EW early evening- PU/PD not working

[toffer]

Hi all, I am new here
My little one is almost 5 months old and with the 4 hr easy is doing great. He falls asleep on his own in his crib at nap time quickly with no fuss. Bed time usually is also easy now, but he sometimes wakes about 45 minutes later and is very upset for often 1 hr or more! My husband leaves for work at 5 am and sometimes wakes him accidentally also. My problem is that PU/PD isn't working. It did at first but now he gets hysterical and screams at the top of his lungs. Whay is he waking in the evening do you think? and any idea's about dealing with it? Here is my schedule...
7 am wake him and feed
7:30 activity
8:30 start wind down
9 sleep 1.5 - 2 hrs
11 feed
12-start wind down-he gets very sleepy and sometimes naps early
12-1 goes to sleep sometime in this window, usually 45 minutes.
2 activity
2:30- 3 feed
3:30 activity
5 feed
5:15-6 cat nap
6:30 bath
7 feed and bed
10 dream feed- was 11 but have moved it to 10 starting yesterday.

So, he has a short activity time after 11 am feed before nap and I am still cluster feeding plus dream feed. His 2nd nap is short also.

When I do PU/PD I soothe in crib as much as possible, hold a short time until he stops crying and put down immediatly. I put my hand on his chest instead of his back. He arches his back and screams while holding at first and in his crib. I put down if he does while I am holding him. He will close his eyes and mantra cry, suck thumb and turn away and I think he is going to sleep then it starts all over again. The cycle repeats for up to 2 hrs with no end. Just when I think it is over it starts again!
 He self soothes so well and goes to sleep on his own during the day that I have tried not going in to him at night. He falls asleep within 20 minutes usually, but I feel like a bad mom! What am I doing wrong?

[jolerie]

Hi! I am pretty new at this BW thing but just looking at your EASY..there are a couple of things that stick out to me. 

At 5 months I don't think they recommend cluster feeding unless LO is going through a growth spurt.

Based on your EASY...my guess would be that he is OT by bedtime so that may explain why he's getting up at the 45 minute mark since his second nap of the day is pretty short.  I think if you can extend is second A time (if he can't make the 2 hour stretch), that might help him nap longer.  My LO has a hard time staying up for a long time too or else he gets OT so maybe just try extending it like 5-10 minutes at a time and see how he/she handles it.

Hopefully other people with more experience can give you more insight.  We are still trying to figure out why our LO gets up at the 45 minute mark after BT as well so you are definitely not alone! 

[toffer]

You are probably right. That is an area I would like to change for a longer nap time, need help with extending it though since Pu/pd is not working. I will try getting his activity time a bit longer, maybe that will do the trick. Not had much luck with wake to sleep either...he just wakes and stays up!

I wonder also if he is over full from cluster feeding in evening? I can try cutting out the 5 pm feed and see if that helps.
It seems like it is every 2nd or 3rd night we have a problem, the rest are super. He was asleep by 7 pm tonight and didn't wake. Off to do my DF then bed

[toffer]

After another great night and more thought, I am thinking the cat nap is the key. He is not consistent about his cat nap and the afternoon nap is a short one, so overtired is probably the culprit. I have put his to bed earlier the last 2 nights and it worked great. He also had a nap from 3:30 to 4:30 in his stroller yesterday. What if I changed my evening to look like this
3 feed
4:30 wind down
5 sleep
6 wake
6:30 bath
6:45 start pm feed
7 sleep hopefully

I always wondered why only an hour between catnap and bedtime...seems too short

[jolerie]

Thats great news!

Yeah..methods for extending naps never really worked for us either.  Increasing A time worked for us but always had to be careful or he would wake up early because he was OT so its all about finding that balance 

I don't remember why they don't recommend cluster feeding but apparently it can cause night wakings??

I think if LO has a good afternoon nap, then CN will also become more consistent.

But if your adjusted EASY works for you..thats awesome! 

[toffer]

Well my good night was followed by a day from hell
LO has a cold and has not had a decent nap all day. Lots of crying and OT all day...
Does no one have any advice for me on the Pu/PD problem?

[jolerie]

*hug*
So sorry your day went so bad.  It is hard when babies are sick since there is nothing they can do to make themselves feel better so all we can do is give lots of hugs and kisses and be patient 
Hopefully your night went better??

I haven't done any pu/pd so I can't offer any advice....
If noone responds on this board, you can give a pu/pd board a try since I think there are a lot of people with experience over there.

Wishing you lots of luck!

[toffer]

Well, it took an hour of crying last night before he went to sleep, but sleeps thru the night usually. Today, another 45 minute nap followed by 1 hr of PU/PD not working! Maybe he is overtired when I put him down? I have posted on that board also, so hopefully will get some help there....