early evening naps ... So confused (1st time mommy)... help

[rachelle26]

Ok... I have my 8 week old on 3 hour EASY and it's working very well except I have a little confusion... my baby is BF and his schedule is roughly waking at 7am feeding every 3 hours thru the day (10am, 1pm, 4pm) and then cluster feeding at 6pm and 8pm (to bed) and dreamfeed at 10 or 10:30pm... my question is between the 4pm-6pm and the 6-8pm feeding I'm not sure what to do about napping.  We are currently working on extending naps longer than 45 minuts (using the wake/sleep method) and am not sure if I should just let my baby only have 45 minute naps during these night time frames or extend them a little longer.  It seems that when he doesn't get a nap at all he becomes very very fussy and overtired and sometimes even when he only has 45 minute naps... I'm just confused on what to do during these night times... and what others out there are doing...

Also, if you have any advice on how to extend my LO so that I can more easily have his wake time be 7am that would be great... currently he wakes around 1 or 2am for a feeding and then again around 4/5 and then around 6... and I'd really like to have his wake time be 7am... but when he wakes closer to 6 it's hard to extend him as he seems hungry... anyone have ideas to share on how they do their wake times to make sure their LO has a set Wake time each day?  Am I trying to start to ealry since he's only 8 weeks?  and will he eventually fall into a more regular wake time???

Thanks for your help to this first time mommy...

[Meg's Mom]

Hi and congrats on your new baby!! :-) :-)

my question is between the 4pm-6pm and the 6-8pm feeding I'm not sure what to do about napping.

I just looked up what Tracy says in the second book (BWSAYP).  She recommends the following:
4pm feed
5.15pm catnap

6pm feed
7pm bath
7.30pm catnap

8pm feed
right back to bed.

So w/ that in mind i would say to not extend during that period.   I not clear on what you mean when you he doesn't sleep, that will definitely lead to him being overtired and waking more at night.

As for the 7am start, i think at 8weeks you are expecting a wee bit too much of both of you.  6am isn't too far off a normal wake up time, so give it a bit more time.  Then some moms have had success w/ having a set time to start the day - such as 7am.