Oh my goodness this video and it’s contents were so helpful to me! Thank you for breaking it down. I can’t believe I was so ignorant to this routine and still living life with my baby with no routine at all. Thank you thank you!
I found your channel by searching PUPD and, I simply loved it! Thanks for sharing all these tips. I wish I found it earlier. My baby is almost 9 months. Do you think I can try this routine now that she's older? And what about the dream feed? I started doing PUPD two days ago. I have done the Ferber in the past but, teething came in also with sickness we went back on bad habits. PUPD is been much better. My baby isn't able to sit by herself yet which is good. I can do the full PUPD.
Great questions! The dreamfeed is typically dropped completely at 7 months, so no need to try it out - just make sure your baby is eating 3 meals of solids a day, and 3-4 breastfeeding/bottle sessions. At about 9 months, your baby should be transitioning to a 2-nap schedule, with a 1-1.5 hour morning nap and a 2-hour afternoon nap (typically 2.5-3 hour wake windows), so the schedule will look different from a typical 4-hour routine. Having a daily routine that's age appropriate is definitely key to seeing success with PUPD so I wish you luck! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thank you for the tips! Watching your video helped me understand the book better! I have a question: my daughter is about to turn 4 months in a week and she has been putting herself to sleep and actually prefers that. So if she wakes up early from a nap and isn’t crying but she’s just talking to herself, should I still do the PU/PD method while I’m transitioning her to the 4 hour routine? Or do I just let her lay in her crib and talk to herself until she falls asleep again? I just feel bad letting her lay there for too long if she doesn’t end up falling back asleep. I’m also hesitant to do the shush pat since I feel like it makes her stay more awake rather than putting her to sleep especially since she prefers putting herself to sleep lately. I’ve also considered doing the wake to sleep method during naps since she tends to wake up around the 40 minute mark. I was curious what your thoughts might be on what I should do :)
@Karina-jb4sc thanks for commenting! Don't feel bad if she is awake in her crib and seems content! If she does wake up and put herself back to sleep on her own, that is a total win! But if she wakes up and doesn't try to go back to sleep, then I would definitely try wake to sleep so that she can practice linking two sleep cycles together. If wake to sleep doesn't work, or if she wakes up and struggles to put herself back to sleep (but is clearly trying to), then PUPD would probably work well. I don't think it would be the best option if she was just awake and not trying to sleep - she definitely needs to be drowsy! Also, shush pat doesn't work for every baby! If you don't think it will work for yours, don't do it! But feel free to be creative and tailorize PUPD to your daughter in other ways - just don't sabotage the work you are doing by introducing sleep props or undoing your daughter's good habits. It seems like she already has a lot of skill with sleep - I know a lot of parents who would be very envious! Keep up the good work 😸 and let me know if you have any follow up questions!
@@xtinaxbabies thank you for responding! I’ve done shush-pat a few times and it has worked. Sometimes I’ll be in there for the rest of her nap time doing shush pat but she’ll be awake the whole time but calm. So I have a few questions: let’s say she takes a 45 minute nap, I leave her to put herself back to sleep for 20 minutes and she’s still awake, so I go in and do shush pat until she falls asleep. Question 1: do I do shush pat until she falls back asleep? Or do I do it until she’s calm and drowsy and let her put herself to sleep? Question 2: if it takes her whole nap time to try to get her to fall asleep, how do I go about her wake time? Do I count the time she’s been awake since she woke up from her nap? Or when It’s time for the nap to be over? I’ve heard someone mention that the amount of time they woke up from their nap, you would cut that in half and add that to their wake time (if they were awake for 40 minutes and it’s time to get them up then 20 minutes of that time goes to their wake time) just wanted to know your thoughts since I don’t remember Tracy mentioning this in her book since it does throw off the rest of the routine for the day when she wakes up early from a nap and won’t fall back asleep. Question 3: do you recommend using the PU/PD method if she’s not crying when she wakes up? I feel like it’s not necessary to try if she’s not crying… usually if she wakes up from a nap and eventually starts fussing then I’ll go in there, put her pacifier back in her mouth, rub her belly and tell her it’s okay and that usually helps her to stop fussing. That’s why I’ve been trying to do shush-pat since Tracy did mention PU/PD shouldn’t replace the 4S’ rather it should be used as a last resort. I also have been following the schedule Tracy has in her book for transitioning to a four hour routine. Did you follow that for your baby or did you kind of just go straight into the 4 hour routine? I’m on days 12-15 starting tomorrow and that’s where we have 3 main naps and cut out the cat nap, so my daughter is going to bed earlier as the schedule suggests… but last night she woke up at 6am and the last few days around 6:20… which I’m assuming is because she’s been going to bed earlier but I don’t want her to start making a habit out of this because prior to the transition she’d wake up around 6:45-7. So do you suggest I keep following the transition days or just try jumping into the 4 hour routine? I’m sorry for all the questions! 😂 you seem very knowledgeable from your videos and I don’t have anyone else to ask these questions. I really do appreciate that you responded to me! I hope you’re doing well!
