Trouble early evening ... should I reduce day naps? How?

[LizB]

Hi -  Rosa is just coming up to 7 weeks old.  Everything is fine with her going down after her df, and she naps generally well in the day, it's the evenings we have trouble with.

Most evenings things don't go well - but it's always between about 7 and 11pm ... she doesn't settle, cries etc etc.

Am wondering if I should be reducing her naps in the afternoon to help make her tired at 7pm?  If so, how do I do it!?  Normally, as she's on EASY, when she wakes, she eats ... Which end of the nap do I keep her awake, and how, if it seems like she wants to sleep ....?

Am I even making sense!!!! :lol:

[Matthew's Mommy]

Hi there,

Could you give us a bit more information about her daily routine, and her bedtime routine, and what happens between 7-11 pm.

Thanks,

[LizB]

Hi, we're on three hour EASY all day and it generally goes very well.  She naps quite well, particularly in the morning, but it's like, as the day goes on the naps don't go so well.

eg,
E 7am, A (not much), S 2 hours
E 10am A (playing for about 30 mins) S 2 hours

After the 1pm it can start to go downhill.  Sometimes the afternoons are okay, particularly if we're out (which we often are) and she's in the stroller (she just sleeps) but after her 4pm feed she sometimes sleeps for a couple of hours but sometimes become a  bit fractious (I can't see a pattern) and then by 7 it really doesn't go well ....

I feed her about 7pm and try to put her down but more often than not it doesn't work and she's fractious, upset, crying ... I can't work out if she's tired or not.  So we sometimes bring her downstairs with us - occassionaly she'll sit in her chair and just be with us and she's quite calm, and sometimes she's falls asleep in her chair.

However, obviously, ideally as she gets older I want the evenings to start to be my own .... so i'm wondering if it's just her age and she'll grow out of it by about three months once she's put herself in a definite routine (as my mum says) or if she's napping too long in the morning. 

I'm definitely doing something wrong, i just can't put my finger on what.

I hope I've made myself a bit clearer  :oops: - this is a relatively new thing, up until about 4/5 weeks she slept very well. 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated !!!

[Matthew's Mommy]

As the day progresses, young infants can get more and more tired and overstimulated. You will notice that in the morning she naps wonderfully, but by mid afternoon, naps are getting progressively difficult.  What tends to happen is her body releases a hormone called cortisol, which interferes with her ability to fall asleep-- actually making her appear like she's wound up (as I would call it "too wound for sound"!)  So, what I suggest is to look at a routine like this:

7 am Eat,Activity, Sleep
10 am Eat, Activity, Sleep
1 pm Eat, Activity.. really work on helping her to fall asleep.. so make her awake time shorter.
4 pm Eat, Activity and a "cheater" sleep

A "cheater" sleep, is what some of us moms on this site refer to as a prop sleep. This nap is generally a short cat nap, which can be in a stroller, car ride, sling, swing etc.  It's just a short nap, around 40 mins. in length. Then start her bedtime routine after 6 pm, bath, massage, top up feed and then settle into sleep. I would not take her out of the room, just keep helping her to settle to sleep, using Tracy;s pat-shush method.

Also, swaddling really helps overtired/overstimulated babies settle down. So if you're not swaddling, then look into it.. those arms and legs flapping about can interfere with falling asleep.

Lastly, I would make life easy for the next 2 weeks, put aside appointments, errands and outings, until she has settled down.  There will be lots of time for that later!

Take a look at our announcement at the top of the nap board, about Newborn sleep.  It's really helpful!