Wakes up an hour after going down for the night

[liz1810]

Two month old DD has been waking up anywhere from an hour to and hour and half after going down for the night. She will do this about four times a week. We shh-pat her to get her back to sleep - this can take up to an hour though to get her back down. We are keeping evenings low-key as to avoid overstimulation. Is she over-tired? She takes three 45 min to 1 hour naps and one 30 min catnap. We've tried to extend nap times without luck. She is happy throughout (most) days and only wakes up once during most nights (and gets a DF). Help!

[*Ali*]

Can you post her day in EAS format so we can see her wake up time, how long she is awake, how long she sleeps etc.?

[liz1810]

We were doing feeds at 7, 10, 1, 4, 6, 8, 1030, 230. Sleep times range from one hour in the morning to 45 minutes the rest of the day (with my trying to shh-pat her without much success). Activity times are no more than one hour thirty minutes. I  am constantly looking for sleep signs to put her down within the window, and yet, naps are still challenging. I'm betting that by the end of the day, she's OT. The last few nights, we skipped the cluster feed and just did a 4, 7, 1030 feed. I put her down between the 4 and 7 feed. Previously, we didn't put her down between 6 and the 745/8 feed, and that totally made her OT (hence, the dropping the dream feed). I am at such a loss as to what to do. It doesn't feel right to drop a feed, and, I feel like I am holding back in really playing with her at night for fear of overstimulating her even more. That feels awful. Anyway, do you think she's waking up because she's OT? Any thoughts or ideas? Should I keep the cluster feed and just make the feeds closer together? Thanks for all of your help.

[*Ali*]

Ok yes I think she is ot. At 2mo I wouldn't let her stay awake for 1.5hrs. I'd maybe try about 1hr15 upon wake up in the morning or after a long nap. If she only naps 30 to 45mins I would put her down again by 1hr A time. If she's short napping all day you will need to offer more naps. Tired cues like yawns can be too late if you wait for one before you start winding down.
The routine Tracy gives that suggests cluster feeding at 6 and 8 involves putting the Lo to bed after the 6pm feed and then getting them up again for the 8pm feed with no activity time just straight back to bed.
What do you think?