23 weeks old - AFTERNOON NAP IS NOT HAPPENNING

[lalubaum]

Hi,
I am new here. I started to read your book couple weeks ago and I wished I had read it before my 23 weeks baby was born. I short resume about us: babe usually to eat every 2-3 hours until 4 months. Since I got the book I'm slowly trying to get him to the 4 hours EASY routine but I am having problems with the afternoon naps. He doesn't sleep in the afternoon. Another problem is I broke my foot and had an operation when he was 3 months and couldn't walk for 6 weeks, so he got in a lot of bad habits (fall asleep on the breast or bouncing). Since I started to walk again he is sleeping on his bed, on his bedroom and I am trying hard to get him on shape again. So, see is my schedule for today:

wakeup 7am
E 7am
A
S 9-11am (bouncing with music but NO breast. I tried to use the PU/PD but without any success. I usually have to wake him up from the morning naps. Sometimes he goes down before 9am, when he doesn't sleep well, so then I allowed him to sleep until 11am)
Y
E 11am
A
S ?? this 1pm nap doesn't work. He gets tired around 1:30pm but doesn't give up. For example today I fed him again at 2pm and bouncing him for 30min. He slept only 30min and is now happy playing by himself on the floor.
Y
E 5pm and 7pm
A bath at 6.45
S bed time at 7pm. we only managed to make him to fall asleep by himself twice but now because he is over tired due the lack of afternoon nap, he gets completely distressed so I started to bounce him again
Y
E He usually wakes up between 11pm-00am and 03am-04am for feeding

I know it is a mess! He is still 100% drinking only breast milk. I am planning to start solids at the end of the month and would love to have this routine organised before.
Another thing is we are off on holidays tomorrow for 2 weeks (the 2nd week I will be alone with him). So I am wondering if things will get worst. He is very attached to me, special being a breast feeding only baby.

I had never problem with the morning naps. He usually naps 2hrs after he woke up and has been like this for a long time. The same with the bed routine incl. bath, feeding,bed. He just need to learn to fall asleep by himself.

Ah i forgot to say that sometimes he wakes up at 4am, i feed him, put down straightaway and after 10-15min he wakes up again and the all stress starts.

What do I do?

Thanks,
Lalubaum

[Lindsay27]

If he is regularly have a decent morning nap and waking at around 11am, I think he's UT for his afternoon nap.  Most LOs his age are getting about 2.5hrs of A time (and closer to 3hrs as they approach 6 months) so I would consider extending his second A time to 2.45hr and see if that helps.
 
If he doesn't take an afternoon nap, or takes a really short one, utilize EBT as much as possible.

[lalubaum]

Hi Lindsay27,

Thanks for your reply. Sometimes if I leave he can nap even longer then 11am in the morning because he is still waking up twice for feeding in the nights. Sorry, as I am new here I don't know all the codes. What does it mean: UT, LO and EBT? 

As the morning naps are really working at the moment, I thought to leave him to sleep as longer as he wants (max until 12pm) but it will crash the E at 11am. Do you think it will be a good idea?

I feel that he is super tired at the end of the afternoon. He gets very cramp and sometimes bath time is very stressful because he is over tired. If he sleeps 1hour in the afternoon (between 3pm-4pm) it will be great. In the past once he had a catnap between 5pm-6pm he was deep sleeping and it was so hard to wake him up, so I prefer to avoid it.

Have a good night!

[Lindsay27]

What does it mean: UT, LO and EBT? 

UT= under-tired
LO = little one
EBT = early bed time

So essentially if he is waking from a long morning nap at 11am he's likely not tired enough at 1pm for an afternoon nap.  You can get him nap longer in the mornings for a few days if you want so he can catch up a bit as he's likely a little OT (over-tired) now.

After his morning nap, I would push his A times to 2.45hrs and see if that helps him go down for his afternoon nap easier.

[lalubaum]

Most of the nights he wakes up at 3-4am for feeding. Sometimes he sleeps straightaway but sometimes he is awake on his bed for another few min up to 1hour.
When this happens I still wake him up at 7am (although I see he is deep sleeping) but only feed him 4hrs later from the last feeding time. Is it correct to do? Or I should leave him to wake up by himself and then start the EASY routine. This is usually the situation when he sleeps longer in the morning.