Please share your routine for FF weaning 5mo catnapped!

[CookieTramp]

DS2 is a very short sleeper (daytime naps never longer than 40 mins) so no official routines fit right for us. Night sleep is horrendous still (still in 40 minute bursts mostly) and I keep getting frustrated with the official routines that give 2-3 hour naps. We are so far off that but I want to shoot for a routine that suits DS2 better.

If you have a roughly 5mo baby who is FF, just started weaning and is a short sleeper like mine, would you mind sharing your routine for us to try? I am a SAHM...

Meant catnappeR, obv...

My ds is a daytime catnapper and always has been (though he does sleep great at night) and never has the 2/3 hour nap suggested when I read routines!

He's also 5 months and weaning

Will your ds fall asleep in the car/pram? Mine will so my day looks like this;

Up at 6.30am (dh gets up then mon-fri for work so ds is sort of set to wake around this time)

7am - bottle (7oz)

7.45am - wash/dress

8am - breakfast usually 2 heaped teaspoons of baby breakfast.

Then he plays on his play mat while I dry my hair/eat.

8.30am/8.45am he has a milk top up usually and then has a snooze on me for about 30 mins. Otherwise we go out in the car to a group/the next village so we can walk and he naps then. I live rurally on a narrow lane so can't walk from my front door.

11am (ish) we head home from group or whatever and so he may have 10 minutes in the car (Or longer if he's particularly tired and I drive home the long way!)

12pm lunch and milk.

We then play at home for a while.

3pm milk and then I sometimes nip to the shops so he may snooze for 30mins then. I deliberately don't buy everything in one big shop

4/4.15pm he has his tea and sometimes more milk (he's a hungry boy!!)

we then play or he sits in the bouncer/highchair while I tidy the kitchen.

6pm bath and into sleepsuit then milk, into sleeping bag and bed for 6.45pm.

DH gets home during bath so he always does bed while I cook dinner.

May I ask does your ds feed in the night each time he wakes? I'm guessing not?

It sounds like he could be over tired so maybe trying to 'force' a couple of naps in the day as I do will help at night?

I think you are right that it is an overtired negative cycle. Today and yesterday we have managed better daytime naps (1.5 hrs yesterday while I walked the pram - have tried that before, though, without success!).

Nights are not better yet though. He doesn't want feeding in the night - just getting his dummy put back in. I would say the dummy is the problem, except surely he shouldn't wake every 40 minutes to notice that it's fallen out?!

Cant remember our routine with food and bottles at 5mo but i think it was similar to pumpkin's.

DS is now 18mo and I wanted to give you hope that things might get better on the napping front! DS had 4 or 5 very short naps a day (30 or 40 mins) every day until he was about 7mo when he suddenly changed and started doing that longer nap after lunch that everyone talks about.

I think it was something to do with him being fully weaned on 3 meals per day including puddings (we started at 5mo like you and built it up gradually), and also I think it was a developmental thing: around 7mo he suddenly started being able to stay awake longer (3 hours at a time instead of 2, for example) and his naps got longer as a consequence.

He also started sitting unaided and his brain was just so much more active = he was more tired. IYSWIM?

He also started sttn at around 7mo and still does now, apart from nights when he is ill with a cold or is teething.

Keep following your LO's cues and chances are he/she will be on a very different routine of their own choosing in a couple of months time. Hopefully involving longer naps so you can get a bit of rest during the day.