Not able to AP catnap for 5 week old

[LovelyLilyandJack]

My 5 week old refuses to nap after he's been woken for his 4pm feed,  no matter what i try.  I think it might be cos he's getting about 5 hours sleep in the day before that point so isn't tired enough to nap when I'm trying to get him to sleep and then quickly gets OT. If he has a shorter last nap i can more often get him to catnap whereas if he's just slept 2 hours i can't get him back to sleep, even with driving him round for an hour, starting 50 minutes after his last nap!

Anyway, my question is, how do i handle it on days this happens (which is most days). Should i restrict that last nap? Seems mad to be doing that for a 5 week old?! His easy is quite varied - I'll try writing tomorrow's down as not logged sleep today but he'll generally have one 1x 1 hour nap and 2 x 2 hour naps. The 1 hour nap is usually one of his first two.  A times vary from 1 hour to 1.5 hours generally, though occasionally will be slightly more if he's struggling to settle for a nap. I aim for an hour A time before i pd, less if he feeds quickly enough.  Feed times are almost always 7, 10, 1, 4, 6.15 and then 11/12 and 3/4am. Should i go for an early bedtime if he's not napped by a certain time or persevere and try for a catnap at 6ish which is the earliest I've managed to get one on those days? That would probably make bedtime 8ish as he has a mega feed before bed.

Sorry, that's a bit rambling and no proper EASY to post cos it's always a different nap which ends up being the shorter one with the longer A time. Hopefully it makes a bit of sense! I'll try logging our day tomorrow or Saturday as just me and 2 kids tomorrow so could be hectic!

[Ima shel Alon]

If he has a shorter last nap i can more often get him to catnap whereas if he's just slept 2 hours i can't get him back to sleep, even with driving him round for an hour, starting 50 minutes after his last nap!

What do you mean by a shorter nap? Would a 1.5h nap be short enough for him to go down for a CN? Because 1.5h nap would still be restorative sleep.

Should i go for an early bedtime if he's not napped by a certain time or persevere and try for a catnap at 6ish which is the earliest I've managed to get one on those days? That would probably make bedtime 8ish as he has a mega feed before bed.

I would really need to see how your day looks like to answer this question. BT is dependent on the time he wakes up in the morning, how is A time is, naps...
But did you actually try to have a CN at 18 say and then when he wakes start BT routine, so he is eventually down at around 19:15. This is the way we did when DS was a few weeks old, he woke up from his CN and straight away was BT.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Yeah,  I was thinking something like a 1.5 hour nap - just enough of a cut to make sure he's not has all his sleep by 4pm.  I did actually log yesterday but ironically he did actually catnap so not very good as an example of what his day looks like when he doesn't but here it is anyway as an example of what worked! 

Woke him at 7.55am.
E: 8 - 8.50 but had to wake him up again half way through feed and again at the end.
A: 8.50 - 9.20 pd for nap (but not sure how long A time actually was cos of sleepy feed so just went by cues.  Wind down interrupted by potty trip with daughter! )
S: 9.40 - 10.40

E: woke him to feed 10.50 - 11.35
A: 11.35 - 12.10
S: 12.10 - 1.45 in car.  Got in car at 12.

E: Woke him to feed 1.50 - 2.40
A: 2 40 - 2.45
S: 2 45  - 4.20

E: woke him to feed 4.20 - 4.50
A: 4 50 - 5.20 in car. Got in car at 5.
S: 5.20 - 5.40 (he woke up when we got home   )

A: 5.40 - 6.20 trying to resettle him then gave up and did bath
E: 6.20 - 7.35
S: 7.45 - 11.20

E: bottle @ 11.20 ans straight back to sleep
E: 2.40 til now and hopefully straight back to sleep again!

Will try and log tomorrow / today (can't get the hang of what day it is at 3.30 am! ) and we'll see if he cat naps or not!

S:

[Ima shel Alon]

It looks like a good routine for a 5w old! The only thing that I can think of is that:

A: 5.40 - 6.20 trying to resettle him then gave up and did bath
E: 6.20 - 7.35
S: 7.45 - 11.20

His last A time is around 2h which is a very long A for a baby his age, I would try and keep it shorter and that brings me to my suggestion in my last post, that you do BT straight after waking up from the CN.
I know that this is an unusual day because he DID CN, but perhaps you can try and play with the A times a bit. An hour A time today gave you a CN, so perhaps stick with that? And if it doesn't work then try 1:10h?

[LovelyLilyandJack]

Thanks. Yes,  definitely agree we'd do bedtime after cat nap but only issue is (and had this with my daughter too) that he takesaat least an hour to an hour and a half to feed before bed,  even with me trying breast compression. He's usually awake all through that feed so by the time we do a nappy change,  feed and wind down an hour and a half or 2 hours has passed, which i know is too long My daughter was suddenly ok with it at about 8 weeks,  though she used to cat nap so we didn't have the problem of her being ot so much.

I think the key to the cat nap might be keeping that third nap closer to 1.5 hours and sticking with the A times you suggest.  He'll change again in a few weeks though I'm sure so also a case of keeping an eye on things and trying stuff out i guess!

[Ima shel Alon]

He'll change again in a few weeks though I'm sure

He will, probably just when you'll figure things out, lol!

I remember that our last A time was also fairly longer than the rest of the day. I mean, if your usual A time is an hour how are you going to fit a bath, pj and a feed in there... But I found that if the feed was the last thing in BT routine then LO was already half asleep (and the BT feed is a one feed you are ok to feed to sleep) so it wasn't like the A time was *too* long.

[LovelyLilyandJack]

and the BT feed is a one feed you are ok to feed to sleep

Really? That's very good to hear cos we've had a lot of that and it's been bothering me! I would like him to self settle at bedtime at some point cos it's easier but the times I've tried have been difficult and he's not slept well all evening so I'd given up tackling it for a while till he's older.  But it had been bothering me that i was encouraging bad habits in the meantime.  I won't worry so much now, especially as he'll put himself back to sleep after night feeds and for naps with a bit of sshh pat.

I remember some very long BT A times with my daughter too,  comparative to what she could handle I mean! We're more on the ball with jack but that A time before bed is still always too long in theory.  However, as you say there's usually some snoozing during the feed and he seems to handle it ok so not a real problem i guess.  Unless we don't get any sort of cat nap at all and then things do go a bit crazy.

 We've had a funny couple of days and I think the 6 week growth spurt is about to start so i might not get to log a no catnap day for a while but will ressurect this thread if it's still a problem after the growth spurt.

Thanks for your help.