@@Karina-jb4sc thanks for your questions again! I did my best to answer them (sorry it's so long!): Q1: Is she fussy when you go in? I wouldn’t go in unless she was clearly trying to fall back asleep or was unhappy with being awake. PUPD or shush pat won’t work if your daughter isn’t fussy/crying. I also would jump straight to PUPD and work shush pat in with it only if needed. PUPD might help her get drowsy enough to put herself to sleep, and then you could shush pat a bit in the crib once she is settled and dozing off. Definitely commit to doing it all the way until she is asleep. Stopping abruptly might interrupt her and make you have to start all over. Q2: Great question about wake time! I’ve never heard of any specific formula on how to figure out exactly what to do, and you’re right that Tracy never actually mentions it in the book. I think it’s really more of a case-by-case basis for each baby, but also for each nap/day/wake time. For example, let’s say she wakes up at 45 minutes and then still does not go back to sleep for the remaining 1 hour 15 mins of her nap, even after you attempt PUPD. I would start by not counting any naptime as wake time. Start the 2-hour wake window with that mindset. Once you hit 45 minutes of wake time, she will have been awake for 2 hours, so start watching for cues of crankiness/tiredness. As soon as you suspect she is tired and ready for another nap, then definitely start the routine for the next nap and put her down. Your goal is to get as close to her next nap as you possibly can, so you want to gently push her to stay up, but not let her get overtired. I would guess she might be able to go 1-1.5 hours of her wake time before the next nap, but obviously this will mess up the whole rest of the day. Once you get to a reasonable time that could be bedtime (between 6-8pm), then put her down for bed to end her day, even if it’s earlier than usual. Then you just have to hope the PUPD work you are doing to extend her naps will slowly but surely extend them so that you can stay on track with the routine. Q3: I don’t recommend doing anything if she isn’t crying when she wakes. I don’t think PUPD or shush-pat could be effective unless your daughter is crying and clearly needs help settling. If she starts fussing, then I would do PUPD and not shush pat, but you could work shush pat into PUPD if she needs the extra comfort. PUPD is the last resort if your baby has not learned sleep by 4 months. If the 4 S routine doesn’t put her to sleep, then it’s time to use PUPD and integrate it regularly with the first 3 S’s (and the shush-pat is technically optional and should be used in tandem with PUPD to help provide comfort). I also would encourage you to not use a pacifier in the crib. I personally had to take away my daughter’s paci when we started PUPD because I knew it wouldn’t fully work with the paci there. Tracy says in the book that a paci is unlikely to become a sleep prop, but I disagree with her on that. I think as long as the paci is associated with sleep and used in a crib, it’s a prop. You can always continue to use it during the 4 S wind-down, but I think as soon as she’s laid down and expected to sleep, you should take it away. If you don’t think it’s a sleep prop though, then you don’t have to heed my advice on that - my personal experience just contradicts what Tracy says in the book, so you might want to consider it being a possible issue. Q4: I started with the slow transition to the 4-hour routine but then realized my daughter didn’t need me to go that slow, especially since she was already on the 3-hour routine. So I did a hard switch to the 4-hour routine and she took it beautifully. It might be possible your daughter’s early wake time is a result of her getting too much daytime sleep. This also might be your problem with her early nap wake-ups as well. If she’s waking up in the morning early and she seems content, she might just be totally rested and ready to start the day! I would recommend switching her to the 4-hour schedule faster and seeing if that helps with the wake-up time. A good tip I’ve received (I forget from where) is that if your baby does something 3 days in a row then it’s officially a ‘habit’. So give her 3 days after switching to the 4-hour to see if anything has permanently changed. If she still has an early wake time, you could try keeping the 8pm bedtime from the 3-hour schedule and see if that helps extend her sleep to 7am. It’s possible she might just be an 11-hour nighttime sleeper and not a 12-hour (or 11.5 hour) sleeper. Another culprit could be too much or too little daytime sleep. At 4 months a baby needs between 13.5-15.5 hours of sleep in 24 hours. If you tally up all the time she spends sleeping and you find it is over 15.5 hours, then she’s undertired and you can try shortening either bedtime or daytime sleep. If it’s under 13.5 hours, then she is likely lacking sleep (which can also mess with her ability to stay asleep, and may be a cause for shortened naps). If she’s lacking sleep, Tracy Hogg always recommends an earlier bedtime, as this helps to extend nighttime sleep. You can start with a 7pm bedtime, and tweak her daytime schedule to shorten a nap to make up for it (essentially moving that chunk of sleep till later). I’m glad you reached out with your questions! I hope I could be of some help - please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you work out!
@@xtinaxbabies thank you for responding so fast! You’re the best! :) so many greats tips! Thank you for all your tips and advice! I think I’m gonna just try the the 4 hour routine tomorrow and see how she does since she did well with the 3 hour routine! I’m going to start implementing the PU/PD Method to try to extend her naps! My daughter does a good job at putting herself to sleep but she just struggles with connecting her sleep cycles for naps. She usually talks to herself and babbles when she wakes up and sometimes she’ll fall back to sleep which is great? But if she’s been in her crib for 40 minutes awake and content do I just leave her be and not intervene to help her fall back asleep? If she doesn’t fuss at all, do I just leave her in her crib until nap time is up? If she does start to fuss I’ll start doing the PU/PD method… do you have any tips to help her link her sleep cycles? I’ll start taking away her pacifier to make sure it doesn’t become a prop! I can see how it wouldn’t work well with PU/PD Thank you for the tips for the wake time, that has always thrown me off for shorter naps! I’ll start doing what you recommend!
