Falling asleep straight after a nap?

[TheRookieMum]

My 3mo contact naps in the evenings, but he wakes up and screams and the only thing that works to console him is breastfeeding during which he always falls back asleep. I'm convinced he doesn't need the milk as he falls asleep again within about 2-3 minutes. It's like he needs 2 naps in a row, which is now making bedtime very late.

Is this normal?
Will this become 1 longer nap eventually?
Should we be keeping him awake for a while...?
Can I help him not wake up, or at least not wake up so miserable?

We've tried a cot nap as an alternative but it results in no sleep and a super grumpy baby.

TIA for any suggestions.

There is often no clear pattern to naps still at that age and it’s very common for bedtime to be much later than for older baby toddlers. I think my DS would probably not settle for the night until 9pm/10pm at that age. We just held him and snuggled most evenings. He’d feed and dose and wake and play all evening really.

By 6 months he had 3 clear naps and a 8pm bedtime - we didn’t do anything to create this, just followed his cues.

Some people swear by fixed feeding/sleep routines from day 1 and I’ve seen friends be successful in trying these. We found it wasn’t for us and decided to just go with the baby. See what fits with you and your family.

Thanks @Amammai, we are just going with his wants and wishes, but he wakes up to play at 10pm just when we want to go to bed! I'm knackered!!

So so normal.

My 4 month old does this.

I have a current bedtime of 11.30pm 🙂

But we bedshare and is latched on for pretty much the whole night so I get a 5-7hr stretch depending on how often she wakes up for nappy change/burping.

If you wake baby without feeding, does he play or is he grumpy?

@Lalalandddd, he's very, very grumpy without being put straight to the boob in the evenings! The rest of the day, he can happily wake and play for 30 minutes before asking for food. I do wonder if he's still cluster feeding (every night) / stocking up for the night so I just let him do whatever he needs.

I'm glad you've also got a later bedtime. I so look forward to my DS going down even just a little earlier than his current midnight ish bedtime!