Going well but afternoons are a living hell!!

[Eden's Mum]

Ok, we are really getting there now, Noah is making good progress and this is his routine (when it owrks  :roll: )

7am ish wake and feed
8.30am (at a stretch) nap - 10am ( if i am lucky)
10am feed
11.30am - 2pm (if i am really lucky)
2pm feed
3.30pm this is when he is really ready to nap. and this is where it all goes wrong. he might sleep for 45mins. so until 4.15pm but this is too early to wake as he is ready to sleep again at 5.15pm. He won't go down for another short nap at this time as what he really wants is his bedtime routine (bath, boob, bed) but it is way too early for this and DS1 is in the middle of tea. We really have an afternoon of screaming from the 2pm feed onwards. He is in constant need of attention but nothing will sooth him. He is due a feed at 5pm but I often have to give it earlier to try and pacify him and so i can get on with Eden's tea. I have to just put him down on his play mat and leave him sometimes. i do sometimes put him to bed in the hope that  he will nap but he usually crys. I am in the middle of tea for Eden so ijust have to leave Noah to it and get him when we are done. ( Easier said than done as Eden is going through a phase. :evil: )

Bed time is ideally 7pm but at the moment is 6.30pm if dh gets home in time to help. If not I have to get both ready for bath at 5.45pm if Eden has finished eating in time and then let eden wathc tv whilst i settle Noah which undermines the whole bedtime routine we had set up for Eden. Once Noah is down, if i have got a decent feed in him before bed time, he is great, has a dream feed at 10.30pm and wakes once int eh night.

Anyone else have horrid afternoons and if so how did you solve them? Or have i just got to sit it out unitl he gets older?!?

[Flo&Hugosmum]

I have a 19month old and a 6 month old and know exactly what you are going through as the youngest needed stacks of attention and I was trying to keep the oldest on track.  Going from one child to two is a massive step, emotinally as well as physical time wise. I'm not sure if any of my suggestions are "correct" but they helped me.

Have you tried a dummy?  Sometimes I found it was more comfort sucking than food they were after.  It is a double edged sword I know but used carefully is a life saver.

Also mine wouldn't, and still wont, lie under his play gym he just seems very upset by it but he will sit happily in his rocker with something to look at for a while.

On really grisley days he has spent most of the late afternoon in a sling.

Failing that get out of the house - fresh air even cold and raining seems to help the situation for ALL of you.

And if it's any consolation it just gets easier, whether that is them getting older and easier or you just getting better at juggling two.  The thing I have found with number 2 is that a good routine is the goal not the be-all-and-end-all of every day, some days you just have to get through it, and I'm sure that as long as you stay roughly on track you'll all come out the other end. Or so I keep telling myself anyway.

[Noelle]

At 2 months old, I would go ahead and put him down for another cat nap at 5:15 if you are having trouble there.  I'd wake him at 6:00 if he doesn't on his own...and then bedtime at 7:30?  Would that work?

I'm impressed at his awake time for his age    :shock:

[Eden's Mum]

John and zoes mum i love your avatar. It is very cool. i thought he was still very sleepy, i am glad that 1.5 to 2 hours is quite long! I have tried adding the xtra nap. he just isn't very amenable to it. he won't settle and then keeps waking up again if he does go down at all.

Today and yesterday weren't too bad though. May be as you say flo and hugo's mum, it is a cast of riding it out a bit. I am reluctant to try the dummy, as i tried it once, andhe looked at me like i was mad and spat it back. Since i don't want him to have it any way, i don't want to have to work at it to get him to take it. Any way he has foudn his fist and sucks that to go to sleep so i think i might leave that for us.

All good fun isn't it!! :lol: