cat naps too long and night time too short

[AngelaF]

My 11-week old DS, who weighed 10.16 last week, just seems to want to sleep from about 4 o'clock on. It's such a struggle to get him to wake up in the late afternoon. We're wondering if he needs to be taking longer naps earlier in the day? Our schedule today (and it's pretty typical) was:

3:30 am-6 oz
7:00 am-4 oz
7:15-8-played in crib while DH fed sister (they're twins)
8:15-10-nap
10:10 am-4 oz
10:30-11:20
11:25-12:30-2nd nap
12:20-1:05 activity (woke up early from nap)
1:05-5 oz
1:30-2:25
2:30-4-3rd nap
4-5 oz (had to wake up from this nap)
7:10-6oz
8:30 to bed
we do a DF between 10:30 and 11

between 4 and 7 he slept for about an hour on and off from 4:30-6, but we had to wake him up at 6 and he screamed until it was time to eat! Any suggestions for keeping him awake during that time? I think he's a touchy baby and I just can't figure out his cues.

Also, he gets up like clockwork every night between 2 and 3 and his sister gets up between 3 and 4. We are totally exhausted. I tried to just put pacis in and rock them back to sleep like BW says, but as soon as they were in my arms, they wanted to EAT! And they're eating a minimum of 3 oz. at night, so I know they're hungry. But how can we MAKE them eat more during the day? We are so tired and just want a good night's sleep. Do you think being born three weeks early might have something to do with it? Should we our expectations be that of 8 week olds? Then to make it harder, my SIL's baby who is three days younger than them is sleeping EIGHT hours at night! I'm so jealous!

Thanks! As you can tell, we have a lot going on. They take GREAT naps and go down wonderfully. During activity time, they play and laugh, we just have these couple of issues.
 

[MJMom]

Welcome to the site!

First of all, you should try not to play the compare game!  It will only drive you mad!  really!  And I would think that you should consider them more of 8 week olds as they were early.  (If a moderator disagrees with me on this though, I would defer)

I think that the earlier naps should be longer.  It seems to me that there is a 1hr 45 min, a 1 hr, and another 1 hr 30 min.  I would try to extend that 2nd one longer.  Also, it appears that he was awake for 2 hours in the middle of the day?  That is definitely too long.  I would say since he woke up from his nap early, there is no harm in putting him down for a nap a little earlier.
 You want him to be up at least a little bit after he eats, but other wise, he should be going back down.  Especially if he's getting tired towards the end of the day. 
There is also no harm in letting him sleep a little bit longer on the 3rd nap.  Especially if he wakes up a little bit cranky.  He might actually need to sleep a little bit longer.

And then is he up from 4 - 8:30?  Or is something missing there?  That is also too long to be up.  He may be over tired and/or overstimulated and thus waking up earlier in the evening.  If he's waking up for breakfast at about 7:00 am, you would want to get him down to bed by about 7/7:30 in the evening.

HTH!
Alissa

[AngelaF]

That's what I was thinking too. I told my husband last night that maybe he needs longer naps. Also, do you think trying out a 3.5 schedule might help? As for the hours between 4-8, he slept for about an hour in there. Maybe we need to try to move bedtime earlier? Although last night, he got up at 5:20 to eat and then again at 8:15, so that's more like it.

We're going to try the longer naps today! One question: if they're awake early, how do you get them to go back to sleep? He seems happy, not fussy, smiling and ready to play...I guess then you put them down earlier after they eat?

Thanks!

[Colin Macs Mom]

I was also wondering if maybe they're getting the 12 week growth spurt early?

[MJMom]

Ahhh yes, my LO does that too!  I would re-swaddle and give back a paci if you do that or a "mini" version of the sleep time routine without picking him up out of the crib.  So for my LO that means the little rain music (it literally, just sounds like rain) and a quick song.  Sometimes she doesn't go back to sleep and other times she doesn't.  But I think the quiet resting time is important so they don't get worked up and then worse... over tired!!!  He is still learning how to nap, so he may wake up at the 45 minute mark and not be able to settle himself back to sleep.

As far as a 3.5 hr schedule, I'd say take the cues from him.  If he can go that long, that would be fine.  Especially if he's napping and seems to be napping well, I'd let him go the extra little bit to go to 3.5 hrs.  Even if you fluctuate between 3 - 3.5 through the course of a day, I think that's fine.  You may find that he'll fall into a pattern that the late afternoon is always 3.5 and the earlier ones are 3 hrs or some such combination.

If you check out the napping FAQ's, there is a great post for teaching LO's to nap.  You may want to check both the newborn and the 4-6 month one.

HTH!