Help with EASY with 4 month old

[loube80]

Hi, Have been trying to implement the Easy routine with my now 18 week old DS since about 4 weeks old on and off but never been very successful due to short napping and other sleep issues.
In the last few weeks he has started to nap for longer so now trying again. Days are going quite well but the evenings are very bad. We do bedtime routine for approx. 7:30 pm and he will go sleep for around 1 hr after which point he won't settle again until around 11pm. We have tried everything to get him to sleep again before this time. Once asleep his nights are actually really good as he goes until 5 -6 am before the next feed.
I wondered if anyone would have any tips to improve this as would really like to get some time in the evening and make sure LO is getting enough sleep.
Here is a typical day - he can usually manage 2hour A time before needing another nap.
8am - Wake + feed
10 am - nap (1 hour)
11am - feed
12:30 pm - feed
2pm - sleep (1 hour)
3pm - feed
4pm - sleep (1.5 hours)
5:30 pm wake + feed
6:30 - start bedtime routine
7pm - feed
7:30 - sleep
8:30 - back awake
11pm - finally back to sleep
6am - feed and back to sleep until 8am

[amayzie]

Hi! Welcome to the boards!

How is he settling to sleep- independently? do you rock him, pat him, use a dummy? What is your wind down consisting of? does he have a history of reflux or anything else?

Is he waking in the night at all?

[loube80]

Hi thanks for replying. He settles independently (with intermittent shushing and patting) about 80% of the time BUT he does need his dummy to sleep and is also still swaddled. He wouldn't self settle at all until around 12 weeks but we have been making good progress on this since then. Occassionally if he is really unsettled, and especially during the evening I end up rocking or feeding him to sleep (he is ebf).
I start winding down for naps about 1hr 45min after being awake, or sooner if he is showing tired signs. I take him to the nursery, close the blinds and put on his lightshow music box. I then rock him until he is sleepy and place him in the cot with the dummy to fall asleep. Bedtime is similar but he has a bath, then feed, then into cot.
He usually goes 5 - 6 hours at night before waking for a feed and then back down for another 2 -3. At times when he is very unsettled in the evening he can wake more frequently but will often settle if given his dummy. He always spits the dummy out once asleep so I don't think he is necessarily waking for the dummy, I think it is more to do with him being OT.
He hasn't been diagnosed with reflux or colic or anything so I don't think there is anything medically wrong.

[amayzie]

I'm going to get the Night waking ladies to have a little look at this. At the moment the naps seem OK- an hour could be just a developmental thing- or could be that he is ready for a little more A time in the day- say 2 hours 10/15? You could try an A time push again first up to see how he goes? I just wonder if the shorter day time naps are making him tired by the end of the day-- leading to the unsetled night ?

Also- I'm just looking at your feeds- he seems to be feeding in the day every 2-3 hours.. at 4 months we generally find babies do better on a 4 hour feeding routine as then they'll eat more.. i'm also wondering if he's snacking in the day and then needs to be topped up AGAIN in the early evening? Have you tried feeding at this waking and putting him back down? I dont think this will solve the issue as such- but it will tell us if the feeding is contributing to the issues...

[loube80]

I thought that the short naps may be a problem as he does seem like he is tired in the evening but just can't go back to sleep. This is actually an improvement on how things were a few weeks ago as previously we were only getting 30 - 45 minute naps so weren't able to do EASY as such. I did find that once he got to 2 hours A time that these extended so will try to up this again. NW have improved a lot since then.

So should I be aiming for 2 hour naps? Should I wake him if he should sleep for more than two hours?

Will try to extend the feeding time. If he has a short nap how do you work the feeding if aiming for 4 hours - do you feed him after more A time? I always feed him again when he wakes in the evening and he will eat but it doesn't help with getting back to sleep. We currently spend most of our evening trying to resettle him.

Thanks so much for the advice.