Afternoons are all over the place, any suggestions

[annsa]

My lo is 5 months 2 weeks, She's on a 4 hr easy but afternoons are just so crazy. From waking at 5am she is great, takes a feed well, goes down for nap no problem and naps for 2-2 1/2 hrs and an odd time 3hrs. When she wakes from nap she will feed ok but not great. Then it all decends into chaos.
Here's her routine,

Wake and e 5am
Back to sleep 6- 7.30/8am
e9am
a8-9.30/10
s9.30/10 till 11.30/12ish

Now when she wakes here she takes some of her feed at 1 but is very tired and cranky, i can't put her back down as I do the school run at 1.50. Have tried to use this run as her nap time but She won't sleep in the car for more than 20 mins. So by the time I get back at 3.10 she's hungy (cos she didn't take all the feed at 1pm)and tired cos she didn't nap well. If I feed her here she'll only take 2 oz and go for a nap but she won't nap without a small feed.
From 1pm on wards I seem to be battling with a constantly tired or hungry or maybe tired and hungry baby.
The last few days she's been cranky most of the afternoons as usual but I have got her to cat nap from 6.30-7.15 and she takes 4 oz at 7.30 and goes to bed no trouble.
Wakes at 1.30 takes a full feed 6oz and straight back to sleep till 5am.
Any suggestions on getting my afternoon a little bit smoother.
Gratefully
Ann

[rebecaq]

Hi Ann!

In my experience here on BW, it seems that 5 months is a tough time for babies. I believe it to be growth spurts, teething, milestones, and a personality explosion (as I like to call it ).  Afternoons are what some people refer to as the "social hour" which isn't really social, but actually fussy.  I think it's great that you can read her so well to see that it's the fact she doesn't take a full feed that is affecting her sleep.   

My advice is to maybe wait until 9:15 for her next feed. She may need a few moments to fully wake up ad realize she's hungry. 

When my ds was 5 months and having quite the "social hour" I would make each consequentual A time more and more low key.  In the morning it would be errands, after lunch would be outside or tummy time, afternoon was music/me reading to him/a Baby Einstein video/ just anything low key.  It really helped us out 

Let me know how you get on 

- Beca

[* Paula *]

I agree with Beca.

Our DS would also never really eat straight after waking up and we needed to wait at least 15 minutes to 1/2 an hour before feeding him to ensure that he took a full feed.  This seemed to work well for us.

When we had rough afternoons, we also kept A time as low key as possible without overstimulation.  Either TV or sitting in Bouncy Chair watching us cook etc.

[annsa]

Thanks for the replies. Going to stay hame a few days to see if I can sort the afternoon routine.

[* Paula *]

Let us know how you get on.