Lots of glitches -- pls advise

[pnmom]

Be prepared for a rather lengthy post.  My son is 4 months old now and we have been trying to follow the rudiments of EASY.  I say rudiments b/c he has always been a very frequent breastfeeder.  We have just recently gotten to the point where he is at a pretty consistent 3 hour feed schedule, occasionally he goes to about 2.5 hours, and does do some cluster feeding.  Now that he is on a more consistent feed schedule I would like to tackle the nap issue.  However, as he feeds at 7, 10, 1, 4, then before and after bath, dream feeds at 10:30/11 and often wakes in the middle of the night for a feed, it seems that his feed schedule interferes with his nap schedule.  He usually goes down for a morning nap at about 8:30/9 am and sleeps for about 45-50 minutes, never longer, and it has been that way for quite some time.  Some days it looks like he is ready to sleep again at about 11:30/12, some days closer to 1.  However, there is the 1 pm feed to contend with and no matter what time he goes down, he sleeps about 45/50 minutes and wakes up crying to be fed.  Occasionally if we are out and about he will sleep in the pram for close to 2 hours, but I think that is b/c I try to time it more for between feeds or feed a little early.  I think it will be impossible to stretch his feeds to 4 hours b/c he really does cry like he has never had food if we go too much beyond 3 hour feeds. I am also not sure if this is a sign to introduce some solids?  Often in the evening I give him a small bottle to help tide him over, which I really don't think works.  We have gotten some 11, 11.5 hour nights out of him.  About a month, month and a half ago he was a much better evening sleeper.  I am not entirely sure what changed, or if there was something that I have done differently.  I have tried poring over his logs, but can't figure it out.  To sum it up, I think my main question is what should I do about that afternoon nap and feed?  Is there any other information I should provice to help give you a better picture of our day?  Thanks for any input you can give!

[* Paula *]

Hi,

Welcome to the boards. I am going to start off by asking you a few questions.

You feed your DS on the 3 Hour EASY, you say you are offering feeds at 7, 10, 1 and 4 - Do you offer another feed at 7 in the evening?  How long does your lo feed for?  Does he feed on one side or both?  You offer a bottle in the evening - is this EBM or formula - how many oz?

Do you clusterfeed as well as the dreamfeed?  Have you tried moving the dreamfeed closer to 10pm?

With regards to your naps - have you tried pat / shhh / PU PD to extend them?

With regards to introducing solids - the guidelines today are that you hold off until your lo is 6 months old.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Paula x

[pnmom]

Thanks for the welcome, Paula!

Usually in the evening he does cluster feed, so sometimes he will feed at 3:30 and not at 4, and then again at about 5:30 or 6.  After his bath he gets to feed again, to tank him up. I do offer a bottle, currently of forumula.  The amount he takes varies anywhere from about 100 ml to 210 ml.  Tonight he took 100.  Some nights he might even take less.  I have not tried to move the dreamfeed closer to 10.  How would this help?  Does it further tank him up to get through the night, or will he wake up a bit earlier to eat? 

During the day he is offered, and drinks from, both breasts.  He seems to have become a more efficient eater as he now only takes about 30 minutes, sometimes 40 to eat.

I have tried the shh, pat, but that has not helped.  Last week we did try, sort of, pu/pd, but that turned into a diaster the two days I tried it, so stopped so that I could re-evaluate and re-read.  One problem that I have found is that when he cries, the crying usually escalates and escalates and escalates, which is why I am still a bit hesitant to use pu/pd as we had 50 minutes of hard crying with no end in sight.  I finally caved, I know bad mommy, and gave him the breast to comfort him.  However, I have my highlighter out and post-its and am re-reading the book to figure out what I did wrong.

I do not think that at this point he is ready to be pushed to the 4-hr EASY, even though at his age it is recommended.  I think this is one reason that I may be having problems since his awake times, sleep times, and eat times somehow work against each other in fitting into the schedule.

I hope that this is not too confusing and that I did answer your questions.  Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.  Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully he will sleep well tonight (since he woke 5 times last night -- ?!?!?) and we will both have the energy to attack these issues!

In order to get his naps more firmly established at certain times and for certain lengths is it best to do that in the crib (which I think is part of the problem as well as I am trying to transition him from bassinette to crib) or could I, at the same time each day, put him in the pram for a walk and then slowly transition him to the crib?  That would just be creating a bad sleep association, wouldn't it?  I so want that little boy to get the sleep he needs!

Sorry to be so long winded!

[* Paula *]

Your feeding schedule looks good, so for the most part I recon it is your naps / night sleep that is the problem.  I definitely would not suggest feeding to calm him down, as this can encourage him to become a snacker.  You have to start off as you mean to carry on - does this make sense.

I definitely would suggest putting your lo down for his naps in his cribs, as you don't want him to only want to sleep in a pram.  This may take a bit of time for him to get used to - especially if he is used to sleeping in a pram.  I would definitely suggest carrying on with the pat / shhh, it will work to help extend your naps.

Does your DS take a pacci or a lovey?  This can help him soothe himself when he wakes up from naps or in the middle of the night?

My DS has a blanket which he uses, and when he wakes in the night, he looks for his blanket and cuddles it and puts himself back to sleep.

I do recon, that once you are able to sort your naps out, that your lo will be ready to move to the 3.5 hour EASY or even the 4 hour EASY.

It might be worth, popping over to the naps boards and let them know of the problems you are having with regards to the Pat / Shhh.

The night wakings could very well be down to him being over tired from having short naps during the day.

Hope this info helps.

Paula x