Author Topic: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??  (Read 1304 times)

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Offline scotpiper

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Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« on: August 08, 2006, 20:22:52 pm »
My 6 month old DD is on day 5 of a 4 hour EASY. After having major sleep issues (waking every hour all night and napping only 30 miutes, twice a day) she had started to take several 1.5-2 hour naps and sleep up to 10 hours at night. On day 5, she has gone back to lousy napping and I'm afraid to see what tonight holds for us. Is this common?

Offline HeatherC

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2006, 22:15:58 pm »
Yes, this is extremely common.  Please stick with it and don't give in.  It will continue to prove if you continue to practice the sleep training methods.
Kelsey, Feb. 4, 2005
Landon, Jan. 2, 2007

Offline scotpiper

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #2 on: August 09, 2006, 18:51:42 pm »
UGH. ??? Last night was lousy. She woke up every 2 hours. Today, day 6, she took an hour nap at 9am and I have not managed to get her to nap since...it's now 2:48 pm. ::) She goes through her 3 sleep stages, I watch her for 10 more minutes, leave her room and she's awake and crying again within 15 minutes. FRUSTRATING!!! Did I mention she's very crabby again? How long does the regression usually last?

Offline HeatherC

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #3 on: August 09, 2006, 18:59:02 pm »
What does her daily routine look like?
Kelsey, Feb. 4, 2005
Landon, Jan. 2, 2007

Offline scotpiper

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #4 on: August 09, 2006, 23:57:25 pm »
Her daily routine is:

E: 5:30-8:00am - wake up & breast feed
(I'm trying for a 7-7:30 wake up, but we just started EASY and her wake up time is dependent upon how she slept the night before. The really early morning wake ups, I breast feed her and can usually get her back to sleep for another hour or two. Should I pick a wake up time and wake her up even if she had a bad night?)
A: 7:30am
E: 9:00am - take reflux medication with food
S: 9:05am - nap (1.5 hours...hopefully!)
E: 11:00am - solids followed by breast feed
A: 11:30am
S: 1:00pm - nap (1.5-2 hours)
E: 3:00pm - breast feed
A: 3:30pm
S: 5:00pm - cat nap usually (30-45 minutes)
E: 6:00pm - solids followed by breast feed
A: 6:30pm - bedtime routine
S: 7:00pm - we start trying to put her to bed at 7, but it sometimes takes an hour, even on good nights, to get her to fall asleep.
This is my ideal daily schedule. We are only on day 6 and have only had 3 of those days go according to plan. We manage to get the steps in the right order, but the times vary wildly from day to day, depending on how she slept the previous night. I'm also tweaking the feedings a bit. I want to breast feed until DD is 1 year old, but she has to take medication with food around the same time every day(but not have a whole meal within 30 minutes of the medication) and must have rice cereal twice a day, morning and evening, to control spitting up. Sometimes, she wants her naps much sooner than expected and some nights, she starts giving sleepy cues as early as 6:00 pm. All of this is throwing the timing off. She also doesn't want the post activity-sit in the rocker-wind down time. I change her diaper and she starts fussing if I try to sit with her instead of putting her in her crib to wind down. She was doing so well, we took her on a previously scheduled appointment on the evening of day 3, which pushed her bedtime a bit late and the next day, she had to have an upper GI test done and spent the next 24 hours trying to pass the barium. Is any of that enough to throw her completely off with her sleeping? She had been very sleep deprived before starting EASY, due to out of control reflux and colic, so we saw a major improvement. She has a doctor's appointment (2 hours away  >:() tomorrow so her schedule will be off yet again.



Offline HeatherC

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #5 on: August 10, 2006, 01:11:59 am »
I think you're doing great for having just started EASY.  Remember, you don't have to stick to a certain time restraint.  I realize that times float all around these boards, but they are really only there as guides.  You'll find, though, that once she's more established on EASY, you will be able to predict her day in a time format with less variation.  As for now, you want to work on not feeding to sleep (which it sounds like you don't do), and teaching her to self-settle for sleeps so that she can have full naps and proper rest throughout the evening.  If she is waking very early for a feed (5 am), at her age I believe you should try to resettle her and see if she'll go back to sleep.  I don't think, although I could be wrong, that she should need at feed before 7 am.  You may want to check the night wakings board for some more tips on that.  As for picking a morning wake time, it is suggested throughout these boards, especially when beginning EASY.  You are guiding her down the path that is best for her.  Generally, you'll want to pick a time, though, that suits her natural rhythms well.
Make sure that when she wakes at night that you stand back and wait to see if she can resettle herself.  My dd wakes in the night to this day with a whimper or something, but always goes right back to sleep.  If we rush into them, they becomes accostomed to that, so give her a chance to go back to sleep.  Of course, if she's hysterically crying you'd want to go in, but sometimes she may be rolling over and letting out a "ugg, I woke up but I want to go back to sleep" cry.
I realize that you have other commitments outside of the house right now.  That's to be expected.  However, when you have a space of several days with no other commitments, try to be home during her nap times to work on her self settling.  But you shouldn't feel trapped to the house, so get out during A time.  It would probably do you both some good.
Kelsey, Feb. 4, 2005
Landon, Jan. 2, 2007

Offline scotpiper

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #6 on: August 10, 2006, 12:36:24 pm »
No, we are no longer feeding to sleep. She doesn't seem to miss that at all. Even though she sometimes wakes very early in the morning and sometimes at night, we generally get her back to sleep without food. This morning, she woke up at 5am and DH went in and had her back to sleep within minutes. She then woke up again at 6:15am, but was very wide awake and clearly not going back to sleep, so we all got up, she breast fed, we ate breakfast and she was getting cranky again by 7:30, so we gave her the reflux med early and she went back to sleep willingly at 8:15am. She fussed on the changing table and immediately calmed down as soon as she hit the sheets. Within a minute, she rolled over on her side, fell asleep, spit out her binky 2 minutes later and jolted herself awake (even with my hands still on her) 2 minutes after that. She wound up falling into a deep sleep with her binky still in. She wraps her arms around the binky and it's sometimes difficult to pull it out even when she isn't actively sucking without waking her. My DH has taken over the night duties, now that I don't feed her to sleep. He has more tolerance for listening to her cry and doesn't smell like breast milk. DD doesn't seem to have any midle ground with her sleep cycle. She's either completely awake or completely asleep. When she wakes up, it's all at once. During the night wakings, we hear 1 noise before the "get in here cry", if we're lucky. We wait until it's clear she's wide awake before we go in.

Offline scotpiper

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #7 on: August 10, 2006, 13:08:31 pm »
UGH. DD has an internal alarm clock. She fell asleep at 8:15am, I stayed and watched until 8:30 and she woke up exactly 15 minutes later.....again. She made a fussy noise, followed by crying. I still waited to go in, but she didn't stop. She was wide awake, but rubbing her eyes and won't even attempt to go back to sleep. DH is now in trying his luck with her. That's how every nap has gone for the last 2 days. I'm confused and frustrated.

Offline HeatherC

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Re: Sleep regression on day 5 of 4 hour EASY??
« Reply #8 on: August 10, 2006, 14:57:43 pm »
I think I should refer you to the Naps boards.  I'm afraid I won't be able to give you as good of help.  Or you could try General Sleep Issues if you want to ask questions about naps and the night times. 
When you post in those boards, you can copy and paste the link to this page so they can read this background info.  Let me know if you need help.
Kelsey, Feb. 4, 2005
Landon, Jan. 2, 2007