Routine help

Yep thats right me again!

So I have been loosely following the EASY routine but without realising much about it and I still am having issues with DD during the day, I am lucky if she sleeps 3-4 hours all up during the day and I am getting confused and a little stressed. So I am trying to work out the best thing to do at the moment, I thought about putting her into an actual strict routine but I have read that it isn't really recommended until 3-4months. So at the moment I will feed her when she wakes up, change, leave her to play watch for tired signs and put her back down. I'm not sure that I am recognising her tired signs early enough though because it is always a huge mission to get her to sleep and once she is it is not for very long at all.

So, what happens if she feeds, plays, sleeps but the sleep only goes for say 1/2 an hour, she isn't going to be ready for a feed for awhile, do I just do the A and S again? And how long should I be trying to get her to sleep for before giving up, today I was in and out of her bedroom for nearly an hour trying to get her to sleep!

I know there is more I wanted to ask but this is all I can remember for now!

Thanks MOS, I meant to mention that Lexie is Fulltime FF so she only feeds every 3-4 hours, so it really wont be realistic for her to feed to sleep everytime I need to get her to sleep. HOpe everything is good with you

hey febgirl, I actually didn't know that about the kicking and waving, I always thought Lexie was just really active... hmm feeling rather silly right now

Hi, I'm following the EASY routine and have a DD who is FF fed. SHe often has days where she'll go to sleep for only half an hour, so I usually wait a while to see if she gets really wound up. Sometimes she'll re-settle herself, otherwise I'll go in and rock her for a while till she gets drowsy again. I've tried doing the play again but she gets too upset and is obviously still tired.

I've found often if i've left her up too long that's when she'll do the half hour sleep, so really have to catch her when she shows the first tired sign. She also stopped showing some tired signs eg yawning and i didn't realise that the frantic kicking was a tired sign either!      Google search 'baby tired signs' and have a read of some of the signs.
DD often can only stay up half an hour to an hour when she first wakes in the morning and that's after she's slept 12 hours straight!!

LAst of all, try not to stress too much and try to go with the flow. SHe's still young and you'll probably soon find yourself in a routine without really realising it!
Also, you could try a sling or frontpack when she's only had the half hour sleep? Then you can carry on doing stuff and she still gets the sleep in. Or try the pram.

We followed the E.A.S.Y routing loosely here too when DD was little and I had a lot of trouble with the day naps and stretching out to 3-4 hourly due to DD only sleeping for 45 minutes, it did my head in some days.

The things that I swear by are dummies if your baby will take one (by the time DD was 6 months we did not use a dummy anymore but it served its purpose at the time) white noise, something that smells like mummy in their bed (we used the top/nightie I had worn to bed the night before) and a very predictable set of rituals before nap time, for us it was a very short story or me singing quietly then I would wrap DD, say "nunise sunshine" shut the curtains, turn on the white noise, rock her gently in my arms for a few minutes and then put her down in her bed (we used a wedge and tilted the bed so her head was raised) and then left the room, if she cried a little I would wait say 5 minutes max (as long as she was not beside herself) and then go back to reassure, possibly pick up resettle and then she would normally drop off, if after 45 minutes she woke (which was everytime) I would wait and she if she went back to sleep herself and if not try to resettle her, if that did not work then she was up for a bit of activity, feed and then start again.

My aim was for 3 naps each day (I think) somedays (most) never went as they said they should in the books, but I soon got over that and just focused on DD being happy which the majority of the time she was, apart from terrible reflux.

Just try and be as consistent as possible, I think this is what worked for us, once DD got to know what was going to happen next in regards to sleep etc. things did run a lot more smoothly and don't get me wrong we went out during the day and did things often but I tried to never go out 2 days in a row and for DD to have at least one sleep at home each day.

P.S. Lexie is SOOOOO cute!!!


Edited to add I found it helpful to write down what happened each day so that I could see what might have been the catalyst for us having a bad day or a good day. Oh and also we had this heat this time last year (DD was born Dec 08) and it made her so uncomfortable.


Edited by HeidisMum

HeidisMum has suggest some really good ideas. I too had this trouble with Jackson but for us it started at 9/10 weeks and went to 4 months (DS is exclusively BF). Up untill then he was the perfect 3 hourly baby.

A nurse said to me that if baby sleeps for 40 minutes then only try for 20 more minutes to resettle (so an hour all up) then go back to EASY or feed play sleep.
I tried everything from white noise, which worked great but that was short lived, rocking, in the pram, feed play feed sleep, patting, stroking etc you name it, I tried it. In the end I gave up trying to fight it and went with him. I was getting far too stressed because of his lack of sleep it wasnt doing me any good.

I recommend 'No cry sleep solution' and 'No cry nap solution' by Elizabeth Pantley Linky. She has some great ideas and suggestions if you havent already read them. Sorry cant help with the FF though.

Remember to change a habit it will take at least 3 days minimum and up to 10 days, so give it time

Hang in there hun, I know it doesnt help now but it doesnt last forever. When Jackson hit 4 months he changed and started doing 2 long (1.5 to 2 hourly) sleeps a day. He still sometimes cat naps but his sleeping has improved significantly.