9 week old won't sleep on an evening! Any ideas?

[rach_dxb]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can give me some advice.

I have been loosely following EASY routine since 6 weeks - based on a 3 hour cycle and my baby has got herself into a routine. Last week she had 2 month vaccinations and it threw her off track a bit. We generally start the day around 7.30am, feed, wash and activity and then she is back down to sleep around 9am. She will nap for about 45 mins and wake then sleep again until 1pm. Then feed, activity for about 1.45 and then nap from 2.30 - 4.30pm/5pm.

Trouble starts now... she won't sleep again after her bath. I feed and bath her around 7pm and she will not sleep at all on an evening. I keep her in a dimly lit room and she settles for about 45 mins once and then won't go back for love nor money! She ends up awake then until around 12am, sleeps till 1am feeds, sleeps till 5am, dream feeds and goes back until I wake her.

What am I doing wrong?? Would be very grateful for any advise or help.

Thank you :-)

[jessmum46]

It looks like she's on more of a 12-12 day rather than a 7-7 right now, and it might just be a case of adjusting things gradually to get to where you want to be.  That long sleep from 9am-1pm is rather too long for a nap and is more likely an extension of her night time sleep.  At 9 weeks with the issues you are having I would probably limit that nap to around 2 hours maximum, so wake and feed her at 10.30/11am (3-3.5h after the first feed).  Then make sure she stays awake for an hour or so at least before letting her sleep again.  She just needs to reset her clock to work out where daytime is   It may be a bit much all at once so why not cut that morning 'nap' slowly by 15 mins or so every day until it's about the right length and then hopefully her night time sleep will start to happen a bit earlier x

[rach_dxb]

Thanks. That's really helpful. Today so far has been
Wake 7.30
Eat 7.45
A 8.00
S 9.15

E 10.00
A 10.15
S 11.30

Will aim to wake her again around 1-1.15.

Roughly how much daytime sleep should she have?

[jessmum46]

This link is quite useful: Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep