Early waking from late afternoon nap...

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Hi, just a quick question about my 8 week old (although after reading some posts, this seems like a walk in the park!!!!)

Spencer has been on EASY since day one and is a touchy/spirited little girl - scary after my 1st was such a breeze. Anyway, she has been waking up 30-45 mins into her late afternoon nap and will sometimes fuss back to sleep and sometimes not.....

Our day is like this:

5:30 feed, straight back to bed
8:30 wakeup, eat
9:30 wind down, nap for 1.5 hours
11:30 eat
12:30 wind down and nap (1.5 again)
2:30 eat
3:30 wind down and nap
5:30 eat
6:30 ish, walk &  nap with Dad and Boomer(for mom's sanity!!!)
7:30 eat
8:00 bed for the night
11:00 dream feed

I know her bedtime could be earlier, but it works with our toddler's bedtime too and we can sort of tagteam with them. Also, Spencer gets over excited easily, so we try to keep things low key all the time (I only bath her when necessary and in the a.m. b/c she gets super hyper about it!) She can self sooth to sleep as long as I pay attention to the first yawn, otherwise I sit beside her or put a hand on her back (shush/pat seems to  her off.....is that normal for a touchy baby?)

Could this early wake up be due to excitement early in the day or possibly Dad's arrival home just before naptime? it's not too big an issue, but I can't seem to pin it down and any opinions would help!

[~*~Little Miss Sunshine~*~]

Hi there!  The short nap could be due to Dad's arrival home before naptime.  She might just be too excited to sleep, but it really does look like you have a great routine going so as long as the short nap isn't causing a problem with night sleep or the other naps, then I wouldn't worry too much about it

[EZ-EMom]

Sh/pt never worked for us, and E is textbook with a strong dose of Angel, actually.  He would just get so excited that I was standing over him, shh'ing and patting his back that he would get himself all worked up.  I think he figured that if I was going to be there, I might as well be holding him!  I sh/pt is stimulating for a lot of bubs, and especially with a touchy baby, I can understand that it might get her too worked up.  I would have killed for your routine at 8 weeks!  I'm very impessed, for what its worth. 

[MasynSpencerElliotte]

Yeah, I recently realized that most of the problem with her going down was actually me! I was too distracting, so now I swaddle her, sing a song and plop her bed. She fusses for 10 minutes and then is out like a light. With the exception of the one nap, I always have to wake her when it's time to eat and she has even skipped her early morning feed a few times and slept in til 9:00!! I hope I don't jinx myself here, knock on wood.....she's doing really well for a touchy girl as long as I take everything slow and keep outings to a minimum!