okay so i need help with my almost 6 month old's schedule. we are in an awkward stage where it seems that 2 naps are not enough and 3 naps are too many. on the days he gets 3 naps, he often has a hard time going to bed at night and won't fall asleep until 8:30 or so (which i feel is kinda late for a 6 month old). but on the days he only has 2 naps, he cannot make it to 7:30 w/o being really fussy and overtired and if i put him to bed earlier then 7:30, i will just get early wakings since he generally only sleeps about 10.5 hours on average at night. any ideas? plus, i just need help figuring out feedings...when to do bottles and solids. our current day looks like this:
6-7am wake up...my baby wakes anywhere in the 6-7am hour. if he wakes crying around 6am, i offer him his paci and he usually goes back to sleep. i'd like to get him to the point where he doesn't need his paci, but if i don't go in and give it to him then he is wanting to get up and start the day. if he wakes closer to the 7am hour, then i just leave him. either way, he does not get out of bed till closer to 7:15
7:30 - bottle
8:30 - solids
9 or 9:30 (depending on when he woke up) nap
sleeps for about 1.5-2 hours, so usually awake by 11 or 11:30
11:30 - bottle and solids
1:30ish - bottle right before nap (my problem is this...if i want him to move to a 2 nap a day schedule, i ideally would like him to sleep till 4pm. he usually needs to eat every 3.5 hours, so if i want him to sleep till 4, then he will need eat before his nap so he won't wake hungry early in his nap) is that okay to feed a bottle before a nap?
1:30 -2:30pm - somewhere in this hour i put him down (depending on what time he woke from the previous nap). here is where the inconsistency begins...some days he will sleep for 2.5 hours and won't wake till 4 or 5pm. other days, he will only sleep for 1.5 hours and be up by 3 or 3:30. what do i do? if he is up by 3 or 3:30, he cannot make it to bedtime and usually wants to catnap around 5:45 or 6pm. but if i give him the catnap then he doesn't want to go to bed until 8:30 or so. if i don't give him the catnap, he is a mess and it makes the stretch from 3:30 - 7:30 a LONG, miserable stretch.
5pm - solids
8pm - bottle
10pm - DF (we had dropped this, but my baby got an ear infection on the second night we dropped it and so we added it back until after he is over his ear infection).
any ideas? what can i do to get on a more consistent routine or a more consistent afternoon nap schedule?
thanks.
stacey
