am i stimulating my baby 2 much?

[angelina and andrew's mum]

hi, im still tryin 2 get in2 a routine with my 10 1/2wk old. 1 ques i do have is between 8am and 5pm i play with my lo after a feed for anything up to an hour then she has 15 mins wynd down time before her nap. we do things like playmat, toys, singing, she gets a walk most days of bout an hr and even watches t.v for 10-15mins a day-am i getting her too exited? some naps she will only have half hr and it upsets the routine for the rest of the day then she ends up being up every couple of hrs during the nite(its a vicious circle) any suggestions on other activity we can do or advice on where i may be going wrong

[Erin M]

Hi!
First off, I would check out this link for sample EASY routines from other folks who have a LO around your LO's age

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=10384.0

Might give you some idea as to where you can tweak your routine to get it to work a bit better.

Your LO could be overstimulated or overtired, depending on what's going on.  I found the playmat with all the toys to be too overstimulating for DD1 at this age -- I took most of the toys off and let her just look at a few.  Toys that light up or make lots of noise might be a bit too much as well.  Going for a walk is great, as is singing/spending time with you.  I would just watch her carefully - see if she's getting upset or turning away during activities as that is a good sign that she's getting overstimulated.

[angelina and andrew's mum]

thanks erin m. i tried not to stimulate her 2 much this morn-only had 20mins of activity- 10 mins of cuddles and kisses with me. 10 mins on mat with 1 toy and when she turned away i took that as a cue for wind down time -windown time was 20 mins-does that sound right? i think ur right-stimulated her too much and not reading her cues.xxxx

[Erin M]

Sounds perfect -- I found I had to play around with nap wind down for quite awhile before I found something that worked well for her -- and now she doesn't need it at all, just change the diaper, into the crib, and off to sleep.  It really does pay off....