10 week old - daytime sleeping issues

[Monijaye]

I am after some ideas from other mums for my 10 week old DS.  I hope this is posted in the right section. 

We try the EASY routine but do not stick to a 4 hour feeding schedule. He gets really overtired of an afternoon and I can't work out how to settle him so he has an afternoon nap. He is formula fed. Can anyone recommend whether we should or should not wake him when he sleeps for a long period during the day and how can we improve his afternoons so he has a nap. I know he is sleeping well and we should be grateful but he is just getting so tired and cranky of an afternoon it can go on for hours.

Here is his routine.

Feed 4.30 or 5 AM
Asleep 5.15AM or 5.45AM - sleeps for 45 minutes
Awake wanting to feed 2.5 - 3 hours after first feed
Feed 7.30AM
Asleep 8.15AM (very long sleep)
Feed 1PM
Unable to settle to sleep - carried, in rocker, in sling
Feed 5PM
Asleep 5.45PM
Dreamfeed 9PM

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Merry Christmas to all.

Adele

[thitz]

I can't believe your 10 week old is staying awake soooo long in the afternoon . 

I really would recommend doing the exact 3 hr EASY routine.  We started at 10 weeks it was a miracle for us    It looks like your lo is treating that first nap like it's part of night time sleep.  I'd say you have way to much sleep at at once by the time you add up the nighttime sleep with the morning nap.  If you shorten that down, I'm sure you'd get your afternoon nap and you'd have a much happier baby in the evening.

But give the 3 hr EASY routine a good look, it will make a HUGE difference for you both.

Tarri

[Monijaye]

Thanks Tarri

I'm not quite sure how to go about this.  He has never been on a 3 hour routine.  Does that mean waking him if it has been 3 hours since a feed?  Also what about the morning when he only sleep for one sleep cycle, I am having a lot of trouble resettling him, in fact he doesn't resettle. 

TIA

Adele

[thitz]

Hi Adele,

Going to a 3hr routine will be a lot of work, but it was definately worth it for us in the end.  You'll end up with 3 good naps and nighttime so you can have lots of YOU time:)

In the beginning you need to really stick to the routine, so don't go off by more than 1/2 an hour in either direction.  Which means you have to wake him up when it's time to EAT, otherwise he'll never learn the routine. 

On the first day, I would start out by giving your normal 4:30 or 5:00am feed and then straight back to bed as usual and then give next feed around 7:30 and start the 3 hour EASY.  Here's what I suggest for your first day:

4:30-5:00 feed with lights off, no talking and straight back to bed
START EASY HERE
7:30 feed, activity
8:30 nap 1 (1.5 hrs) (try to stretch this to 9 in a few days)
10:30 feed, activity
12:00 nap 2 (1.5 hrs)
1:30 feed, activity
3:00 nap 3 (45mins-1.5 hrs)
4:30 feed, activity
6:30 feed and bed
10:00 df

Then for the next days, I would try and eliminate that 4:30-5:00 feed by decreasing the amount or time bf.  So that maybe in a few days he first wakes closer to 6:00, then I would start the EASY at 6:00 so he'll go to bed a bit early for a few days but then you can slowly keep him up a bit longer at night so that he'll wake a bit later in the morning.

Hope I haven't confused you, let me know if you have any more questions.  Tarri