@@Karina-jb4sc If she isn't fussing or anything, I would just leave her in the crib as long as she is content. Then do PUPD when it's apparent she needs help going to sleep. If you go in too soon and provide comfort through shush pat when it isn't needed, it actually might be the reason she doesn't link her sleep cycles together. She might prefer your presence and company and just make herself stay awake after a sleep cycle so that you'll come in. Might not be the case, but if it is, then the best thing to do is wait till she fusses and then do PUPD. If she just lays there content I wouldn't do anything (even if it's for the entire rest of the nap)! I'm glad my other tips helped! Let me know how it all goes!
What a helpful video for all the struggling parents out here! I do have a question. My son is about to turn 4 months old and since his sleep regression, all he does is catnap. Every other day he manages to glue two sleep phases together once a day, but then that's it. How do move him to a 4-hour routine of he struggles to link his sleep cycles so much? I will start doing PUPD soon but what to do until then?
Hi @FlamedWater thanks for your comment! Until you do PUPD, you can start him on Tracy Hogg's 4-S sleep method, which involves using the shush pat technique as a way to help soothe him to sleep. Following the 4-hour routine, you can put him down for a nap with the 4-S method and if he wakes early after 1 sleep cycle, use the shush pat to try to help him fall back asleep. The nap should be over when you say it's over, and not just when he wakes up. So if you are consistent, and do your best to teach him that the nap is not over yet, hopefully he should catch on and start practicing linking those sleep cycles. This is probably a lot easier said than done, especially if he has been a one sleep cycle napper for a while, but he needs to get the practice in in order to be able to do it. Once you start PUPD, you'll do the same thing but use PUPD to extend his nap time to what it should be. If you want to learn more about sleep before 4 months (including the 4-S method), you can watch this video about it: ua-cam.com/video/RtPodXHSTcg/v-deo.htmlsi=79a1l2HkwqO0Twb-
My baby is 15 weeks and we started transitioning to the 4 hour routine a couple of days ago and it has been going well until after the catnap. We just can't seem to push him to wait so long for a feed so I give him like a smaller feed and then he eats well before bedtime. Any tips? also, it's really hard to extend the last wake Window so long after such a short nap, he gets really cranky and tired... any ideas on how to fix it?
I've got a few ideas you can try out and see what's best for him! First off, are you recording nap times, wake times, and feeds? Just make sure the first 2 naps don't go past 2 hours, and that his earlier wake windows aren't too long. Additionally, make sure every feed he has during the day is the proper length (or if bottle feeding, amount). If you aren't recording anything yet, then I'd start doing it now so you can pinpoint exactly what is sabotaging that last feed/wake window. Now, for the smaller feed after the catnap - is that like a "snack" compared to other feeds? And is the bedtime feed still a full feed? If the bedtime feed is still a full feed and that "snack" feed helps him get to it, I say it's not a big issue, though your goal would be to drop that smaller feed at some point in the next few weeks. If the bedtime feed is not a full feed, then the smaller feed is likely interfering with that. I would recommend just doing a full feed right after the catnap and then working slowly to push it back to the proper time. If it seems he isn't hungry enough to do a full feed right then, you can keep trying the smaller feed but make it really really small so that he can still have a full feed right before bed. When it comes to the post-catnap wake window, you could go two ways. If he doesn't take long enough naps earlier in the day, then you could make the catnap 1 hour long to make up for it. Then hopefully that could give him enough rest to make it to bedtime. If his earlier naps are all good, then I'd stick with the short catnap (no more than 45mins) and then push up the bedtime. I'd do this as well if his wake windows throughout the day are long (about 2 hours long or more) and this one is his shortest. Keep in mind that babies this age need about 14-16 hours of sleep a day. If you track all naps and nighttime sleep within 24 hours, the total should be somewhere in that range. Wake time should not be more than a total of 8-10ish hours. If he has too much wake time, then that could be making him cranky in the evenings. If you've been good with tracking him and it seems his nap and wake times are all good and age-appropriate, you may just need to give him another week or so to adjust to the new schedule. Evenings are often more stimulating to babies than other times a day, so it's natural that he would struggle the most then. Just play around with the schedule a bit and see what works best for him and for you! Let me know if you have any further questions!
How do you get them to the 4 hour schedule? My baby is 4.5 months old and sometimes she snacks and sometimes she goes 3 hours through the day. How do you stretch them to stop snacking? I should add that my baby was born 3 weeks early and it’s still pretty small at 10lb 8oz. She often takes 30-45min naps every few days she’ll nap for 2 hours
I would start by getting her comfortably on the 3-hour routine first. For feeds: Time your feeds so you know how long a full feed should take (or measure by oz if you bottlefeed). Then do your best to encourage her to go 3 hours between feeds. There may be a bit of trial and error here - if she seems hungry and you feed her but it's not a full feed, then essentially that's what you're trying to prevent. The next time it happens, you can try to distract her away from snacking and encourage her to wait till she's closer to 3 hours. There may be some times where she can't wait the full 3 hours and that's okay as long as she's truly hungry! Then once she can go 3 hours regularly, try slowly to stretch it to 4 hours. For naps: You'll have to teach her to link her sleep cycles so her naps are no longer 30-45 mins. You can use the 4 S Method (and PUPD if you think she's ready) when she wakes up too early from a nap to help her go back to sleep. She should be napping up until her feed times, so this may also help her wait longer before she eats. Once she is taking the naps for a 3-hr routine regularly, then transition her slowly to the 4-hr routine naps at the same time you get her to go 4 hours between feeds. Since she's basically 4 months (age adjusted) now, you may not have a very smooth 3-hr routine, since she is almost ready to be on the 4-hr. Since she's so small though, my guess is that she will do well with the 3-hr feeds for a few more weeks before she's ready to move onto the 4.
