Hi all,
DH and I are working on transitioning our 4 month old from a 3.5 to a 4 hour EASY routine, but I have to say that naptime is a bit of a [insert profanity of choice here]. Gabriel is a very social Textbook baby who gets Touchy when he's overtired, and unfortunately he's recently spent a lot of time overtired. Can I just post what we've been up to so far and see if anyone can give us some encouragement? I think it's going reasonably well, but it's always nice to get a bit of reassurance from folks who've been there before.
We'd been on a loose 3.5 hour EASY since around 3 months, as he just wasn't hungry yet after only 3 hours. He'd been moving gradually towards not being particularly interested at the 3.5 mark, and also extending his A time without sleepy cues to around 1 hour 45--that leaves time for a good 15-20 minute transition and (hopefully) a 2 hour nap in a 4 hour cycle.
This was our 3.5 routine:
E 7:00 (though he tends to wake between 6 and 6:30, he's not hungry yet, just babble-y)
A 7:30-8:45
S 9:00-10:15
E 10:30
A 11:00-12:30
S 12:30-1:45/2:00
E 2:00
A 2:30-4:15ish
S 4:15-ish-5:00/5:15ish
E 5:30
A quiet play before bath, lotion, massage, story and
S 7:00
Dreamfeed: 11:00
As you can see, his naps haven't been very long for a while. Although he sleeps a long night without much complaint, by the end of the day he's completely knackered with naptimes of an hour to an hour and a half, which is why we're hoping to extend them on the 4 hour routine. He really just seems to need closer to 5 hours during the day to keep from wearing himself out--there have been some days when he goes down beautifully and sleeps for England, and he is just so much happier at the end of the day when he gets longer sleeps in.
However, just as the books say he'll do at around this age, he's tending more often than not to wake after a single sleep cycle and not be able to figure out how to resettle himself. When this happens, he gets incredibly cross incredibly quickly. You can hear by the tone of his cry that he's frustrated and sleepy, but he fights it all the same. We're using Shh/Pat when he's only whiny and have started PU/PD if he gets to real yelling, but Shh/Pat is still the mainstay.
After a few days of stretching by inches to 3 hours 45, we officially started the 4 hour routine today. We are being a bit clock-watchy for the time being, until we can get the naps established. Here it is:
E 7:00
A 7:30-9:00
S 9:15-11:00
E 11:00
A 11:30-1:00
S 1:15-3:00
E 3:00
A 3:30-4:45
S (catnap) 5:00-6:00
A quiet play before bath, lotion, massage and
E 6:45
A story
S 7:15/7:30
Dreamfeed: 11:00
He's feeding a little early in the last cycle and starting sleep transition quite early compared to the sample routines because I don't want to try to push his bedtime back too far. Bedtime has been solidly established for as long as I can remember, which probably means at least the last 6 weeks, probably more like 8.
Part of the reason he'd been napping short, we think, is a lack of good, consistent wind down--DH works part time and I'm still on maternity leave, so on the days of the week I was on my own we'd do one thing, but with Daddy home the rest of the week things weren't always the same. Adding in some real transition time has helped get him to settle more smoothly the past few days. When we start noticing sleepy cues, we take him straight upstairs for some quiet story or song time with the lights dim, then tuck him in; we're still using a dummy because he's learning to take it in and out of his mouth on his own, and seems to prefer it to his fingers when he's tired.
What do you think? I'm happy to take suggestions or advice if you've got it!
