Hi
My son, Owen is 8 weeks old and in a pretty good routine, but I wonder if anyone has any tips to make his nap times better (particularly the afternoon nap) and bringing his bedtime forward.
At the moment Owen wakes up at 7am and has a feed. I began the 7am wakings by waking him and offering him a bottle at this time. He then feeds every 4 hours regularly so that's 11am, 3pm, 7pm and then another at 11pm. That takes him through until 7am - so he's a pretty good sleep at night already
His feed at 7am takes about 30 mins or so and then after that I usually sit and talk to him/pull faces at him to make him laugh until about 8:15am when I take him into his nursery to top & tail him. I turn the lights down low and wash and dress him slowly and calmly while talking to him in a low voice. By 8:30am he's ready for his morning nap so I swaddle him, give him his pacifier and he usually goes straight off within 10 mins. He might stir a few times, but I'm not too worried about that as I'm guessing he's just making the sleep transition and he will get better in time.
He usually wakes about 10:30am and is quite sleepy and grumpy still so I let him wake up a bit before the feed at 11am. It's after this feed everything goes a bit haywire. He finishes his feed at about 11:30am and we usually try to take a walk in the pushchair to get some fresh air. The first problem with this is that he tends to fall asleep on our walk so I think that might be ruining his afternoon nap?
Afternoon naps are VERY hit and miss. I try to look for the signs of tiredness and he usually starts yawning and looking tired aabout 12:30 - 1:00pm. I take him into his nursery, swaddle him and give him his dummy but he just will not settle. I try stroking his head and talking to him, but he just fusses and fusses. He seems to drop off sometimes but then stirs and wakes back up. I'm thinking that maybe I'm winding him down enough? How long he sleeps for depends on how long it takes him to settle, it will usually take so long that he'll sleep for an hour max.
After his 4pm feed my Husband comes home from work and plays with Owen for a bit. I know he needs a catnap between 5-6pm to handle his bath and he usually does. But he's normally very tired from the broken afternoon sleep that he has a full hour and even then I have to wake him.
His last evening feed is at 7pm and then it's bathtime. After his bath we used to try and get him to settle to bed but it just doesn't happen. We've began taking him back downstairs with us again (keeping the lights low and the TV low) and letting him fall asleep when he's ready - I wanted to do this to observe his natural routine. He tends to drop off about 9pm and then sleeps soundly until we wake him at 11pm for his final feed. That's then him for the entire night and the cycle starts again at 7am.
I know he's still young and already pretty good but I'm after any advice on how to improve the afternoon napping and maybe to get him to go to sleep for the night after his 7pm feed and bath? Could I then dreamfeed him at 11pm in order for him to go until 7am?
Phew.... just read it all back and that's a long one! Thanks for reading if you've got this far, any advice is much, much appreciated!!
Hayley xx
