My little guy only catnaps and still wakes through the night

[desangelina]

Hi everyone,
I'm new on here, and I'm pretty much going nuts!
My son is 5 months old. He naps for 15-20 minutes, about 3 times a day. Because of that, he's overtired, and SUPER grumpy by the end of the day. When its time to go to bed, which is LATE, around 9 pm, he refuses to stay in his crib without making a scene. He SCREAMS bloody murder when he's tired, I know he's overtired, but what do I do?! How do I help him sleep more? I put him to bed later because he also still wakes through the night, so I thought him going to bed later would help. I dont know what to do.
I also have problems just leaving him to play independently. He always wants me right there next to him. Because his naps are so short, and he's always stuck to me like glue, I am so tired. We're both just tired.

Help???

Thank you so much.

Desiree

[vadensmommy]

Welcome to the boards, and
Lots of HUGS!!!
I hope you find some great advice here and meet some great people! 
You may want to go ahead and post what your current routine looks like - most people post in the EASY format (Eat Awake Sleep Yourself time)

7 A for the day
7:15 E bottle or BF
A 7-9
S 9-whatever
ETC.
 
Other things we probably need to know:
How have you been getting him to sleep so far?
Does he use a paci?

I may not have a whole lot of guidance to offer, but those things will get us going on where to go from here!

[desangelina]

Thank you for responding! Ok, I was wondering what the Y time was. I lent my book out to a new mommy and haven't gotten it back, and now I want to ask for it back to go back and refer to it again.

Eat 2am 4:30am
(Wake)A- 8-8:45 (he plays in his crib a while, so I leave him)
E-8:45-9
A-9-11:30
E-11:30-11:45
S-11:45-12:10 (Sometimes. It takes about half hour to get him to even fall asleep)
A-12:30-4:00
S-20 min (sometimes)
E-5:00
A 5-7:30
E 7:30-7:45
A 7:45-9:30
S 9:30-2:30

I do try to get him to sleep more, but it doesn't happen. Also, I try to get him to play independently so I could clean or do something around here, but he challenges me with that too. He always wants me to carry him.
Since yesterday I keep just putting him down for a nap, and so far he's taken a 45 min nap today which is GREAT, but I know I still need to change my ways and our schedule.

[vadensmommy]

First off, yes he definitely needs to be sleeping more during the day than he is, and that may be part of your night time problem.  My guess is that he is probably very severely overtired.  At 5mo dd was only able to stay awake about 2.25-2.50hrs of A time before seriously needing a nap.  BW also usually recommends sticking with a 12hr day and a 12hr night, and right now you have more like a 10.5hr night and a 13.5hr day. 

So with that being said, I really think I would start working on getting him on a good routine, and hopefully that will also make teaching him to self soothe easier.  An overtired baby can have a very hard time self soothing - even when they have gotten good at it.  Take a look at this FAQ from the EASY boards - it is about starting EASY at 4mo or older, and I think it is pretty thorough, so I won't go through and repost everything myself   Post back with other questions!!

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=69369.0