I feel like this schedule can be easy to follow when you’re a stay at home mom and can control your schedule, but what happens when you have an appointment with your child during a nap time or if you have to feed your child 40 mins earlier than the end of a 4 hour mark?
Good questions! Everyday variations from the schedule are what Tracy Hogg calls 'routine busters'. I have a video on that subject that may help answer your questions: ua-cam.com/video/Rx20ZxrGztM/v-deo.html For the most part, you want to try your best to be consistent and avoid things that throw naps and feeds off, but when you do have a routine buster, if your child is on a routine most of the time usually, it won't mess things up! An 'off-day' here or there will be something they are able to bounce back from quickly.
@@xtinaxbabiesso, we started our 4 month old on the 3 hour routine (we didn’t jump to the 4 hour one because he was on no routine at all when it came to feeding - but maybe we should have skipped to 4), but when it comes to the “S” of EASY, the only way to put him to sleep is holding him upright and rocking him (usually the breast works well but we’re trying to avoid that so that at least he stops snacking). However, for his catnap and bedtime sleep, holding him upright and walking with him (and shush-pat) does NOT work at all and he screams and arches his back and will not give up until I give him my breast (which I’ve had to do). Which got me thinking and worrying that he does not calm down using the shush pay, so when moving on to implanting the PUPD method in a few days, how on earth would we attempt to soothe and calm him down after picking him up if we’re not even allowed to rock him? Shouldn’t the shush-pat soothe him, let Tracy Hogg? I watched your video of sleep training you daughter and I noticed that there were some instances where she wouldn’t stop crying and after some time you’d lay her back down, but my son’s crying will just be intense and go on and on. I worry that he will keep crying for the whole 2 hours of his first morning nap, what then if we want to be consistent? Cause after that, it would be time to feed and then be active before another nap is due.
@@nadzo91 When it comes to PUPD, the picking up is meant to be what comforts your baby, and the putting down is what teaches him where he needs to sleep. The shush pat is just an extra bit that may help, and Tracy Hogg doesn't necessarily recommend using it with PUPD. We used it because we had been using it for a few weeks before we started PUPD and it worked really well with our daughter (but it's not an immediate fix for a crying baby, just a tool to help them soothe). It's what she recommends you do for 0-3 month sleep, so it can be helpful to integrate it into PUPD (especially if you've been doing the 4 S's for a while), but it's not actually an integral part of it. When you PU in PUPD, you're not meant to do anything more because you want to avoid something becoming a sleep prop. Even picking up and holding him for too long before you put down can become a prop and interfere with his learning to sleep. When you PU, you are supposed to PD the second he stops crying, but if he doesn't stop crying, you should put him down within 2 minutes. When you do PUPD, he may cry the whole time and not stop when you PU, but the action of picking up and putting down will eventually tire him out and he will fall asleep. It is totally possible that when you start PUPD, he cries the whole nap and doesn't fall asleep, but if you don't rely on a sleep prop and you are consistent with the PUPD, he definitely will fall asleep, at least for the next nap! It may take a few naps for him to realize that this is the new way things are being done, but it's more important that you stick with PUPD and not pull out any sleep props to get him to sleep, even if it means he has one terrible, awful nap to kick it all off. If you keep bringing out sleep props, it will only delay his ability to learn to sleep, even if he does miss a nap without them. I recommend that when your book arrives, you read her whole chapter on PUPD, as well as her chapter before on 0-3 month sleep (where she explains the idea of sleep props and why they are dangerous). I think that will help you get a better idea of the point of PUPD and hopefully then you will feel more confident and equipped to start!
Hey, I never really had any supply issues when dropping feeds. As long as there's demand, there's supply. Since our feedings are always at the same time, I think that always helped my supply stay in check - it also relied on consistency! With my first daughter, I fed her till she was 13 months (and quit when I got pregnant again), but around 6 months, I stopped being able to pump (I got 1oz total after 5 days of pumping 3 times a day for 20 mins each time) so whenever I had to be away from her (never happened that often), she would get formula. Then while I was away, I wasn't able to pump to keep up my supply, but I never saw any dip or any changes to our feeds. From what I know about weaning, I think you would have to stop completely cold turkey to get rid of your supply. Lots of moms continue to breastfeed just one time a day for years, and always are able to produce that one feed. I imagine that if you suddenly went from breastfeeding on demand to only doing it 5 times a day every 4 hours, that you may experience some engorgement and getting used to it, but you'd definitely still have milk as long as you keep feeding! And that's just assuming you haven't had any issues with undersupply or things like that. Hope this helps!
@@xtinaxbabies Thank you so much for all your help. I'm sorry just one more question, my baby has been catnapping and now with this routine I don't know how to make her sleep longer, any suggestions.
Oh my goodness this video and it’s contents were so helpful to me! Thank you for breaking it down. I can’t believe I was so ignorant to this routine and still living life with my baby with no routine at all. Thank you thank you!
