5 PM nap HELP

[adutkar]

Hello ladies, we need your expertise...

My DS is 9 weeks old, BF, we've been on EASY since day one, and our days and nights are just fabulous...feeds every 3h, sleeps for 1.5-2h each nap, one NW at 3 or 4 am, with start of the day at 7-7:30.....

....but when we get to the 5pm nap, after the 4pm feed, he screams and screams for 1-1.5 hours....Otherwise he goes down for every nap no problem, sshh-pat sometimes, maybe once a day, for a couple of mins...

I did a yield and there is plenty of milk for that feed, so I ruled out hunger, I tried puting him down after 40 min since waking up, vs 1h...today I'll try 30 min...He is swaddled, and he almost seems like he's not tired enough, but he has the OT cry...

...one day we took him for a stroller walk for this catnap, and he didn't sleep for the entire 40 min, we did bath, and he was all happy, but oh, boy...screaming like crazy before bedtime...Forget about "put your tiers away,hun"...Even if he falls asleep with sshh-pat in his bed, he jolts at 10, or 20 min, and there we go again...That would be OT, right?

I let him fall asleep on my shoulder last evening, and held him till he passed the 20 min jolt, because he needs his sleep before bath...Then we have to wake him up...

Is this age related?...Am I falling into AP, by letting fall asleep on my shoulder? With my 1st DS we were so into EASY, no AP, but this is supposed to be my last baby, and I'm tempted to help him a bit more...pls tell me this is age related an it shall pass...

thanks,


Alina

[first_time_mommy]

What a dream!  Maybe he doesnt need that last nap? Mine did that for a while and we just kept her up, stimulated,  and moved bedtime earlier.  It worked well for us and didnt affect night sleep.

[adutkar]

Thanks for your reply!

Last night was no diferent, we had the same OT cry that we always have....He just can't handle much in the evenings...

How did your evenings look like? ...you eliminated the catnap, and did E and bath, and then bedtime at 6pm?

...We tried that too, but he still cries till 7...it's almost instant, after 7pm, he's ready for sleep....If I can't move his bedtime earlier, it seems way too long to keep him up till 7, I'm afraid that he'll cry till 9 ...

...and he's such a dream baby during the day...

We haven't had a family dinner in weeks...My 4 year old really wants a family dinner....I don't know how to approach this matter anymore...running out of ideas...I hope he'll grow out of it soon...

Love,
Alina

[first_time_mommy]

At 9 weeks, I remember it was just hard.  Yes, this will pass.

I think I would try following his cues for bedtime.  At that age, he probably will not notice if he is bathed and in jammies for a while before he falls asleep.  When does he really start to "lose it"?  I would do bath an hour before this time and be ready to put him in bed as soon as he needs it.  Maybe tell your 4 yr old about the plan and let him/her know that you will have family dinner after the baby goes to bed?

We had to cluster feed and this is how our evenings were around 9 weeks:

S-3:00-3:45
Awake from 3:45-6:30 (too long, but she refused to nap)
E- 4:00-4:30 (some days, it was pretty much continuous feeding from 5-6:30)
E-5:15-5:45
Bath, Jammies, Maybe a book (if she wasn't crying yet)  If we missed the window, we would skip the bath and just put on jammies.
E-Start last feed when you think bedtime should be there. 

It WAS NOT by the book, but it kept me more sane to know that I wouldn't have to listen to the 4pm crying and then deal with the witching hour/massive cluster feeds, too.  I don't know if this helps!

[adutkar]

Thanks again!

My LO cries a lot if he goes over the hour without a nap, so bedtime is a nightmare in that case...We tried that too...

Was your daughter going to sleep ok at bedtime after being awake for 2 hours?

I think we tried pretty much all options and "evening equations ", and at this point in time we just go with the flow....Some days we get a 30-45 min nap, feed and bath, but then bedtime is tricky...One day at a time...all kids are diferent, and in a few months this "crazy evenings" will fell like the blink of an eye....

Thanks for all your help,

Alina