Questions for adapting Tracy's techniques to my Spirited baby boy

[MellyHK]

Hi everyone, I'm new to Tracy's latest book, and to this forum.

Upon first reading of Tracy's book, I have found that I was pretty much following a sort of 4 hour EASY routine with Aidan, so this in itself isn't a major problem.  I do believe the routine needs tweaking, and I need help with his daytime naps.

Aidan is 5.5 months and sleeps through the night no problem.  We put him down between 7 and 8 most nights, we struggle a bit to get him off but once he's gone, we don't hear from him until between 6 and 7 the next morning.  He doesn't have a dreamfeed - he dropped both the night feeds by himself.

He hasn't ever been a consistently good daytime napper though.  Sometimes he will have good sleeps (2-3 hours), but most times he sleeps for the dreaded 40 minute sleep cycle and then it's a battle to get him off again.  This is where the routine tweaking comes into play.  He recently started solids (he is under the care of a paed, is on a prescription formula and we are doing this under medical advice so don't need info about waiting until 6 months thanks).

Up until yesterday, his routine looked a little something like this:

Between 6 - 7 - wake up - DH brings him into our room.
7 - first bottle (240mls)
Tired signs (from 8.30ish onwards) - sleep
9.15ish - up and activity
11.00 - solid food and bottle.
11.30-12.00 - nap another 40 minutes (maybe an hour sometimes)
3.00 pm - Bottle
4.30-5.00 ish - catnap
6.30 ish - bath
7.00 solid food and bottle
bed

Yesterday, I have started to adjust his routine, because I did not feel that the solids with the bottle was working terribly well, and I am finding that when he does have a short nap, then everything tends to move backward to the point where he is going down for his nap straight after the bottle, because he's been up and is tired.  So, I am now trying to follow this routine:

7am - Bottle/BF
8am - Solids
9am - Sleep
11am - Bottle/BF
12pm - Solids
1pm - Sleep
3pm - Bottle/BF
4/4.30pm - Solids
4.30/5pm - Sleep
6.30pm - Bottle/BF
7pm - Sleep


Yesterday, this seemed to work quite well.  I went in and resettled him when he woke after 40 mins during his naps, and he slept for a decent amount of time for all of them.  Today though, he was put to be a bit early (about 8.30) and woke at around 10.00 am, (without needing resettling), which I know is a decent sleep, but my question is, when they wake that early before the next feed, what are you supposed to do?  If I keep to the 2-2.25 hours up and then put him down for his next sleep (he will be tired by then) and he only sleeps for 1 - 2 hours, then it blows out the amount of wake time for the next activity period (gee I hope you dear readers are following this!).  Eventually he will be sleeping when he's supposed to be eating.   I'm not sure what to do in this situation.  I don't want to keep him awake to 1.00 pm just for the sake of the routine, because then he will have been up for 3 hours, he will be overtired and then he will definitely only sleep for the 40 minutes and no more.


Also, we have are rocking him as part of his settling to sleep routine, which I want to wean him off.  (This rocking was started by the MIL, who, funnily enough, isn't around now that it's a problem - grrrr!).   Should I be using shush/pat to do this?  I don't rock him to sleep, just till he's heavy-lidded and going off.  Also, we need to wean him off his wrap, because he moves around in the cot during the night a lot now (turns himself 180), and the wrap is starting to end up around his neck and over his face more often.  I am getting up 4-5 times a night to check on him and take the wrap away from his face/neck if needed, but it is getting scary TBH.  I cannot just go cold turkey with it, because he is such an active little boy, he will not be still if he is not wrapped IYKWIM.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[Jaime]

hello and welcome,

first i wanted to send you this link:
https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=62650.0
this is a support group for moms of spirited babies.   there are LOTS of good ideas here.

as for your routine questions.... spirited babies seem to have the shortest A span for quite a while.  so, it's not unusual that he wanted to go down after 1.5 hrs; the fact that he slept so well kinda reinforces that.  so, yes your EASY may not go exactly in that order; you may have EASAEAS or some crazy permutation while you work out all the kinks.  the main thing is to remember to not feed him to sleep (don't think you have a problem there!    )

as far as weaning off the rocking.... i'm thinking that just doing it gradually will help you best.  you say you did it until he was fairly drowsy; i think if you gradually put him in more & more awake you will eventually get rid of it.  try pat/shh if he protests when you put him down, and pu/pd if you are seeing no success.  make sure his room is rather dark; you don't want anything to catch his eye & stimulate him.

as for the wrap.... what about a sleeping bag/gro bag?  that won't get around his neck, and he'll still be warm enough.

anyhow, hopefully that gives you some good ideas! 

[MellyHK]

So if getting him to sleep longer than the 40 mins is a no-go (believe me, I try and try to resettle but it doesn't always work), is it better then to get him up, have more activity time and then have another sleep before the next feed?  Eg EASASE - like that?

I don't want to encourage 40 min naps, but by the same token how much time do you realistically spend trying to get them down for longer?

[Jaime]

if he wakes at the 45 min mark, you should spend no more than 40 minutes trying to extend.  (if you can't put in that much time, try & stay there at least 20 min, but 40 is optimal).  then, yes, take him out for A time, but depending on how he woke up, you will probably have a very low-key A time. 

you will probably want to try & squeeze a feed in before he goes down again, but if that's not possible, then you do what you can. 

HTH