Amazing video i love this book❤
I found your channel by searching PUPD and, I simply loved it! Thanks for sharing all these tips. I wish I found it earlier. My baby is almost 9 months. Do you think I can try this routine now that she's older? And what about the dream feed? I started doing PUPD two days ago. I have done the Ferber in the past but, teething came in also with sickness we went back on bad habits. PUPD is been much better. My baby isn't able to sit by herself yet which is good. I can do the full PUPD.
Great questions!
The dreamfeed is typically dropped completely at 7 months, so no need to try it out - just make sure your baby is eating 3 meals of solids a day, and 3-4 breastfeeding/bottle sessions.
At about 9 months, your baby should be transitioning to a 2-nap schedule, with a 1-1.5 hour morning nap and a 2-hour afternoon nap (typically 2.5-3 hour wake windows), so the schedule will look different from a typical 4-hour routine.
Having a daily routine that's age appropriate is definitely key to seeing success with PUPD so I wish you luck! Let me know if you have any more questions!
Thank you for the information!
Thank you for making this video ❤
Thank you for the tips! Watching your video helped me understand the book better! I have a question: my daughter is about to turn 4 months in a week and she has been putting herself to sleep and actually prefers that. So if she wakes up early from a nap and isn’t crying but she’s just talking to herself, should I still do the PU/PD method while I’m transitioning her to the 4 hour routine? Or do I just let her lay in her crib and talk to herself until she falls asleep again? I just feel bad letting her lay there for too long if she doesn’t end up falling back asleep. I’m also hesitant to do the shush pat since I feel like it makes her stay more awake rather than putting her to sleep especially since she prefers putting herself to sleep lately. I’ve also considered doing the wake to sleep method during naps since she tends to wake up around the 40 minute mark. I was curious what your thoughts might be on what I should do :)
@Karina-jb4sc thanks for commenting!
Don't feel bad if she is awake in her crib and seems content! If she does wake up and put herself back to sleep on her own, that is a total win! But if she wakes up and doesn't try to go back to sleep, then I would definitely try wake to sleep so that she can practice linking two sleep cycles together.
If wake to sleep doesn't work, or if she wakes up and struggles to put herself back to sleep (but is clearly trying to), then PUPD would probably work well. I don't think it would be the best option if she was just awake and not trying to sleep - she definitely needs to be drowsy!
Also, shush pat doesn't work for every baby! If you don't think it will work for yours, don't do it! But feel free to be creative and tailorize PUPD to your daughter in other ways - just don't sabotage the work you are doing by introducing sleep props or undoing your daughter's good habits.
It seems like she already has a lot of skill with sleep - I know a lot of parents who would be very envious! Keep up the good work 😸 and let me know if you have any follow up questions!
@@xtinaxbabies thank you for responding! I’ve done shush-pat a few times and it has worked. Sometimes I’ll be in there for the rest of her nap time doing shush pat but she’ll be awake the whole time but calm. So I have a few questions:
let’s say she takes a 45 minute nap, I leave her to put herself back to sleep for 20 minutes and she’s still awake, so I go in and do shush pat until she falls asleep. Question 1: do I do shush pat until she falls back asleep? Or do I do it until she’s calm and drowsy and let her put herself to sleep?
Question 2: if it takes her whole nap time to try to get her to fall asleep, how do I go about her wake time? Do I count the time she’s been awake since she woke up from her nap? Or when It’s time for the nap to be over? I’ve heard someone mention that the amount of time they woke up from their nap, you would cut that in half and add that to their wake time (if they were awake for 40 minutes and it’s time to get them up then 20 minutes of that time goes to their wake time) just wanted to know your thoughts since I don’t remember Tracy mentioning this in her book since it does throw off the rest of the routine for the day when she wakes up early from a nap and won’t fall back asleep.
Question 3: do you recommend using the PU/PD method if she’s not crying when she wakes up? I feel like it’s not necessary to try if she’s not crying… usually if she wakes up from a nap and eventually starts fussing then I’ll go in there, put her pacifier back in her mouth, rub her belly and tell her it’s okay and that usually helps her to stop fussing. That’s why I’ve been trying to do shush-pat since Tracy did mention PU/PD shouldn’t replace the 4S’ rather it should be used as a last resort.
I also have been following the schedule Tracy has in her book for transitioning to a four hour routine. Did you follow that for your baby or did you kind of just go straight into the 4 hour routine? I’m on days 12-15 starting tomorrow and that’s where we have 3 main naps and cut out the cat nap, so my daughter is going to bed earlier as the schedule suggests… but last night she woke up at 6am and the last few days around 6:20… which I’m assuming is because she’s been going to bed earlier but I don’t want her to start making a habit out of this because prior to the transition she’d wake up around 6:45-7. So do you suggest I keep following the transition days or just try jumping into the 4 hour routine?
I’m sorry for all the questions! 😂 you seem very knowledgeable from your videos and I don’t have anyone else to ask these questions. I really do appreciate that you responded to me! I hope you’re doing well!
@@Karina-jb4sc thanks for your questions again! I did my best to answer them (sorry it's so long!):
Q1: Is she fussy when you go in? I wouldn’t go in unless she was clearly trying to fall back asleep or was unhappy with being awake. PUPD or shush pat won’t work if your daughter isn’t fussy/crying. I also would jump straight to PUPD and work shush pat in with it only if needed. PUPD might help her get drowsy enough to put herself to sleep, and then you could shush pat a bit in the crib once she is settled and dozing off. Definitely commit to doing it all the way until she is asleep. Stopping abruptly might interrupt her and make you have to start all over.
