bedtime habits & reclaiming dinnertime

[mustardtomango]

Hi, wondering if anyone has any guidance...

Ds is 8 months, he bf to sleep and goes in the cot in his nursery during the day and we co sleep at night. In the evening he has a normal bedtime routine (dinner, bath, stories), then bf to sleep, except he only sleeps very lightly, too lightly to lay down successfully, and about 30-45 mins in will always wake himself and then my husband comes and takes over, rocking till he's off again. He maybe gets him in the cot after a while for 15-20 mins, but then he wakes again & by then it's 9 Ish and we bring him into our bed where he might feed briefly and is then out like a light.

So - how do we get him to have more restful sleep in the first part of the evening? I'd like to spend a little time with dh sometime!

Is he tired enough at bedtime? When is his last nap for the day?

His last nap is around 3, for perhaps 45 minutes and we start bedtime at 6. He normally is awake for 3 hour stints now, and we try to wait for eye rubs / yawns as if we try before he just pushes back

I'd bring nap time forward to he's up by 2.30-3 latest. my DD always needed 5 hours between last nap and bedtime. Otherwise we'd struggle for several hours to get her to sleep. Getting out every afternoon into the fresh air also seemed to help. We also used baby massage and acupressure to help her wind down at the end of the day - was very good if she was too wired - and helped her fall into a deeper sleep and stay asleep - here's my blog post on it if you're interested -
mydaughterwontsleep.com/2013/12/27/the-sleep-inducing-power-of-acupressure/ mydaughterwontsleep.com/2014/01/08/the-power-of-a-mothers-touch/
Good luck!

Thanks for your message, ds gets so upset if he's up past 3.5 hours though, he just becomes miserable. Maybe I should try counting how long he's asleep over 24 hours though

they can often last longer at the last stretch of the day though. my dd can go 2.5-3 hours earlier in the day but manage 2.30-7bed if she's had enough sleep by 2.30.

Ok so maybe it's a case of forward loading the naps. Next time he gets a couple of good ones in will watch - we tend to go by him rather than clock watching but you never know

How long are his other naps and at what times? If you can make his middle of the day nap longer (perhaps by making it a bit later so he is more tired?) then he may be more able to drop that 3pm nap.

the classic pattern at c 8 months would be short morning nap and long post lunchtime nap, then no nap till bedtime.

Interesting... He has a long first nap (8ish), medium lunch one (noon Ish) and short afternoon nap (4 Ish). Yesterday we pushed that last one till bedtime (6), worked pretty well though he woke with noise and then was up again. Reckon it could work though.

Not sure I could see the reverse working, ie shorter getting longer throughout the day

Ah fine, well plenty do the reverse ie long morning nap and shorter post lunch one - just means they may take longer to be able to drop that third nap and/or may be more tired by bedtime when they do.

Thanks minipie, any advice is appreciated x