Going from Play, Eat, Sleep to Sleep, Eat, Play

honeydew01 · July 2013

We plan to start nap training next week and we need to make a routine change so that LO doesn't associate the boob to sleeping. I'm really dreading this change as I am not sure how LO is going to take it but in order to put her down drowsy yet awake we have to make this change.

It's going to take some adjusting for me to figure out how to roll with it because right now as soon as she shows sleepy cues I take her in and feed her and she goes down. If we plan to change the routine, do I feed her every time she wakes up from the nap? What if one nap is 30 min another 2 hours? I'm sorry if these are stupid questions but I'm trying to run it in my head and figure out what to expect and feel nervous about this change.

Beth.1212 · July 2013

Why are you making the change? If PES works well for you, I am not sure that you really need to alter it. It didn't work for me and we did need to switch, so I'm not discouraging you from doing so. It's a question worth asking yourself, though.

If you do switch to an EASY routine, then I would feed her when you GET her up from her nap. If it's only a 30 minute nap, then I wouldn't get her up. I'd be trying to sooth her to sleep again and lengthen the nap. Either she'll fall asleep again, and you won't feed her for a while, or you'll try soothing her to sleep for a while and give up and get her up... and by the time you give up, it'll be more than 30 minutes since her last meal.

Make sure that you're getting a good amount of awake time in there. If you put her down undertired, she's not going to sleep long enough. (Oddly enough, same thing for overtired, oftentimes.) I know that i had a really hard time reading sleepy cues when we went to EASY.

Oh, and if by train you mean CIO, then I don't know if this post applies. I did a training method that avoided CIO, so I'm not sure how it works.

beccalee721 · July 2013

It sounds like your LO might be ready for the change too. You said she starts to show sleepy cues, if you don't feed her then will she not fall asleep? I don't nurse my LO to sleep, but sometimes I let her cuddle on my chest until she's about to fall asleep then put her down awake. Maybe just that contact with you will be enough to make a smooth transition. Also, for the feeding schedule. We keep our LO on the same feeding schedule and do naps on her demand schedule (within reason) so she eats breakfast at 8am and bottle at 9am and that's whether she wakes up at 6:30 (when I get her up to go to work) or if it's the weekend and she sleeps in til almost 8. So, the way I look at it, if she only takes a 30 min nap or a 2 hour nap we still try to keep her feeding schedule consistent and let her nap around that schedule. Does that make sense? Of course if she sleeps a little longer than normal and goes into her lunch time then we adjust accordingly and feed her as soon as she wakes up, but for the most part she's pretty predictable now.

pb_bride · July 2013

I nurse DS before naps but I make sure he doesn't fall asleep at the breast! If he starts dozing off, I'll call his name or touch his face to wake him up, and if he doesn't, I unlatch him and he immediately wakes up. So you can still stick with your old schedule, as long as you don't let your LO fall asleep at the breast.

I was doing the EASY schedule until DS had a major nap regression and we had to do nap training. He would only nap 20 minutes max! With that, the EASY schedule just went out the window, and I ended up nursing him by hunger cues instead.

Once he started napping better & longer, I switched to ESASY so that DS has a fuller tummy when he goes down for his nap (and naps longer).

Going from Play, Eat, Sleep to Sleep, Eat, Play

Re: Going from Play, Eat, Sleep to Sleep, Eat, Play

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