Author Topic: Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm  (Read 1278 times)

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Offline emaches

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« on: November 20, 2005, 23:59:12 pm »
This is the greatest mystery to me. My 7-month-old son will not take a nap between the hours of 2 and 5pm no matter how tired he is, where I put him down, how much he's eaten or slept during the day or night before. Has anyone had this problem? What in the world do I do? If I let him stay up he's absolutely exhausted.

Nikki~Nathan&Danielle

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #1 on: November 21, 2005, 00:11:34 am »
I'm guessing he has 2 other naps earlier in the day?  If so, perhaps it's time to transition him from 3 to 2 naps, but spaced out further in the day so they don't finish so early?  How about you post his current routine and we'll have a look?

Offline emaches

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #2 on: November 21, 2005, 03:13:52 am »
Yes, he takes two naps earlier in the day (see schedule below). The strange thing is that he has NEVER wanted to sleep during this window and it was causing major problems in that he was over tired by bedtime (7:00-7:30pm) and having chronic and very difficult night wakings. I posted a cry for help for that around a month ago and was given the suggestion that I put him down for a nap at 6:00pm and it worked magically for 6 nights straight. He regressed for a couple of weeks but for the last three nights has slept 10-11 hours. So, I'm nervous about him being over tired again but you may be right about the 3 to 2 transition. I'm having a hard time remembering how I did that with my first. Please advise how you would adjust our schedule.

6:30 Wake and Nurse
7:30 E - solids
8:30 Sleep (1 1/2 hours)
10:30 E - nurse
11:30 E - solids
12:30 S (1-1 1/2 hours)
2:30 E - nurse
4:00 S (attempted - fails 95% of the time)
5:30 E - nurse
6:00 E - solids
7:30 E - nurse
8:00 S

Thanks so much!

Hadley

Nikki~Nathan&Danielle

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #3 on: November 21, 2005, 04:06:41 am »
OK, things look pretty similar to ours.  But I would suggest bringing your bedtime in earlier if you can.  Here's the routine that works for us, the only real difference is the morning nap is slightly later and I limit that nap so Danielle is more likely to sleep longer in her 2nd nap. 

6-6.30am wake and nurse
7-7.30am breakfast (depending on wake time)
9am nap (was usually only 45mins long but now will sleep longer but I have been limiting it to 1hr since it was impacting on our afternoons and I really like to get out in the afternoon for my toddler)
11am nurse
12pm lunch
12.30-1pm nap (this nap will often go until around 3pm, but sometimes as early as 2pm)
3pm (or whenever she wakes up, can sometimes be 4pm) nurse
5pm dinner
6.15pm bathtime/bed routine
6.45pm nurse
7pm bed

She has just recently started to sleep through the night, but still seems to wake once a week around 4-5am and I nurse her (you have one extra nursing in there, does he take much from the last two? - are you able to consolidate them so the final feed is larger?).  I have pretty much got her on set nap times regardless of wake up time.  If I wasn't so keen to get her out of the house around 3pm because of my toddler, I'd probably push the afternoon nap out to at least 1pm.

HTH :)

HTH

Offline emaches

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2005, 04:35:25 am »
I think you're right, we need to combine those last two feedings and put Henry to bed earlier because he's so exhausted by 7:00pm that he's hardly getting anything out of that last feeding. It's going to be a challenging transition because of my 27-month-old and that fact that my husband doesn't get home till at least 6:30pm but we'll just have to forego the family dinner for a while.

Thanks for the advice. It sounds like Henry and Danielle have a lot in common - he was born April 17th and just started sleeping through the night too. Phew!

Hadley

P.S. Where in NZ are you from? I've been there a few times...loved it so much I researched immigrating but didn't have the nerve.   :)

Nikki~Nathan&Danielle

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2005, 07:02:52 am »
Hi, I live on the Kapiti Coast which is in the lower Nth Island - about 45min north of Wellington.

Your dh getting home at 6.30pm is the same deal here too and I agree it does make for a rush, but here's what I do:

I give dinner to both kids (sometimes Nathan's will be a serving of what we're having if I've cooked it early and it won't spoil by waiting a few hours for us to eat it, or it might be a real basic meal of veges and meat for him), I sit with him while I feed Danielle.  Then around 6.15pm I run the bath and get both kids in, DH usually arrives home around 6.30pm and I hand over the rest of bath duties to him so he gets some one-on-one time with the kids while I start to cook dinner.  Danielle's then ready for me by 6.45pm and I nurse her while DH finishes up with Nathan and reads him stories and puts him to bed, then I go in and give him a cuddle and goodnight kiss.  Then whichever of us is finished first completes dinner.  Ah what a rush, but it is so worth it to have our evening to ourselves and know from 7pm is our time.  Very occasionally dh is home after 7pm and I tend to not do the bath routine, just get the kids ready for bed, read stories to Nathan before Danielle is getting grumpy for her feed (so start stories about 6.30pm), tuck him in and say goodnight by 6.45pm and go and feed D and put her to bed.

HTH :)

Offline emaches

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2005, 04:44:30 am »
Hi, Nikki,

I just wanted to follow up with you and tell you how incredibly well scheduled we are around here now. I just didn't think four nursing sessions per day were enough for Henry at this age but it seems to be sufficient. He's sleeping from 7:00pm to 6:30-7:00am, napping from 9:00-10:30/11:00am and from 1:00-2:00/3:00pm. It's remarkable. Well done. Your advice was right on.

Hope you're having a wonderful summer. It's -21C here tonight. Yikes!

Thanks again,

Hadley

Nikki~Nathan&Danielle

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Baby will NOT nap between 2 and 5 pm
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2005, 06:28:20 am »
Hey, that's great news!   :D   I've never been in weather that cold, brrrr, guess we're getting in the mid-20's now.  :D