What to do after an early wake?

[wyattsmomma]

Hello, this is my first time posting and I've gotten so much help from all of you out there--so, thank you! I'm working on extending my son's short naps (30-45) minutes. He's 4 months next week and been on EASY for about month, but I've had no luck consistently extending naps (despite trying all the ideas posted out here). So while I continue to work on extending his naps (and moving him to a 4-hour routine), what do I do when he wakes early and is content to play in his crib? Sometimes I can catch it and use the pacifier or shush/pat to get him to sleep longer, but other times, he just wakes and has no interest in falling back asleep. If he cries, I do PU/PD, but when he's happy which is most of the time, what do I do? Get him up? Leave him and hope he'll go back to sleep (although he never does)? And when do I put him down for his next nap? I usually stet our wind down after an hour and 10 minutes to get him asleep 1.5 hours after waking. But if he wakes early, and doesn't go back to sleep, he gets completely off the 3 hour routine. Does is sound like he's ready for a 4 hour routine? This is driving me crazy! Help!!

[mommytogabriel]

Hi! My son is about 7.5months, so just slightly older then your baby. At 4 months he had switched over to a 4hr easy (almost at the least) meaning i kept him up for as close to 2hrs as possible and then tried to get him to nap for 1.5/ 2hrs,

When me son waked early (lets say after an hour) i would usually try to put him back to sleep, and to be honest most of the time i would rock him (5min) and he would sometimes fall back asleep. Other times, i would let him be to see if he could work it back out himself and go back down. ( I would leave him hysterical for long periods of time, but if hes just whining i would try at least 10min or so).
If you keep trying and he refuses to sleep or if he wakes close to the 2hrs mark i would just get him up and put him down early for the next nap. For example, if he woke up at 8am and is to nap from 10-12pm but woke up at 11am i would probably put him down a little earlier, say 130pm. You really would have to keep an eye on him.

I completely understand your frustration, i am VERY type A and it would really bother me when he did not follow my routine because it threw our entire day off.

If you would like you can post your typical EASY and see if that gets other to reply once they get a better idea of your day.

Magda,

[wyattsmomma]

Thank you!! My apologies for the less than coherent message yesterday. I was feeling desperate! Below is my “ideal” Easy routine. It varies depending on when he gets up, etc. as well as if he’s had a short nap and I end up shortening the whole routine. 

His night sleep was great, but now he repeatedly wakes from about 3-5 AM. I feel like this began when I started with the dream feed. I used to let him direct the night and he’d get up twice for feedings. Then I started the dream feed and tried to give up the 2 AM feed. But he never slept through, so I started feeding him again at his 2:30 wake. That helps him sleep better in the early morning, but he’s still waking.

He’ll be 4 months next week and I’m wondering if he would do better on the 4-hour routine, so I’m going to start extending it slowly this week unless anyone sees something else that I’m doing wrong? Believe it or not, things are much better than they were. With BW advice, he’s now able to put himself to sleep and sleep for 45 minutes—which is an improvement!

Any advice for extending naps and how to stop those early morning wakes would be so appreciated!

E 6:30 Wakes (or I cave and finally get him up)
A
S 8:00 (start to put down at 7:40)
Y
E 9:30
A
S 11:00 (start to put down at 10:40)
Y
E 12:30
A
S 2:00 (start to put down at 1:40)
Y
E 3:30
A
S 5:00 catnap for 30 or 45 mins (start to putdown at 4:40)
Y
E 6:30
A
S bath and bed by 7:30

[mommytogabriel]

HI! In regards to the 230am feed i wouldnt worry to much about it right now. What i did was i gave my son a few extra ounces throughout the day when he would let me, i was surprised how much more i could sneak in.
Also, i remember with my son this was the age that i really started extending his A time even though he struggled staying awake and still does. What i did was 5-10 min per week per A time. This worked very well for him because he didn't notice it to much. I still do this at 7.5mnths where i working him up to 3.5hrs by 8 mnths. I think if you extend his A time slowly everything will be pushed forward around an hour at the end of the day and then you can get rid of that catnap and start to put him down around 6/630pm.

Lastly, sometimes my son would cluster feed at this age at 6pm, 830pm and then dreamfeed around 1030 and would sleep all the way through.

Id eventually aim for
A-630-830
S 830-10
A-10-12
S-12-2PM
A- 2-4
S- 4-445
A-445-630ISH

ONCE he can go to about 2.5h he probably could go down to 2naps. My son did this early around 5mnths where the cat nap just started to become so short (20min) that i just cut it out.

[wyattsmomma]

Thank you! That is so helpful. I will try to extend his awake time and shoot for the schedule you gave. Good to know that the 2:30 feed is still okay. I'll try to sneak in ounces during the day to help wean from it, but I was feeling like he "should" be able to sleep through and was worried that I was reinforcing a habit instead of feeding when he was hungry. But last night, he work earlier at 1:50, so I do think it is hunger. Also good to know about the cluster feed. I ended up doing that last night and was surprised how hungry he was right before bed (and hour or so after I had just fed him with bath between).

Thanks again for your quick help!! It's so nice to know I can come here for trusted advice!

[mommytogabriel]

no problem the cluster feeding my son did for a couple months. Then all of a sudden he just stopped and slept through after his dream feed.

[wyattsmomma]

Okay, good to know. One last question--what age did he drop the 2AM feed?

[mommytogabriel]

my son is not the best example, he dropped fairly early around your sons age. Nonetheless, dont worry about it, its normal. I would really try to get those ounces in during the day and especially latter in the evenings.

[wyattsmomma]

Okay, thanks for the great advice!