12 weeks - cannot settled at night and poor last nap of the day

[*Christina*]

Hi, My LO is not settling at all in the evenings. The naps during the day are manageable except for the last nap of the day which I can easily AP.    I can’t seem to figure out the right balance.  Is it too much A time or too much naps?  Here is what the A time and nap times looked liked over the last 3 days:

Day 1 = A times were approx. 1 hour and 10 mins with 3 naps @ 2 hours each and 1 nap @ 2.5 hours.  Naps were all good except when it came to the last nap and night time where she would not settled until 10:00pm.

Day 2 = A times were all less than 1 hour.  Naps (4 of them) were about 1.5 hours each.  Naps were all good except for last nap and night time, she would not settled until 10:00pm.

Day 3 = A times were approx. 1 hour and 10 mins. Note that I extended her A time beyond the 1 hour mark as she was yawning around 30 mins into her A time.  Her naps were approx. 1 hour and 40/50 mins but she would cry at the 1 hour mark but could be easily settled.  Again except for the last nap and night time. It is now 10:00pm and she still has not settled.

Thoughts? Thanks.

[L76]

Hey

At about 10wks I think our A time was still about 1hr - 1hr 10.
Ciara has always been sleepy though hasn't she?

Do you do anything differently in terms of wind down / how you put her to bed in the evening?

How long is the last nap?
Do you still bath in the evening? I know you said that it was OS her?

[*Christina*]

Thanks Leanne.  I'll aim for 1 hr and 10 mins A times, unfortuantely I did end up going to the bf workshop today and the afternoon has been shot.  cry cry cry.  she normally fusses but today she cry cry cry.  Not sure what to make of it.  It just took me 45 mins to get her to settle again, but it's time for the next cycle.  Guess I'm going to let her sleep a bit though.

For naps, we normally just place her in the bassinet.  For bed time, we wake her, might leave her on the bouncer a bit, bath, feed, sing/talk/read to her and then bed.  We only bath her about once a week, I don't think it OS her too much now but we're introducing it slowly.

[Guedo]

Christina- Colin is 17 weeks and he's only doing 1h 15m to 1h 30m.  I have noticed that his first and second naps are between a hour and 1.5, third is closer to 2 hrs and CN is 30-45 min. However he is quite textbook.

[deb]

She may be ready to transition to a shorter CN; depends on her sleep needs, but I'm wondering if she's just UT at bedtime having had a good amount of daytime sleep? Is the CN always that long? What happens if you let her have it but gently wake her around 45 minutes, with the hopeful result being a short A time and a realistic bedtime?

[L76]

Good point Deb.

Christina on the days we do a catnap it is normally 20-30mins (mainly as that's when I have to collect DD from nursery so he naps enroute!) but his A time afterwards is just the 10m walk home, bath and bed so perhaps 45m before wind down.

Maybe give that a go even if you have to do an earlier bedtime (or start to bedtime in your case given it goes onto 10pm!!!)

[Yazzie]

Hey there Christina and welcome to the boards.

I agree with Deb and Leanne that you lo maybe UT @ bedtime, so try and make the CN really that, i.e. 40~45 mins, of course you may need to cut back on the A time before bedtime to avoid OT and also limit day naps to only 2 hrs tops.

HTH

[*Christina*]

I agree with you all.  The CN does seem to be long but that was b/c I wasn't sure how to 'waste' time to get to 6:30/7 to get that 7/7:30 bedtime w/o putting her down too earlier.  For naps, I've notice that A needs to be 1 hour and 7 mins, we just did a 1 hour and 10 mins and she struggled a tiny bit to sleep.  Of course, she started yawning at the 45 min mark but I just kept her up a bit longer just to avoid having too long of a nap.

will give it a shot.

[Yazzie]

Good luck hun, and don't be afraid to be flexible, putting her a little earlier or later than usual, depending on how your day went.

Keep us posted

[L76]

Hi

I have the cat nap from say 16:30/17:00 ish depending on when the day started and what naps have been like. Then up around 17:15/17:30 and start feeding for bed at 18:30/18:40ish...does that make sense? As soon as she gets up from the cat nap, I would effectively not long start the bedtime routine eg baths etc.