.25 and 2 hrs) plus a 30-45 min catnap but the span between naps will have increased a bit and will keep increasing as you continue this plan. In other words, he'll be staying up for increasingly longer stretches. You'll use PU/PD to extend his naps."

We're utterly confused. A further discrepancy: the morning activity time was supposed to extend from 1 hour to 1.25 hours. So the morning activity on Days 4-7 at 10:45 should end at 12:00 (Sleep) and yet her routine specifies 12:15. We have adjusted this to 12:00 and it falls in line with the next E at 1:15 for a 1.25 hour sleep period.

So now we're at E 1:15. She specifies the next A at 2, but we've shortened this to A at 1:45 (since he never takes more than a half hour to eat and no where else in the routine is there a longer E period). So now at A 1:45, this should be one hour based on the text and would fall in line with S at 2:45. But here the book says the S period is 2 hours but the next E is at 4:15. The math shows that the S  would only be 1.5 hrs. Here's where were not sure what to do, let him sleep for 2 hours, or wake him at 4:15 for a feed? HELP!

Thanks in advance!

[macsmum]

I too was slightly confused with the books routine
so i decided that all i wanted was to get to 4 hours between feeds so i just tried to extend everything and move it each day by 15 mins, so for example if the first bottle is at 7am and the next say 10am try spanning lo till 10.15am and so on, i worked on the feeds first and tried to sort them out then the naps etc, although ds still hasn't mastered the art of napping so each day looks a little different here but all feeds are at the same time if you get my point.

you don't need to have say 7 11 3 and 7 for feeds work it so its what is best for lo just stretch out by 15 mins every couple of days till you get to the magic 4 hrs look for lo sleep ques if he is already rubbing eyes etc then u may have missed the window.
trust me i know its hard but so worth it
anyway i am only a novice there will be a very helpful moderator around to help u out shortly i am sure, just wanted to try to help while u wait hope i haven't confused you more
Emma

[Lªuren]

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=63161.0
You are both right, there is a discrepancy with the times (see above post)

That schedule on pg 230 has been the topic of a lot of confusion and many discussions on this forum.   We even talked to Melinda Blau about it.  No one is certain what exactly is supposed to be right, but here is what we think the idea is:  to extend awake times working on one awake time every three days.  For instance, after the first three days observation, you would work on extending your lo's first awake time by 15 minutes.  Then, after that is working, you would extend the second awake time.   Does that help or make any sense?

Don't forget that you know your baby best, and that Tracy suggests that EASY be a guideline and not a strict schedule.  She also posted those (and every other schedule in the book) as a guideline. 

HTH's