Too much daytime sleep?

[PoppetK]

Can anyone advise me on daytime sleep for my 15 week old?  He never used to be a great sleeper in the day when he was born although this has improved massively in the last few weeks.  At one stage he was fantastic at night - feed, bath & bed at 8pm, dreamfeed at 11pm and then straight through until 7am although recently he's waking around 5am and I'm wondering if he's getting too much sleep in the day?  At the moment his routine looks like this:

7am - get up, feed, have a wash & get dressed.
8:30am - first morning nap.
10:55am - wake from first morning nap.
11am - feed & play.
12:30pm/1:00pm - gets tired, goes down for afternoon nap.
2:30pm - wake from afternoon nap.
3:00pm - feed & play.
4:30pmish - last late afternoon nap.
5:30/5:45pm - wake from last nap.
7pm - feed.
7:30pm - bath.
8:00pm - in bed asleep.

I'm thinking that perhaps his first morning nap is too long at the moment and should be cut down?  Could this now be affecting his nighttime sleep?  When he wakes at 5am it's not for a feed, he usually shouts for a bit but then gradually works himself up into full on crying when I have to go in and settle him back to sleep.  He does drop back off but it's very disturbed sleep and I'm usually back and forth his room until 7am comes and it's time to get up.

He's not too bad at getting off to sleep.  I've tried watching for his sleep cues and I think that usually he begins to get a bit grumpy.  If I manage to get him upstairs and swaddled in a dark room pretty sharpish he'll drift off by himself no problems but if not I'll need to help him to sleep.  I do this by holding him in my arms with his tummy to mine and gently pat his back whilst 'shhhing' in his ear.  He probably takes about 5-10 mins to drop off and I put him back in his cot just as he is dropping off.  He will usually wake once from each nap after about an hour.  All that needs doing then is his dummy put back in and then maybe 1 min of 'shhhhing' and he's off again.  Is this the right thing to be doing or am I making a mistake in helping him sleep?  More often than not he does need my help and I hope I'm not making him reliant on me to sleep?  If I leave him he just fusses and then works himself up into a right state and it takes ages for me to settle him.

Also, I'd love for him to have an earlier bedtime but I don't think that's possible at the moment with the 7pm feed followed by a bath.  The only way I could bring that feed forward is to get up and 6am with him, but I don't really want to be doing that!!

Does all this sound about normal for a 15 week old?  Is it likely that he's sleeping too much in the day and that's leading to the 5am wakings?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

Hayley xx

[Colesmom]

Babies often wake early when they are overtired.  He is getting great daytime sleep though so this shouldn't be the case. 

Here is a link showing typical sleep ranges and I think you're okay:

http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/typical-hours-of-sleep-for-ages-1-week-to-6-years-vt3195.html

I would suggest moving bedtime about 20 minutes earlier.  Your last feed doesn't need to be strictly 4 hours after the last, it can be earlier if need be.  Or you could move all the feeds forward in the day a touch, say 3.75 hours rather than 4.  Maybe try this for three days and see if it solves the early waking?

The first nap does seem long to me but I hesitate to say to wake your lo before you try the above tactic to solve the early waking.  That is the only time he's waking, right?

Please let me know if you think you can manage this earlier bedtime.

thanks

[PoppetK]

Thank you for your reply.

5am is the only time he wakes in the night... although typically he woke at 6am this morning and shouted for 5 minutes before settling back to sleep and then had to be woke at 7am!  He also woke himself early from his nap, I popped my head in his nursery to check on him at about 10:20am and was surprised to see he was awake and just chilling out by himself!!!!

I would love to implement an earlier bedtime but just wasn't sure how to do it with the 7pm feed.  Perhaps I'll bring it forward to 6:45pm and then try to get him down for about 7:30pmish.  Do you think he will be tired enough for this bedtime considering he has a nap until about 5:45 - 6:00pm?

Thanks again for your advice, I really do apprecaite it as its so hard to know what to do for the best!

[Colesmom]

Hi again,

That is great about your morning!  If need be, wake your lo from his catnap after 30-45 minutes to maintain the earlier bedtime.  Try tonight with his catnap ending at normal time.  If he fights the early bedtime then tomorrow wake him from catnap.  If he typically needs 2.5 hours before bed then wake him at 5.  I know it's hard to wake a sleeping baby...but bedtime is more important than catnap kwim?

good luck, let me know how it goes.