Hi!
LO is now 18.5weeks/just turned 4 months and I am desperate for some help to extend his naps and/or help him to self settle.
He used to need rocking to sleep, but we’re now at a point where I can give him a quick cuddle, dummy and comforter and put him down drowsy and he’ll nod off. In the instances where he doesn’t, a quick sssh/pat on the bum usually does the trick. This is the same strategy when I put him to bed.
Naps wise he will still only sleep for 30-45mins (mostly around the 40min mark) and then using sssh Pat or PUPD to try and extend or resettle doesn’t seem to work. On a 30min OT nap I can sometimes get him back off with ssh/pat but takes 20mins or so and then he will sometimes wake again soon after, sometimes extends another cycle.
At night he *can* sleep up to 5hrs straight, but normally around 4, between feeds. But has started to become restless and moany from 4:30 onwards and has more recently needed APOP from around 5/5:30am!
Our standard EASY looks like this;
WU 6:30/7 (I will often APOP to get him as close to 7 as possible, but WU is getting closer to 6:30 or even 6 with every day that passes!))
E: 7/7:30 (won’t ever take it on WU, normally needs half an hour to adjust lol!)
A: 1hr45
S: 8:45 - 45mins
E: 11:00
A: 2hrs
S: 11:30 - 45mins (I will sometimes now use the baby carrier to get him to have a longer nap until 14:00ish here as it can really mess the day up if not)
If I manage to extend his midday nap then EASY continues like this;
E: 15:00
A: 2hrs
S: 16:00 - CN 30-45mins
Then the afternoon gets a bit muddled as his tiredness and catnapping catches up with him, if I haven’t extended his midday nap...
E: 14:30/15:00
And then he normally needs a couple of CNs to get through the afternoon at around 15:00/15:30 and then again around 16:30.
I always make sure he’s awake from any naps by 17:00/17:30 latest
E: 18:00ish
Bath 18:30
18:45 top up feed (often refused) and then BT around 18:50-19:00
I DF at 22:30/23:00, he usually has a NF around 02:30/03:30 depending on how much he takes on the DF
The last few days I’ve have to move everything back 30mins as he’s been waking at 6:20/30 and wanting a bottle and then getting up for the day.
So, anyway, any advice on the timings of naps or extending them and encouraging self settling etc would be gratefully received.
