4.5 month old cries at bedtime and wakes at 5am

[momoftwo18]

Hello! First time poster here, so please let me know if any additional information would be helpful. Thank you in advance!

4.5 month old (20 weeks) is a great napper, but I still feel like our bedtime routine needs work, and I could use help with getting a later bedtime (maybe?), helping her sleep through the night, and not waking as early in the morning.

Current schedule:
5am: Wakes
5:15am: Eat, EBF
7:30am: Goes down for first nap -- usually 2-2.5 hours
10am: Wakes
10:30am: Eat, EBF
12pm: Goes down for second nap -- usually 1.5-2.5 hours (Today was 3 hours)
3:30pm: Eat, EBF
[If the 12pm nap is shorter, she sometimes naps 3:30-4pm]

By 5:30pm, she is fussy and ready for sleep. She cries every night as soon as we walk into her bedroom to turn on white noise and pull curtains close. We change diaper, pjs, and I feed her. She usually cries during diaper/pjs, eats a little, and then cries. I try to calm her, but she just keeps crying. I usually end up laying her in the crib, rather than making her cry on my shoulder, where she rolls and fusses for about 10 minutes and then puts herself to sleep by 6:30pm.

Night is:
7:15pm: Wakes crying. I either let her fuss for 10 minutes (and she usually goes back to sleep) or go in and shush her, and she usually goes back to sleep.
12am: Wakes, and I feed her
5am: Wakes for the day.

[ginger428]

Hi!
Welcome to bw!

How come her first wake time is 2.5 hrs? It seems to be working so I wouldn't change it especially if you want that morning wake uo to be moved later.

I might be wrong but I think she is getting too much day sleep and she is actually undertired at bedtime. My bub is 19 weeks and when he cries when we enter his room
Or do our sleep routine, it’s usually because he’s not tired yet. So I give him another 15 mins or so of activity. Although, if she’s not taking a 3rd nap, she could be overtired.

If you want an 11-12 hr night, try capping naps at 2 hrs each, and keeo a 3rd catnap. With 5 hrs daytime sleep, you’re looking about 10 hours of overnight sleep if she averages 15 hrs. If she’s high sleep needs, she would probably need that 3rd catnap in order to get you to a later bedtime and then later wake up.

Once she consistently goes down to bed later, you can work on resettling to sleep after the 5am feed. It kight take a few days so when she wakes and doesn’t settle back to sleep, keep it dark and pretend it’s the middle of the night. 
Being EBF, she’ll probably still need 2-3 nighttime feeds. If she’s suckling more than eating, try pulling her off somner and holding her back to sleep. If she’s taking a full feed, consider keeping the NF or increasing her daytime feeds... add another one or two.