trouble with late afternoon/early evening nap and bedtime!

[minaloy76]

Hello,
I've been following EASY with our 11 week old baby for the past 5 weeks or more. It's been fairly loose--not super rigid about actual times. Our baby has been waking up in the morning around 6:30-7 am and that's when we start our day following EASY every 2.5-3ish hours with usually one feeding in the middle of the night between 1 am-2 am (though she is very noisy and grunty many times throughout the night, especially from 3-6 am). She's been starting to have a longer morning nap--about an hour or more (used to be 45 minutes exactly) and seems to have fairly good naps during the day.

 However, I'm finding that by the time she has her (appx) 5 pm feed, afterwards, when she finally falls asleep (around 6ish) for her "cat nap", she seems to be in her most quiet, deep sleep--and then I don't know whether I should wake her or not for what I want to be her last cluster feed (around 8 pm) with bath time. I see all this stuff about "cat naps"--does that mean that people wake up their baby?

It seems that if I wake her from this most quiet sleep in the early evening, she then has more trouble going to sleep for the night and is very noisy and fidgety. I don't know if I should be making her bed time earlier? I'm confused and frustrated b/c by the end of the night--for me, 8 pm!--I am exhausted and I feel frustrated by trying to figure out what's best for her and us--i.e. "do I wake her or not for her bath time and final feed?" Also--my husband gets home from work around 6 pm, and wants to spend time with her so I hesitate making her bedtime so early.

**side note** this happened last night. I didn't wake her--she dream fed at 8:15 pm but woke up at 12:00 am and fed her again. Then she was very noisy and gassy (as usual!) from 3 am-6 am. Woke up around 5:45-6 am.

Also, my baby is a big baby--13 lbs 7 oz, so she's big and healthy for an 11 week old...don't know if that matters.

Any help or suggestions much appreciated. Basically, I'm wanting to feel more "solid" in my decisions so I'm not flailing around questioning myself at the end of the day when I'm most exhausted. I also want her to sleep well, us to sleep well, and get into a routine so I'm not changing it up every night--i.e. some nights doing routine early, some nights late...
Also--as probably everyone wants--my ultimate goal would be to get her sleeping through the  night!
Thanks
amy

[creations]

I think 8pm is too late for BT really.  7pm would be worth aiming for (to give roughly a 12 hr day and a 12 hr night although not all LOs will sleep the full 12 hours).  The cat nap is not a restorative nap like long naps are, it is kind of a forty winks to help your LO get through the bed time routine without having an overtired meltdown.  usually you wouldn't need to wake a LO from this CN but it might sometimes be necessary.

At the moment it sounds like you are putting her down for the cat nap too late and she is seeing it as her long night sleep. I'd say it should be no later than 5pm.  If you can get the other naps in the day positioned between suitable A time for her age then you might see a CN at 5.00 - 5.45pm with a (quite fortunate) wake up just in time for daddy coming home.  He could then spend some time with her and do the bath and bed time routine (and feeds if bottle fed).  In our house 6pm marks the beginning of 'bedtime hour' which involves chilled out activity, bath, feed song and sleep.  From 7pm the evening would then be yours.

Could you post a days EASY with the actual times of when she wakes and sleeps so we can have a look please?