I've been doing bath time with Jules as part of her bedtime ritual for about 6 weeks now. She loves bathtime, but is usually right at the end of her rope in terms of energy and tolerance by the time we are in there. The lights in our bathroom are quite bright, and even though she shows tired signs at about 5:30-5:45 pm and I try to start bathtime by that time. Bath time only takes about 15-20 minutes, but we do play in there.
Then I get her PJ's on (she's adverse to massage, never liked it) she's usually all worked up by the time I finish getting her Pj's on. I nurse her in the glider, and then put her down by 6:15-6:30. But she still cries and fusses until about 7 - 7:15 every night. I know she is tired, because if I don't put her down and I just hold her she dozes off a bit. Is it that our bedtime ritual is too stimulating? Or is it pretty normal for babies to take this long to get to sleep. I tend to her when she cries if it's not just fussing, I leave her once she is calm again or I sit in her room with her. But she still takes this long to get to sleep. I have tried moving bedtime back a bit so it's closer to 7 when I put her down, but then she's really fussy by the time we get PJ's on and it's stressful for her and me both.
Our days start off so differently lately with me being back at work.
But she starts her day sometime between 7-8:30 am (depending on if I left at 6 am or 7 am, she tends to wake when I am up and moving around the house, so I feed her, diaper her and put her back down before I leave and she goes back to sleep for about 1.5 -2 hours. I also don't know if this officially counts as a nap.
)
When I return home she goes back down for a nap between 8 - 9:30 am
then again between 11 - 12 pm
Then again between 2 -3 pm
It's at this point in the day that I don't know what to do. She hasn't developed the cat nap before bed, also someone told me that she shouldn't be going down to sleep too close to bedtime that it could interfere with night sleep. So if I'm lucky she sleeps until 4-4:30, I'm not she won't take the nap at all. Then I start bedtime a little earlier. at 5:15 to have her down by 6 pm. But still she often doesn't go to sleep until 7 pm. I am fine with this being her natural bedtime...if that s the case, but I am wondering if it's that something in our routine at bedtime is getting her amped up. She's pretty agitated after I get her PJ's on, I try to move slowly and play soft music to keep her calm. I tried nursing her before the bath so that she's not hungry, but she still gets all crazy on me. So she ends up nursing before and after bath time, which I don't mind, but then she tends to try to play/talk instead of eat, eventhough to me it sounds like her hunger cough/cry. Is it that she sees the nursing as the real winddown and is wanting it not for nutrition, but for comfort and calming? I still sit with her a bit and let her chat at me before I put her down, but after she's nursed so that she's not falling asleep nursing.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.
