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Napping routine for five month old

4 replies

Winter07 · 14/06/2017 21:12

My dd is five months and I'm struggling to implement any kind of napping routine. She had previously been sleeping a good 11-12 hours through the night but more recently she has been waking earlier (with terrible wind which I think may be caused by teething). She tends to go back down for a 30 min nap, wakes up and then fights tiredness until her mid morning feed. She's out of sorts in general due to teething but getting her to nap is a real struggle and she becomes so over tired. She eventually crashes out on me after pacing/rocking. I've tried encouraging her to sleep in the cot upstairs (she's not yet in this on a night but planning to move her to her own room at 6 months so thought it would be good to get her used to sleeping here) but it takes an age for her to settle. Unless she's sleeping on me she has a very short nap and inevitability wakes - I try to settle her back down where she is (cot/buggy) but she won't go back off. I feel like she's recently regressed to a degree in that she needs to be constantly held and is spending lots of time in the sling. She spends all day fighting naps then falls asleep late afternoon for roughly three hours which is too near to bed time!! Part of the trouble is we have different activities on each day and it feels near impossible to establish a schedule that is flexible enough to allow us to go out! She appears to be too overstimulated to sleep on the buggy or sling when out. I just feel we're a bit all over the place at the moment and we're both crying out for some routine. Does any one have any hints and tips for trying to establish a not too rigid sleeping/feeding schedule? She currently has 4 feeds a day roughly 4 hours apart but the timing of these depends on her initial waking time. I'm not sure how many hours of awake time I should expect at this age? She previously went off to sleep at night very easily in her crib but that is also a challenge now. I'm wondering if I should be shifting her night time routine earlier or trying to settle her back to sleep when she wakes super early? I'm conscious of how to fit in her tea/mine and DH tea and a night time schedule once she is weaning for tea time meals. I feel I should try and get a grip on things now before weaning and moving to her own room are added in to the mix. Sorry for the rambled post, any advice would be much appreciated.

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FATEdestiny · 15/06/2017 13:21

I wouldn't go more than 2h awake time between naps, it might be 90 minutes. Getting baby to go to sleep is harder the more tired baby is. The optimum time to get baby to sleep is at the "just got tired" point - which will be before there are any outward tired signs. It's almost like predicting when baby needs a sleep. I'd generally work on 90 minute awake times if naps are still short (ie ususlly under 1h).

It is child dependant but an example would be:
7am wake and feed
8.30-9am nap
(9.30am breakfast - once weaning)
10.30-11am nap
11am milk feed
12.30-1pm nap
(1.30pm lunch - when weaning)
2.30-3pm nap
3pm milk feed
4.30-5pm nap
(5.30 family meal, when weaning)
7pm milk feed then bedtime.

It's all child dependant, maybe it will be:
7am wake feed
9am-10am nap
10am feed
1pm feed
1pm-3pm nap
4pm feed
4-5pm nap
8pm feed and bedtime

Or how about:
6am wake feed
8am - 9am nap
9am feed
11am-12pm nap
12pm feed
2pm-3pm nap
4pm feed
5pm-5.30pm nap
7.30pm feed and bedtime

Winter07 · 15/06/2017 13:26

That's really helpful, thanks so much. I do think she gets tired after about 1.5 hours each time but I though maybe I'm expecting too much sleep from her. We're having a quiet day at home today and I'm keeping a note of her cues and sleeping times. I'm going to continue for a week to try and establish a pattern. I'm trying to do a mix of in the nap cots where I stroke her hair and sit nearby and rocking in pram. It's working fairly well so far today, fingers crossed! I notice so far she wakes like clockwork after 45mins

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FartnissEverbeans · 15/06/2017 14:46

I found it depended on activity levels as well, so if DS had done something quite interesting, like meeting new people, his awake time would be shorter as he'd get tired out.

Winter07 · 15/06/2017 14:49

Yeah she definitely gets more tired after groups, meeting with friends etc. Its hard to find a balance between socialising and mixing and having quiet time at home!

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