Sleeping well at night but naps are a problem

[elainey]

Hello everyone  ....I am a newbie here and have been reading around some of the topics after reading 'Secrets of the Baby Whisperer' at the weekend. Hoping some of you can help or share your own experiences with me. It would be very much appreciated.........

My DS is 5 months old - a very happy, pleasant baby. He is bottle fed and we haven't started solids yet as he is a really good weight (19lbs 6oz). I also have a 4 yo DD who is on Easter hols at the moment but usually in nursery for the morning. My main problem is his day time napping which I would like to get right for him and so I can spend a wee bit more time with his big sister when he's sleeping. It would be so nice to know he was going to sleep for an hour / hour and a half to do some things with her.

He is sleeping very well at night. He has the ability to go down awake and self settle to sleep although most nights I think he is so tired by the time 8/8.30pm comes that he falls asleep taking his bottle. However, if (and he does most nights) he does wake during the night, at most he gives a little short cry or plays with his blanket a little bit and then goes back to sleep with no intervention from myself or my husband. (He is still in our room so I can hear everything  )

He is however only napping for 30/40mins at a time and this is usually in his pram as I've been pushing him to get him to sleep  If we are out walking or in the car he will happily sleep for as long as we are moving so I feel he definitely needs to sleep longer but not sure where to start going about it. He is feeding every three hours (about 7oz each time) and from reading the book it sounds as though he should be on a 4 hour EASY at this stage. Is this in itself telling me we should be starting to wean also??

As I'm new to it I've tried to write out his EASY from the last couple of days below - please forgive me if I haven't quite got to grips with it yet......

Wake up 7.00am
E 7.20am
A 7.40am on
S 9.00am x 30 mins
E 10.30am
S 12noon x 30/40mins
E 2.00pm
S 4.00pm x 30mins
E 5.30pm
no more sleeps
E 8 / 8.30pm and tending to fall asleep taking bottle

So I guess my queries are
1. Should I be trying to go down to 4 feeds?
2. How do I begin to teach him to go down during the day and then stay sleeping for longer than 30/40mins. (I already know I have to ditch the pram but I am interested what I have seen on the forum elsewhere about starting a wind down maybe 20 mins before sleep time)
3. Given that he is 5 mo old is there anything in particular I should / should not expect - he can't quite roll independently yet and isn't that mobile in the cot.

Thanks so much in advance for any guidance you all may have 

[*Becky*]

Hi there,
Ok I will start with your questions...
1. at this age you would expect lo to go somewhere between 3.5-4 hours for feeds. Mine were both hungry babies and did not get to 4 hours until they were on solids but at this age I would expect 3.5 hours minimum tbh. So feeds would be at 7am, 10.30am, 2pm, 5.30pm and BT. If that goes ok then you can think about slowly moving towards 4 hourly feeds with 8oz in each bottle.

2. In terms of going to sleep during the day I would put a wind down in place about 15-20 mins before naptime. I usually take DD upstairs, we close curtains and get her into her sleeping bag and then we read a book or two before taking her to her room.  Are you familiar with ssh pat? That is the recommended technique for teaching independent sleep at this age. You can also use it when lo wakes after a short nap to encourage them back to sleep. I would imagine your lo has become reliant on the motion of the buggy and so when it is not moving he wakes and cannot transition into the next sleep cycle.

What do you think? Any questions?

[*Becky*]

also at this age you would be looking at 2-2.25 hours A time but if he does a short nap i.e. less than 1.5 hours you need to shorten the next A time by about 30 mins.....