How long is A time before bedtime?

[Jpbaby]

Hello! I keep having the same trouble since my ds turned 20 weeks, he is now 22 weeks old. We used to have a great bedtime routine since birth and he would go to sleep on his own most of the time, some nights a quick pat in the back would do it, and he was off. But now I'm confused as if I'm missing my window or I'm putting him down too early, but it's been taking me about 1 hour every day to have him finally asleep.
Today's routine went like this:
E 6:45 bf
A
E 8:00 fruit
A
S 8:45 for 30 minutes, then after 30 min of pat and pu/pd he went back to sleep for another hour

E 10:45 bf
A
S 12:30 for 1 hour and 54 minutes

E 2:30 bf
A
E 4:30 for 30 minutes

E 5:15 veggies
A bath
E 6:00 bf
A story and song
S in bed at 6:30 but asleep by 7:30

That's what I tried, thinking he had only a 30 minute nap and didn't want him to get OT. But he never yawned or scratched his eyes, no sign what so ever of being tired. It took me one hour to finally get him down to sleep. A little crying not much, very jerky arms and legs as the time progressed had to swaddle him.
Can you please advice on how to tweak our routine so that it doesn't take me all this time to settle him for sleep.
Thanks!

[creations]

Hi there
Your A time might be a bit short across the day now.  Rather than aiming for 2hrs I'd increase to 2hrs 30min.
You can increase by 15 mins for a few days and then another 15 mins and see how things go from there.
This should help with things like that first nap where he was not quite tired enough to stay asleep but tired enough to be patted for 30 mins and then sleep better.  It should also help with BT (looks like he went to sleep at 2hr 30 for BT anyway but if you aim for that you can reduce how long you are helping for and therefore reduce your work and frustration - hopefully!).

For now, you can keep the A time before the CN shorter, say 2hr, if he agrees to take the CN on that time.
BT might end up a little later if the A times are increased and the naps are good.  So you could look at an 8pm BT for example for a little while.  Then, LO will drop the CN, an A time of 3hrs is needed for that, and you will likely see the BT move earlier again once the CN is gone.

Hope this helps.

[Jpbaby]

Thank you very much! Yes I tried longer A times but he turned out OT. So I went back and decided to try again in week or so. But I will try your suggestions!
What can I do if I prefer to aim for a 7 pm bedtime? I really like to get the nights to myself and the rest of the family!

[creations]

I really like to get the nights to myself and the rest of the family!

Don't we all?
You can keep BT at 7pm but it could cause some problems. Personally I prefer to let BT go up to 7.30 or 8pm during phases where naps are changing. It avoids OT by having the last A time too long or UT by having it too short.  it's your choice of course.

[Jpbaby]

Thanks!