Q2: Great question about wake time! I’ve never heard of any specific formula on how to figure out exactly what to do, and you’re right that Tracy never actually mentions it in the book. I think it’s really more of a case-by-case basis for each baby, but also for each nap/day/wake time.
For example, let’s say she wakes up at 45 minutes and then still does not go back to sleep for the remaining 1 hour 15 mins of her nap, even after you attempt PUPD.
I would start by not counting any naptime as wake time. Start the 2-hour wake window with that mindset.
Once you hit 45 minutes of wake time, she will have been awake for 2 hours, so start watching for cues of crankiness/tiredness. As soon as you suspect she is tired and ready for another nap, then definitely start the routine for the next nap and put her down.
Your goal is to get as close to her next nap as you possibly can, so you want to gently push her to stay up, but not let her get overtired.
I would guess she might be able to go 1-1.5 hours of her wake time before the next nap, but obviously this will mess up the whole rest of the day. Once you get to a reasonable time that could be bedtime (between 6-8pm), then put her down for bed to end her day, even if it’s earlier than usual.
Then you just have to hope the PUPD work you are doing to extend her naps will slowly but surely extend them so that you can stay on track with the routine.
Q3: I don’t recommend doing anything if she isn’t crying when she wakes. I don’t think PUPD or shush-pat could be effective unless your daughter is crying and clearly needs help settling. If she starts fussing, then I would do PUPD and not shush pat, but you could work shush pat into PUPD if she needs the extra comfort. PUPD is the last resort if your baby has not learned sleep by 4 months. If the 4 S routine doesn’t put her to sleep, then it’s time to use PUPD and integrate it regularly with the first 3 S’s (and the shush-pat is technically optional and should be used in tandem with PUPD to help provide comfort).
I also would encourage you to not use a pacifier in the crib. I personally had to take away my daughter’s paci when we started PUPD because I knew it wouldn’t fully work with the paci there. Tracy says in the book that a paci is unlikely to become a sleep prop, but I disagree with her on that. I think as long as the paci is associated with sleep and used in a crib, it’s a prop. You can always continue to use it during the 4 S wind-down, but I think as soon as she’s laid down and expected to sleep, you should take it away. If you don’t think it’s a sleep prop though, then you don’t have to heed my advice on that - my personal experience just contradicts what Tracy says in the book, so you might want to consider it being a possible issue.
Q4: I started with the slow transition to the 4-hour routine but then realized my daughter didn’t need me to go that slow, especially since she was already on the 3-hour routine. So I did a hard switch to the 4-hour routine and she took it beautifully. It might be possible your daughter’s early wake time is a result of her getting too much daytime sleep. This also might be your problem with her early nap wake-ups as well. If she’s waking up in the morning early and she seems content, she might just be totally rested and ready to start the day! I would recommend switching her to the 4-hour schedule faster and seeing if that helps with the wake-up time.
A good tip I’ve received (I forget from where) is that if your baby does something 3 days in a row then it’s officially a ‘habit’. So give her 3 days after switching to the 4-hour to see if anything has permanently changed.
If she still has an early wake time, you could try keeping the 8pm bedtime from the 3-hour schedule and see if that helps extend her sleep to 7am. It’s possible she might just be an 11-hour nighttime sleeper and not a 12-hour (or 11.5 hour) sleeper.
Another culprit could be too much or too little daytime sleep. At 4 months a baby needs between 13.5-15.5 hours of sleep in 24 hours. If you tally up all the time she spends sleeping and you find it is over 15.5 hours, then she’s undertired and you can try shortening either bedtime or daytime sleep. If it’s under 13.5 hours, then she is likely lacking sleep (which can also mess with her ability to stay asleep, and may be a cause for shortened naps). If she’s lacking sleep, Tracy Hogg always recommends an earlier bedtime, as this helps to extend nighttime sleep. You can start with a 7pm bedtime, and tweak her daytime schedule to shorten a nap to make up for it (essentially moving that chunk of sleep till later).
I’m glad you reached out with your questions! I hope I could be of some help - please let me know if there’s anything else I can help you work out!
@@xtinaxbabies thank you for responding so fast! You’re the best! :) so many greats tips!
Thank you for all your tips and advice! I think I’m gonna just try the the 4 hour routine tomorrow and see how she does since she did well with the 3 hour routine! I’m going to start implementing the PU/PD Method to try to extend her naps!
My daughter does a good job at putting herself to sleep but she just struggles with connecting her sleep cycles for naps. She usually talks to herself and babbles when she wakes up and sometimes she’ll fall back to sleep which is great? But if she’s been in her crib for 40 minutes awake and content do I just leave her be and not intervene to help her fall back asleep? If she doesn’t fuss at all, do I just leave her in her crib until nap time is up? If she does start to fuss I’ll start doing the PU/PD method… do you have any tips to help her link her sleep cycles?
I’ll start taking away her pacifier to make sure it doesn’t become a prop! I can see how it wouldn’t work well with PU/PD
Thank you for the tips for the wake time, that has always thrown me off for shorter naps! I’ll start doing what you recommend!
