Screaming at the afternoon nap

[Jemima's mum]

Hi,

My LO is 14 weeks old and we have always had trouble getting her to nap.  She will go to bed in the evening and settle herself usually without any help but naptimes are different.  I've read the FAQs and realise that we have probably been letting her stay awake for too long in the afternoon without a wind-down before putting her down for her afternoon nap but now for three consecutive afternoons we have been doing the wind-down for 20 minutes before 4pm and she still cries.  Carrying/rocking her doesn't seem to stop the crying either (except for just now - after wind down she cried for 10 minutes so after a little rocking I let her cry for 5 minutes in her cot and then picked her up and she fell asleep straight away - put her back down and she stayed asleep).  Also I have been trying to follow her cues so to know when to put her asleep but she very rarely yawns in the afternoon before going into screaming mode.  The last two days she has cried for 15 minutes and then fallen asleep.

We are usually out of the house during lunchtime so she has been napping in her pram without a problem.  The morning naps are at home and she usually just yelps/grumbles for about 5/10minutes and falls asleep.  It's just the afternoon nap which is the problem.

Our schedule seems to be:

7am - E
7.30am - A
8.30am - S (but actually falls asleep between 8.30 and 9am) - woken at 10.15am

10.30am - E
11.00am - A
11.45/noon - S - wakes at 2ish

2.15pm - E
2.45pm - A
4pm - S (I haven't been putting her down before then as she doesn't yawn at all)

5pm - awake
5.15/5.30 - E
5.45 - Bathtime
6.15 - E
7pm - Sleep

10.15pm to 11pm - dreamfeed

Wakes me once in the night between 2.30am and 5am for another feed.

Do you have any tips which might help me stop the crying before the afternoon nap or is it possible that she's just a baby that needs to cry in the afternoon?  She never normally cries at all.  Should I start wind-down before the yawns as this is what I have been doing?

Eleanor

[em_here]

Maybe the morning nap is a little short and she is not fully refreshed from it. Maybe you could try putting her down at half three maybe, instead of four, i know my lo shows not many tired cues so I always put her down at the one and a half hour mark at this age or she turns into a mess. not sure if that helps, just a thought 

[debo620]

Hi there, I actually think your rouitine,awake times and naps look good. I would assume that you are moving towrds a 4hr EASY and ths 2x1.5-2hr naps plus a 45min catnap is appropriate.
I think most babies fight the late afternoon catnap, just to make life easy while we try to cook dinner etc.
Is it possible that she is being overstimulated before the catnap?
some regard the catnap as a freebie and do try for it in a swing etc. I am not sure that this is a great solution on a daily basis, especialy if the mid 2nd nap is not in the crib.

HTH