DS is 4 months old, breastfed and co-sleeps in a sidecar cot in our bedroom.
I cannot figure out what to do with him between about 3pm and 10pm. He doesn't want to sleep, play or be cuddled.
If I put him down for a nap after 3pm it takes hour(s) of cuddling/shushing/patting/feeding for him to drop off. He then wakes up full of energy 5 minutes later. So of course he starts looking tired again and the cycle repeats until about 10pm, when he falls asleep properly.
I have tried: putting him down for a nap early (basically wake up, feed, change, back to bed); putting him down later; blackout curtains; white noise; a comforter; putting him in a sling (sometimes he will take a catnap, sometimes not); leaving him to chill out in his cot (he screams); a short naptime routine; a longer bedtime routine (although I don't really know when to start this as 7pm is clearly not his idea of bedtime). I have also tried just letting him hang out downstairs with us during the evening, but he is clearly exhausted and just flails and shouts.
He usually sleeps 10pm-7am waking up briefly to feed 2 or 3 times. He takes proper naps at around 8-10am, 11am-12pm and 1-2pm.
Every evening seems like a constant battle and I can't find the time to do anything. I'm kind of new to proper naps so I'm not even sure what I can reasonably expect of an EBF 4 month old.