@@Karina-jb4sc If she isn't fussing or anything, I would just leave her in the crib as long as she is content. Then do PUPD when it's apparent she needs help going to sleep. If you go in too soon and provide comfort through shush pat when it isn't needed, it actually might be the reason she doesn't link her sleep cycles together. She might prefer your presence and company and just make herself stay awake after a sleep cycle so that you'll come in.
Might not be the case, but if it is, then the best thing to do is wait till she fusses and then do PUPD. If she just lays there content I wouldn't do anything (even if it's for the entire rest of the nap)!
I'm glad my other tips helped! Let me know how it all goes!
What a helpful video for all the struggling parents out here!
I do have a question. My son is about to turn 4 months old and since his sleep regression, all he does is catnap. Every other day he manages to glue two sleep phases together once a day, but then that's it.
How do move him to a 4-hour routine of he struggles to link his sleep cycles so much? I will start doing PUPD soon but what to do until then?
Hi @FlamedWater thanks for your comment!
Until you do PUPD, you can start him on Tracy Hogg's 4-S sleep method, which involves using the shush pat technique as a way to help soothe him to sleep.
Following the 4-hour routine, you can put him down for a nap with the 4-S method and if he wakes early after 1 sleep cycle, use the shush pat to try to help him fall back asleep. The nap should be over when you say it's over, and not just when he wakes up. So if you are consistent, and do your best to teach him that the nap is not over yet, hopefully he should catch on and start practicing linking those sleep cycles.
This is probably a lot easier said than done, especially if he has been a one sleep cycle napper for a while, but he needs to get the practice in in order to be able to do it.
Once you start PUPD, you'll do the same thing but use PUPD to extend his nap time to what it should be.
If you want to learn more about sleep before 4 months (including the 4-S method), you can watch this video about it: ua-cam.com/video/RtPodXHSTcg/v-deo.htmlsi=79a1l2HkwqO0Twb-
My baby is 15 weeks and we started transitioning to the 4 hour routine a couple of days ago and it has been going well until after the catnap. We just can't seem to push him to wait so long for a feed so I give him like a smaller feed and then he eats well before bedtime. Any tips? also, it's really hard to extend the last wake Window so long after such a short nap, he gets really cranky and tired... any ideas on how to fix it?
I've got a few ideas you can try out and see what's best for him!
First off, are you recording nap times, wake times, and feeds? Just make sure the first 2 naps don't go past 2 hours, and that his earlier wake windows aren't too long. Additionally, make sure every feed he has during the day is the proper length (or if bottle feeding, amount). If you aren't recording anything yet, then I'd start doing it now so you can pinpoint exactly what is sabotaging that last feed/wake window.
Now, for the smaller feed after the catnap - is that like a "snack" compared to other feeds? And is the bedtime feed still a full feed? If the bedtime feed is still a full feed and that "snack" feed helps him get to it, I say it's not a big issue, though your goal would be to drop that smaller feed at some point in the next few weeks.
If the bedtime feed is not a full feed, then the smaller feed is likely interfering with that. I would recommend just doing a full feed right after the catnap and then working slowly to push it back to the proper time. If it seems he isn't hungry enough to do a full feed right then, you can keep trying the smaller feed but make it really really small so that he can still have a full feed right before bed.
When it comes to the post-catnap wake window, you could go two ways. If he doesn't take long enough naps earlier in the day, then you could make the catnap 1 hour long to make up for it. Then hopefully that could give him enough rest to make it to bedtime.
If his earlier naps are all good, then I'd stick with the short catnap (no more than 45mins) and then push up the bedtime. I'd do this as well if his wake windows throughout the day are long (about 2 hours long or more) and this one is his shortest.
Keep in mind that babies this age need about 14-16 hours of sleep a day. If you track all naps and nighttime sleep within 24 hours, the total should be somewhere in that range. Wake time should not be more than a total of 8-10ish hours. If he has too much wake time, then that could be making him cranky in the evenings.
If you've been good with tracking him and it seems his nap and wake times are all good and age-appropriate, you may just need to give him another week or so to adjust to the new schedule. Evenings are often more stimulating to babies than other times a day, so it's natural that he would struggle the most then. Just play around with the schedule a bit and see what works best for him and for you!
Let me know if you have any further questions!
How do you get them to the 4 hour schedule? My baby is 4.5 months old and sometimes she snacks and sometimes she goes 3 hours through the day. How do you stretch them to stop snacking?
I should add that my baby was born 3 weeks early and it’s still pretty small at 10lb 8oz. She often takes 30-45min naps every few days she’ll nap for 2 hours
I would start by getting her comfortably on the 3-hour routine first.
For feeds: Time your feeds so you know how long a full feed should take (or measure by oz if you bottlefeed). Then do your best to encourage her to go 3 hours between feeds. There may be a bit of trial and error here - if she seems hungry and you feed her but it's not a full feed, then essentially that's what you're trying to prevent. The next time it happens, you can try to distract her away from snacking and encourage her to wait till she's closer to 3 hours. There may be some times where she can't wait the full 3 hours and that's okay as long as she's truly hungry! Then once she can go 3 hours regularly, try slowly to stretch it to 4 hours.
For naps: You'll have to teach her to link her sleep cycles so her naps are no longer 30-45 mins. You can use the 4 S Method (and PUPD if you think she's ready) when she wakes up too early from a nap to help her go back to sleep. She should be napping up until her feed times, so this may also help her wait longer before she eats. Once she is taking the naps for a 3-hr routine regularly, then transition her slowly to the 4-hr routine naps at the same time you get her to go 4 hours between feeds.
