3 month old routine question (trying to use EASY)

i have managed to get my boys on an eat-play-sleep routine about two weeks ago, only to find that they were eating (I BF) every two hours, on the dot. they're both about 13lbs, so I know they can go longer. i've been trying to spread it out to 2.5 hours, and then hopefully every three hours in a few weeks.

they can't stay awake for longer than an hour before they get fussy and need to nap. but they'll only sleep for 45 minutes most of the time (one afternoon nap is longer) and then the wake and its not time to eat, so we play some more. after they eat they need to lay down without playing, which messes up the EASY routine. most nights they'll sleep 9pm-6am, eating once overnight.

my question is, for 13 week old babies (9 weeks adjusted) is it still normal to cat nap all day? when can i expect them to move to longer and fewer naps? am i wrong to be pushing their schedule to eat every 2.5-3 hours?

 

My LOs have been eating every 3 hours since about 2.5 or 3 months old. I also BF. I think if you try to push it back a few minutes everyday you can get it to the 3 hour mark. At that age they also took 4 naps a day and like yours could only stay up for about an hour before they started showing signs of being tired and getting fussy. After the first nap I found that getting out and going on walks or errands helped them stretch out their awake time a bit. Around 4 months we moved to 3 naps a day and just last week we started doing naps at 9 and 1 because the third nap started only lasting 30 min or less. Now they are sleeping for at least 1 hour but more times then not it is closer to 2.

 

QUOTE(nycmomma @ Jun 2 2009, 07:50 AM) [snapback]1337521[/snapback]
my question is, for 13 week old babies (9 weeks adjusted) is it still normal to cat nap all day? when can i expect them to move to longer and fewer naps? am i wrong to be pushing their schedule to eat every 2.5-3 hours?


Yes, its totally normal for the cat naps all day at that age. At about 4 months the boys started taking a predictable morning nap and then around 6 months we went to about 3-4 naps per day.

 

Yep, I echo Rachel's answer... Caleb is 6 mo old now and just now has started to stay awake 2 hours at a time, making about 3-4 naps per day of about an hour to two hours each nap. From birth to 5 mo he could only stay awake a maximum of 1 1/2 hours, and usually only and hour. It's really strange to me because my twins took predictable naps and stayed awake 2 hours at a time, and were STTN at 12 weeks. Apparently every kid is different because I don't think I do anything that different with him except BF (they were FF).

 

Sounds totally normal to me too. At 3 months (1.5 adjusted) they were sleeping a lot and for about 45 mins at a time. You're doing a great job!

 

Sounds normal to me as well... I did the EASY method and it worked great, but there were a lot of times where it turned in to AESY when they woke up early or didn't nap as long. Just now at 6 months they can barely tolerate two hours of wakefulness.
Regarding stretching out their eating... it just depends, they may be going through a growth spurt where they need to eat more frequently and in time you'll find that it will slowly move back to every three hours.

 

Ditto others, I don't even attempt much of a routine right now, I go with my babies cues. Usually an hour to 90 mins of awake time is the max before they get sleepy. Very rarely they'll stay awake 2 hrs but then they get overtired easily and fight taking a nap.

I get one decent nap out of them in the late afternoon for longer than 45 mins, otherwise it's cat naps all day long.

As others have said, between 4-6 months of age they'll get into a more predictable nap routine. I just commented to hubby today I can't wait for them to get into more of a routine so we can predict things a bit more!