Our routine slightly guided by ds and encouraged by me looks like this at the moment:
7am wake and eat
8.30 - 9.15am nap
10am eat
11am - 1.30pm nap
1.30pm eat
3pm - 3.45pm nap
4.30pm eat
5.15pm - pm nap
6.30pm eat
7.15pm bed
10.30pm dream feed
tends to wake 4am only or 2am and 5am for feeds
When he does all this he is a happy baby for his awake time, the key seemingly being his 2.5 hour nap. the last nap was added in because i was trying to just ahve one nap there and bed at 6.30pm but he couldn't make it and was falling asleep on the breast then waking after 45mins and couldn't resettle himself without me going back in and feeding him again.
the problems i am noticing are that when he wakes at 7 or even 7.30, even if he has only woken once in the night he doesn't want to feed. Since his wake time is only 1.5. hours by the time he is hungry enough to feed he is too sleepy and can't feed properly. This then means that when it gets to his big sleep he can't do it. if he big sleep goes wrong then the rest of the day is horrid. he usually wants to feed for 20 mins or so, then is happy for 1/2 an hour and then starts to get a bit grizzley for the last bit of his awake time. Nothing major, just needs attention rather tahn just kicking happily on his own. however if his big sleep goes wrong as a result of the feeds being wrong he can't even stay awake happily for an hour. he gets up and then starts yawning immediatley.
He is a baby who settles himself to sleep completely independantly so if we go in and start to try and re settle him we make it worse and end up waking him up fully. we tend to leave him for 15 minutes to sort himslef out, after which time if he is actually crying continuously we go to him but if he is just shuffling and complaining we leave him to it.
i am not sure what to do to encourage happy wake times and sticking to the routine. I am not fussy about actual times that these things happen, more that this big sleep is as long as possible, and that the feeds are ample. I haven't had him wieghed for a fortnight but he has been gaining weight well and apart from one cold a few weeks back appears perfectly healthy. the only possible complaint might be that he doesn't seem to have daily dirty nappies whereas they used to be, now it seems to be alternate days. he is breast fed.
Any one any ideas?