Since she's basically 4 months (age adjusted) now, you may not have a very smooth 3-hr routine, since she is almost ready to be on the 4-hr. Since she's so small though, my guess is that she will do well with the 3-hr feeds for a few more weeks before she's ready to move onto the 4.
I feel like this schedule can be easy to follow when you’re a stay at home mom and can control your schedule, but what happens when you have an appointment with your child during a nap time or if you have to feed your child 40 mins earlier than the end of a 4 hour mark?
Good questions! Everyday variations from the schedule are what Tracy Hogg calls 'routine busters'. I have a video on that subject that may help answer your questions: ua-cam.com/video/Rx20ZxrGztM/v-deo.html
For the most part, you want to try your best to be consistent and avoid things that throw naps and feeds off, but when you do have a routine buster, if your child is on a routine most of the time usually, it won't mess things up! An 'off-day' here or there will be something they are able to bounce back from quickly.
@@xtinaxbabiesso, we started our 4 month old on the 3 hour routine (we didn’t jump to the 4 hour one because he was on no routine at all when it came to feeding - but maybe we should have skipped to 4), but when it comes to the “S” of EASY, the only way to put him to sleep is holding him upright and rocking him (usually the breast works well but we’re trying to avoid that so that at least he stops snacking). However, for his catnap and bedtime sleep, holding him upright and walking with him (and shush-pat) does NOT work at all and he screams and arches his back and will not give up until I give him my breast (which I’ve had to do). Which got me thinking and worrying that he does not calm down using the shush pay, so when moving on to implanting the PUPD method in a few days, how on earth would we attempt to soothe and calm him down after picking him up if we’re not even allowed to rock him? Shouldn’t the shush-pat soothe him, let Tracy Hogg? I watched your video of sleep training you daughter and I noticed that there were some instances where she wouldn’t stop crying and after some time you’d lay her back down, but my son’s crying will just be intense and go on and on. I worry that he will keep crying for the whole 2 hours of his first morning nap, what then if we want to be consistent? Cause after that, it would be time to feed and then be active before another nap is due.
@@nadzo91 When it comes to PUPD, the picking up is meant to be what comforts your baby, and the putting down is what teaches him where he needs to sleep. The shush pat is just an extra bit that may help, and Tracy Hogg doesn't necessarily recommend using it with PUPD. We used it because we had been using it for a few weeks before we started PUPD and it worked really well with our daughter (but it's not an immediate fix for a crying baby, just a tool to help them soothe). It's what she recommends you do for 0-3 month sleep, so it can be helpful to integrate it into PUPD (especially if you've been doing the 4 S's for a while), but it's not actually an integral part of it.
When you PU in PUPD, you're not meant to do anything more because you want to avoid something becoming a sleep prop. Even picking up and holding him for too long before you put down can become a prop and interfere with his learning to sleep.
When you PU, you are supposed to PD the second he stops crying, but if he doesn't stop crying, you should put him down within 2 minutes. When you do PUPD, he may cry the whole time and not stop when you PU, but the action of picking up and putting down will eventually tire him out and he will fall asleep.
It is totally possible that when you start PUPD, he cries the whole nap and doesn't fall asleep, but if you don't rely on a sleep prop and you are consistent with the PUPD, he definitely will fall asleep, at least for the next nap! It may take a few naps for him to realize that this is the new way things are being done, but it's more important that you stick with PUPD and not pull out any sleep props to get him to sleep, even if it means he has one terrible, awful nap to kick it all off. If you keep bringing out sleep props, it will only delay his ability to learn to sleep, even if he does miss a nap without them.
I recommend that when your book arrives, you read her whole chapter on PUPD, as well as her chapter before on 0-3 month sleep (where she explains the idea of sleep props and why they are dangerous). I think that will help you get a better idea of the point of PUPD and hopefully then you will feel more confident and equipped to start!
Hi, I know for your videos that you breastfeed your baby. What about your milk supply? How you maintain it with the 4 hours routine?
Hey, I never really had any supply issues when dropping feeds. As long as there's demand, there's supply. Since our feedings are always at the same time, I think that always helped my supply stay in check - it also relied on consistency!
With my first daughter, I fed her till she was 13 months (and quit when I got pregnant again), but around 6 months, I stopped being able to pump (I got 1oz total after 5 days of pumping 3 times a day for 20 mins each time) so whenever I had to be away from her (never happened that often), she would get formula. Then while I was away, I wasn't able to pump to keep up my supply, but I never saw any dip or any changes to our feeds.
From what I know about weaning, I think you would have to stop completely cold turkey to get rid of your supply. Lots of moms continue to breastfeed just one time a day for years, and always are able to produce that one feed.
I imagine that if you suddenly went from breastfeeding on demand to only doing it 5 times a day every 4 hours, that you may experience some engorgement and getting used to it, but you'd definitely still have milk as long as you keep feeding! And that's just assuming you haven't had any issues with undersupply or things like that.
Hope this helps!
@@xtinaxbabies Thank you so much for all your help. I'm sorry just one more question, my baby has been catnapping and now with this routine I don't know how to make her sleep longer, any suggestions.
@@cristinavilchez6607 I have a video here I did about short naps! ua-cam.com/video/n6R1Zakux6E/v-deo.htmlsi=HunQdmK65yCF0QB8