EASY routine - 4.5 month old afternoon catnap

here is a link to the weisbluth method blog/forum. If you are lucky and post a question the good Dr himself might reply :), he is pretty fond of CIO from the 4 mont point but from experience his info also works well for non CIO parents. http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/nap-facts-birth-to-3-months/ http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/nap-facts-3-4-months/ http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2012/01/20/nap-facts-4-6-months/ http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/nap-facts-6-months/ http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2012/05/07/drowsy-signs/ http://weissbluthmethod.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/repost-what-is-healthy-sleep/

I don't want to confuse you, but my suggestion is more or less the opposite of PJ, and I'm not saying she is wrong. Basically you will need to figure out what works best for your child which might take some trial and error. I personally think that being overtired is often a bigger problem than not being tired enough so too long an awake time and it is is very hard to get them down for a nap. I would say the "average" 4-5 month old takes 3 naps, mine actually took 4 because he took such short naps at that age and otherwise his awake time would have been too long. I found when the naptime was at the "right" time he was very easy to put down. When he started to fight a nap then it was usually time to revise the schedule. Yes by shorten the first nap I mean wake him, so that the next 2 naps will be scheduled to be a bit sooner in the day. Or if you don't want to wake him/shorten the nap then start it a bit earlier, which will achieve the same effect or just bringing the next two naps earlier in the day. I would combine this with an earlier bedtime. the other thing is to lengthen your wind down routine, in particular for the last nap. Do this by starting it earlier so if you aiming for him have a nap at 3;30, then you want him to be ASLEEP by 3:30. If it is taking a long time to get him to sleep then you might need to start the soothing process at 3 or even 2:45. By "soothing" I don't mean rocking him to sleep in your arms, I mean the cues that you have put in place to signify a nap is coming, maybe moving upstairs, sitting in a darkish room, talking quietly, giving a dummy if you do that, giving a feed if you do that etc. Having the in-laws there might even be causing the problem, if he is getting overstimulated and overtired right before naps. Rather than confronting them, just pick up your baby and head off to his room at the appropriate time and avoid discussing it with them. If after all the trial and error you still can't get him to take the last nap, then as PJ says two naps might work better in which case you will need to adjust the timings of them and probably bring bedtime a little earlier so that he isn't having such a long stretch of awake time at the end of the day. Try and ignore the in laws, they mean well but they honestly can't really remember those sorts of things properly. So many kids get quite hyper when they are overtired and seem very "awake", I know mine does even now and my nanny always used to be amazed (and insist he wasn't "tired') when I would pick him up mid-running around and take him upstairs, lay him down and he would literally be asleep before I left the left the room. The book "healthy sleep habits happy child" by Dr Weissbluth is really good at explaining how children (and adults) have natural nap times and wake up times and how naps too late in the day can interfere with bedtime etc. i like it because it doesn't have a rigid set of nap times you are expected to follow, more it suggests average times and explains how to work out your own ideal schedule. One last thought, if you do stretch his awake time you might have to alter the feeding time, add an extra feed as otherwise you might be putting him down to sleep just when he is starting to get hungry again. If you do this, maybe try and offer a feed at the beginning of the "wind-down/soothing" routine so that it doesn't become too strong a sleep-cue, and then you have to deal with the problem that your LO needs to be fed to sleep etc. 4-5 months is a really common time for sleep issues, you are def not alone! Again I hope I haven't confused you by giving such different advice, the thing is, we all have experience of what worked best for our particular babies, and it just goes to show that there is no one "right" way, you'll figure it out, if you can't tackle it while the in-laws are around then maybe in the meantime you just need to head out to the mall and let him have a quick snooze in the stroller to tide him over around cat-nap time.

DS will be 5 months next week and is on the EASY routine for 4-6months. His routine is as follows: E - 6am wake up and feed A - activity S - 8am (2 hrs sleep) Y E - 10am A - activity S - 12pm (1.5 hrs sleep) Y E - 2pm A - activity S - 3.30pm (catnap) Y - E - 6pm A - bath time E - 6.30 S - 6.45pm Of course the above will move around with DS's movements of the day but it is basically the same every day. My problem is his late afternoon catnap. He refuses to go down and is over tired by bath time. He virtually passes out after his last feed but then his evening sleep is interupted as a result. Any advice as to the catnap? TIA You're following a near identical schedule to me and my little one who is a similar age, slightly younger! We also have a very short late afternoon cat nap around 4ish. I have given up stressing about it as she sleeps anywhere from 45mins - 90 mins for her other two day time naps and I'm not doing anything different for the 3rd nap so it must be all that she needs, a quick 30 mins pre bedtime routine. Granted, she is definitely grumpier when its gets to bath time at 6pm and is ready for her bed in a big way but I guess if she wanted more sleep at her 3rd nap she would take it? I have also heard that as they get a bit older they start to drop that late afternoon nap, so maybe thats what our little ones are preparing for? I don't know to be honest, I just go with the flow! <em>edited by tweet on 28/05/2012</em>

If he is not sleeping at 3.30pm and you have put him down just because 2hrs have passed rather than observing any tired cues - I would say there is a good possibility that he is just not ready for a sleep then. They stay awake for progressively longer - 2 hrs might have been a limit for him, or is his morning limit - but as he grows that will change and can even vary throughout the time of day. It may be that if he were awake for a little longer he would take a sleep a bit later in the afternoon. He may also just need the two sleeps per day. My DS went from 3 sleeps to 2 sleeps at around 5-6 months. He was exhausted in the evening, so what i did was just keep him awake just a little bit longer in the mornings and this resulted of 2 sleeps of 2-3 hours each instead of 3 sleeps of 1.5-2 hours each. The longer morning sleep resulted in a later/longer afternoon sleep. He was basically getting the same amount of sleep - just more evenly spread thoughout the day so that he wasnt exhausted in the evenings. Try not to let anyone else's expectations pressure you (easier said than done, I know). You know your baby better than anyone else. Its very easy for people to come in and judge when they're not the one doing it day in and day out :)

Could he be going through a sleep regression? It is normal at this age. My bubba went through a phase at about this age when he wouldn't want to sleep at all! He would fight sleep as if there's no tommorrow. One night he kept awake till 10:30 pm (his normal bedtime is 7:30 pm). I used to get worried sick. Just hang in there, this too shall pass :)

how long does he actually sleep for the catnap (or is he not sleeping at all)? I always found it worked best if the gaps between the naps got progressively longer, so in the morning DS would be up for maybe 90 minutes before first nap and the longest gap would be between the end of the last nap and bedtime (which was maybe 2.5 hours awake but tbh I can't remember exactly). So maybe you could shift the other naps a little earlier, or alternatively you could shorten the first nap which would shift the next naps a little earlier. And finally you could bring bedtime earlier, some kids need a super early bedtime, since your baby is up at 6 then maybe bedtime should be 6pm rather than 7. DS even had a 5:30 bedtime for a while. I actually found the earlier bedtimes meant DS woke LATER in the morning.

Yes sorry I can see that now. I didnt read the 1.5hrs properly. Just saw you were putting him down at 12pm and feeding him at 2pm and assumed this was when he had woken. When you say it would be too long - is this because he is actually showing tired cues at 3.30pm but still not sleeping anyway?

I notice you have 2 hours activity before putting him down for his other sleeps, but only 1.5 hours activity before the afternoon catnap. Perhaps he's not ready at that point and he may benefit from a futher half hour activity or so before attempting nap?