Am I doing it right?

[1NuDad]

Morning!

Our boy is 14 weeks old.

We've recently changed to putting him to sleep at 7:30/8ish and trying to get four naps a day (morning easy, afternoon hard!).

I have two issues:

1. He is waking up three/four times a night. He's in his cot now. His first night in it, a week ago, he slept through for six hours. But ever since he wakes at 12, 3 and 5. Are we putting him to bed too early? Is he napping too much in the day? (Apart three hours in total).

2. He is waking up very early. He's started waking at 6:15ish. He doesn't cry. He just shouts from his cot, which makes us feel guilty so I immediately get him and play with him downstairs until I have to get ready for work at 7. My partner tries to get her extra sleep before taking over at 7. Luckily, as I say, he naps well and will go down at 7:45 again for his first (and my partner's first!) nap of the day.
   My questions are; should we just try and let him go back to sleep that early? Am I doing the right thing by playing with him? He is very smiley and energetic at this time!

Thanks in advance!

You could either wait it out and see if he drops one of those naps by himself or intervene and get a new routine going. He's obviously still very tired if he's falling asleep that soon after waking up. Is he having his breakfast when up with you?

His bedtime sounds fine to me, I think the issue is the amount of nap time he's getting throughout the day. I would try shorten the naps or you could try to gradually cut the naps to twice then later once a day if you can. He will probably resist for a while, If he does fall asleep wake him after 20/30 mins or so, plan some fun activities for when you want to keep him awake. It might work, It will result in crankiness the first few times. You just have to get him used to a new routine basically. Of course every child is different so I don't know if yours will take to it but I've had a similar issue in the past and that's what I did.

At this age their sleep changes constantly. My LO is 20 weeks and wakes in a similar pattern for feeds in the night. It’s healthy and normal at this stage.

A while back she did a couple of long stretches, 5-7 hrs and I thought great, we’re getting close to sleeping through. Then leaps and sleep regressions hit and I think we’re still a long way off sleeping through. I’m actually grateful that for the last couple of nights she’s woken 3 times, not 6!

His naps seem fine and if he’s happy then it looks like he’s getting enough sleep. If he gets overtired he can be even harder to settle and might end up going to bed even earlier.

Once LO is awake and fed that’s it, she wants to be played with and won’t settle! You could try putting his bedtime back gradually if it’s proving tiring to get up that early.