help!!! i know im being an obsessive pfb about this but can you help me please?

[flourybaps]

My dd is 17 weeks old and is formula fed (dont throw stones at me please, i have my reasons) just wondering how many naps your lo's have in the day, what sort of routine you have. I cant seem to put my dd down for a nap without 10 mins of crying... but if i try to keep her up she crys anyway..... Just wondering how your days go, need some comparisons about feeds and sleeps etc.
I really dont know how people with more than one baby do it.

My and dp went out on sat and left dd with grandma, no naps... 3 hrs of non stop crying when we picked her up, 2 hours of driving round in car, o dear!

I havent left the bloody house since sunday, im either feeding my dd or puting her to bed!
I dont know how to leave the house!!!

it sounds as if your dd is getting too tired and that is why she cries and can't sleep?

at that age I used to assume that my dd would need a nap every 1.5 to 2 hours. I would put her down before she got to the crying stage and it seemed to work and helped her to settle herself to sleep.

Can you recognise any sleep cues? Rubbing eyes/sucking thumb/twiddling hair etc?

I really feel for you because i remember those days so well. Will your dd sleep in her pram/buggy? Lots of long walks and a full tummy of milk always did the trick for my dd.

Oh and you are in no way being pfb and there will be no stone throwing (we all have our reasons )

In a very very broad sense (although DD is a bit older now) -- around an hour and a half to two hours after getting up she has a nap of about an hour to an hour and a half, then she has another nap after lunch (a couple of hours), then she'll normally grab a quick half hour or so nap in the late afternoon/early evening. That's roughly what DS did too, as far as I remember.

It does vary acording to what we're doing. If I'm out and about I put her in a sling and that helps her drop off.

When DS was that age I just got him to nap as and when he would - for him this would be 30-45 mins 2 or 3 times a day. I also prob did things all wrong and fed him to sleep/put him buggy and walked him to sleep etc, but he's over 2 now and sleeps fine (got there eventually!)

I found that at that age he would be awake happily for 1.5 - 2 hrs, then I would try and get him to sleep. If you're worried about getting out of the house, I would just do feed and change and then get out of the door straight away, a lot of the time they will drop off in sling/buggy. As they get older sleep will get easier and your baby will need less input from you to doze off.

I used to go out a lot when DS was small, as I went stir crazy being in the house on my own - like you say it seems to be just feeding or trying to get them to sleep. I didn't necessarily go to baby groups, more friends houses, met up in cafes with our babies on our laps etc.

Hope it gets better for you soon

hiya, thanks for your messages and the non throwing of stones Makes sense that she is getting too tired and having difficulty dropping off.

She has slept through on and off but sometimes still wakes for a feed. Last night she woke at 4.30 had a feed and we usually wake her at 7 ish to try and get some ongoing routine in the day but this morning i was so tired we slept until 845! She had a feed at 0900 and then i put her down for a nap at 1040 so she had been awake for nearly 2 hours, maybe thats too long awake, she sleeping soundly now but its just awful that she has to cry herself to sleep. If i try and stay with her or rock her she gets more upset......

PortAndLemon when you say late afternoon/ early evening, what approx. times is that? And then what time for bed?
Having similar issues with my 20week old.

I have started having DS in chair in bathroom so I can shower, and then I'm up and dressed for the day before we even go downstairs. Started doing this last Monday and we've been out for a walk every day.

xx

I remember my dd napping around 4.30/5/5.30pm for half an hour. She would be in bed for 7pm. It just stopped that horrible early evening tears and frustration stage if she had a wee nap.

Somewhere between 5 and 6.30, maybe? Bed is normally 7.30.

Oh and we had a bouncy chair for the bathroom as well and it worked brilliantly. I also made a real effort to shower and dress first thing so that i could get out for the day.

nowadays dd just rampages around the bathroom while I shower discovering boxes of tamapax and placing them in the shower tray shrieking with delight!

Thanks Rcowgirl, I think maybe im getting bit nap obsessed! I feel she HAS to sleep in her cot..... After the next feed, i think ill actually get out of the house and see if she will nap in the pram.

I supose as long as she naps it dosent matter where she does it!...... does it?? O god i used to be able to make decisons now my brain has gone to bloody mush.

My dp walks in through the door and im like, right lets talk about what happened with dd routine today (i have it all written down)

I guess im revealing too much lol (warned you i was being pfb)

Gotta go she has woken up, only 30 min nap oh dear...