Sleepy, grumpy baby- any ideas where I'm going wrong?

[crookedmonkey]

Hi there
My lo is 18 weeks and a lovely little guy. But he's so often irritable-whiny and screamy-with the eye rubbing etc it seems to be tiredness but I've been working really hard on his nap schedule (was really tricky to get him to have any!) but it's not really helping. I think maybe part of the prob is his waking so early but he's barely happy for an hour at a time normally.

If anyone could have a look at my current schedule below and make any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

5am Wakes, talking happy -try and settle him again
6am Ditto, let him in bed with us, he'll sleep again
7.30am Up, bottle, wash, dress and play
9am Shattered and grizzly, down for a nap til
10 ish up and play
10.30am bottle and play
11.45 Few ounces of next feed before nap
12 grizzly, nap til two
2pm up, finish feed, play
4.30 feed
5.00 grizzly tired-nap
5.45 pm up
7pm bath
7.30 bottle and bed

I'm a bit stuck. He won't take a dream feed after going to bed to help him sleep later- physically won't take it, and he's not waking up screaming hungry. I can see I could do with moving his last nap earlier away from bedtime, and maybe his first nap later so it's not just a night time extension but any other ideas?

Thank you

My LO is the same just now, so grumpy and tired a lot of the time but not sleeping well at all. No advice tbh but we don't follow a schedule, I just go by him he's so unpredictable ATM.

In fact he's shattered just now, has been since he got up at half 5 but won't go back down

An 18 wk old does need an early first nap so I wouldnt change that, my dd could only stay up for an hour or so after waking until she was way older than six months.

But I agree it could be overtiredness and the early wake ups could be factor. One thing I would try - if.hes waking happy, have.you tried just leaving him alone and seeing if he returns to sleep? He could be waking for playtime rather than any hunger.

Other thing would be to bring bedtime earlier to 6pm for a while to see if that helps him catch.up on his sleep.

But.dont worry too much, some grizzliness when tired is a normal baby and toddler phenomenon!

Thanks IslandIsla. I tested him this morning and he'll play and jabber for an hour straight until I give up and start chasing him with a dummy. I did think about the earlier bedtime- just a shame as he'd only see his dad at weekends then, as he doesn't get home from work til half six. Hmmm.

I would put him down after about an hour and a half awake, rather than two hours - at this age both of mine were doing 90 minutes awake then 40 minutes asleep. They settled down to three naps a day (short one morning and late afternoon and long one at lunchtime) around 6 months and dropped the late afternoon one at about 8m. You may be on a losing wicket trying to get him to sleep later - IME all small babies wake up at 5-5.30. It doesn't get later for quite some time. I'd be inclined to try getting him up at 5am and starting the 90m up 40m down clock there.

Agree with Octavia try putting him down earlier in the morning. My DD could only manage to be awake for about 1.5 hrs before she went for her first nap, and then had around 2hrs awake between naps through the day (she didn't start taking long naps til around 6months old so your DS is doing great on that score)!

I have to say I did go for an earlier bedtime, bath at 6pm and in bed by 7pm. Sometimes little ones can wake early due to overtiredness.

Thanks both. Think you're right about the 90 mins til first nap. I got him up a bit earlier rather than dragging it out til half seven, and got him in bed a tad earlier and he perhaps wasn't as grizzly today, plus we had some lovely evening naked play with scarves and that never happens with his pm mood!