My son has been establishing a routine for about 3 weeks now as we've been implementing the BW ideas and the EASY routine for him. We've been napping really well, about 2-2.5 hours each time and he has Actiivity time of 45-60 minutes of which some of that is 4s time.
We've tried to follow the routine in the book for a typical 4 week old (since we started this at 5 weeks) and it says to have 2 catnaps among the cluster feeds in the evening. I find that these naps really make bedtime a challenge for me. It is as though those little mini naps are not enough and what he really wants instead of being picked up and nursed is to be put back to sleep for a longer nap, but then we would have 4-5 naps a day and that is too much.
Tracy mentions that this routine can change at 8 weeks to one cluster feed at 5:30-6 so we can try that, but our current routine is roughly this (we don't always wake at 7, so some days are off my 30-60 mins)
The parts in bold are the sections that are concerning me that I want to change, but how?
7:00 Wake & nurse
7:20 Activity time (diaper change, talking, walking about, pictures)
7:45-8:00 first yawn so start 4s and into bed
8:00 Nap
10:00 Wake and nurse
10:20 Activity time
11:00 Nap
1:00 Wake and nurse
1:20 Activity time
2:00 Nap
4:00 Wake and nurse
4:20 Activity time
5:00 Catnap 1 (45-60 mins)
6:00 Cluster feed 1
7:00 Catnap 2 (45-60 mins)
8:00 Cluster feed 2
8:30 4s wind down and into bed
(This last step can last anywhere from 30 mins to 2 hours with some nights lasting until 9:30 before he is down)
How can I consolidate the two cluster feeds into one, and how will that effect his catnaps?
Perhaps it would be:
5:00 Catnap
6:00 Cluster feed
Bath, jammies
7:00-7:30 Wind-down and bedtime
I dream feed at 11:00 but I am going to move it back to 10:30 if possible.
Has anyone else had this problem where catnapping twice seems to make baby irritable?