Can you help me....

The beginning part of our day up until 3ish is pretty darn good. We almost do the same things everyday (schedule wise).

However, after 3 things are pretty hard to figure out the eating, sleeping, bedtime. Can anyone help suggest some changes?

Here is what we currently do (of course give or take a half an hour on much of things...)

6:30 Wake
6:45 Bottle
8 Nap
945 wake
10 Bottle
11 Nap
1245 Wake
1 Bottle
2 Nap
315 Wake
4 Bottle

Here is where it gets crazy...

The girls will NOT go back down after they eat. We try and lay them in their crib and at first they just lay there playing and kicking (which is fine with me) but then they start crying because they are not tired. The hard part is the earlier part of the day they go down SO easy. In fact almost hate being rocked and would rather be in their crib to fall asleep, with out crying.
However, with a 615 bedtime that means they have been awake for 3 hours. By the time bath, pjs and finally bottle they can barely hold their eyes open and thus do not eat very much and are way overtired.

1. Could it be that unlike the earlier part of the day where they are going down after 1 hour of being up that they can stay up 2 hours and go down for a nap around 5:15 instead of trying to get them to make it to 6 for a bedtime?

If so, Should I wake them at 6/615 to do a bath routine and bottle around 7 and then bedtime (which seems a little weird to "wake" for bedtime...).
Or do you think maybe they will just take a little catnap and not need to be waken and wake anyway?

2. Should I feed at 330 (instead of 4) and try and make the bedtime earlier than 615? That seems a little too early!
3. Should I try harder to help them take a nap after the 4 bottle? (But again, my girls usually show pretty good tired signs and they are just laying there and not tired!)



Also just want to add that I know "scheduling" doesn't really start until 4 months but our day is almost the same day anyway (their doing NOT mine). If I could just figure out the afternnon/bedtime things would be perfect!


I hope all of that made sense!

 

I used my swings for that last afternoon nap. They were just so tough at that time. I had a real hard time at that age but it did get better right away. Have you read HSHHC? I read it again at that age and it helped alot. Good luck!

 

Yep I have. I really like what he has to say (even though its really hard to follow).

I guess thats why I question the 3 hour wake...I know babies should not be awake more than 2 hours but I can't figure out how to get them back down and get the last bottle in.

Also, wanted to add a couple of days ago Ava STTN for 3 days but has started to wake again, which HSHHC says putting your child down 15 minutes earlier (how 15 minutes can change a WHOLE night beats me!) should stop that. HOW!

 

At 4 months, I moved to an every 4 hour schedule. My beebs hated it for a few days but within a week they were great on it. We had bottles at 8, 12,4,8. After their bottles, they would have awake time then nap time. Maybe you want to try to spread it out a little? I read another post where your babies are playing with their bottles...maybe they aren't really super hungry yet?

 

Ugh 3-4mo was SO tough for me! My girls fought naps and bedtimes. I think that is when I ended up dropping their 4th nap and moving bedtime up super early, like 530-6.

 

At 4 months the only thing we were starting to get on track with was our morning nap about 1.5 hours after waking in the morning. I was trying to keep them on every 3 hour feeding schedule but most days that was not working. Other than that they just slept whenever and whereever at that age.

 

At 4 months I was still in survival mode and those late afternoons were killer. This was last summer and my college-age sister was around and needed some extra $$. I paid her to come hang with the girls and me every afternoon just to have an extra set of hands around. I wish I could offer some advice. Like pp's said, swings were our savoir too. Or a late afternoon walk in the stroller? GL and hang in there... it does get better.

 

I am struggling with this myself! As my little ones sometimes take a late afternoon nap, and sometimes dont. But, when they miss that nap, one thing I have done is move up bathtime to around 5-530pm, that way I can be ready to feed them and put them to bed earlier if they start to get fussy earlier, however sometimes they can stay awake for 2-3hrs during that time. Which is strange because the rest of the day they can barely make it to 60min of wake time. For that late afternoon nap when they do take it, I either put them in swings for it, or i let them fuss/cry for 15min and see if they go to sleep, if they don't then I will keep them up until bathtime (which I do earlier on those days).
Hope that makes sense.

 

Our schedule changes day to day. I try to keep them up for 2 hours at a time/eat every 3 -3:15. For the most part I try to have them awake by 5pm since we usually put them down between 6:45-7. There have been times where naps just haven't worked out that way and by 6:30 they would have already been up 3 hours - in those cases I have sometimes let them just have a cat nap of 15-20 minutes to help make it to bedtime.

 

It looks like they may be ready for solids if they are doing this everyday.

My little ones did the SAME thing. And I went to the doctor and they started sharing a canister of veggies and fruits.

If you go to target get some Earth's best... (it's 4 months and up)

The first night my kids went on solids they slept through the night. and stopped fussing so much in early evening. (they eat the solids at 6pm)

 

We're actually struggling with a similar issue. I just keep them up until they start looking sleepy, then put them down for a nap even if it's 5-5:30. I don't wake them. Usually they wake on their own within 30-60 min, we play, eat, do solids and I try to get them back in bed by 7-7:30. Seems to work well. Other days they don't act tired and I'll just let them stay up and then put them to bed on the early side around 6:30.

 

QUOTE(vivalalexa @ Jun 8 2008, 08:18 AM) [snapback]816232[/snapback]
It looks like they may be ready for solids if they are doing this everyday.

My little ones did the SAME thing. And I went to the doctor and they started sharing a canister of veggies and fruits.

If you go to target get some Earth's best... (it's 4 months and up)

The first night my kids went on solids they slept through the night. and stopped fussing so much in early evening. (they eat the solids at 6pm)



Oh also. This is what I do....
My DS usually complains for solids around 6PM. He gets them anytime between 6PM and 6:45PM, as long as I can hold him off I try. Sometimes I give up the fight pretty quickly though. But I walk around the house with him, entertain him with toys but once he cries I feed him.
So I feed him and then he is bathed by 7PM, he gets put in the swing or on the floor with toys. I feed DD and have her bathed by 7:30PM. I put DD on the floor or in the swing and offer DS 8 oz of formula. Sometimes he eats it all, sometimes he will only eat 4 oz. And he is out by 8:15PM. Then I feed my DD cause I know she likes to stay up later...

They then sleep until morning. They wake up anytime between 6:30AM-8:00AM.

I have never attempted a schedule with my little ones because I think it is just frustrating for all 3 of us. I am totally content with them not sleeping at the same time everyday or at the same time together. I think all of it works itself out in the end, ya know?
My babies wake up and eat and then play and then the sleep when they get tired. If I see rubbing of eyes and yawning and I might pat their butts to sleep or put one in the swing.

Maybe your babies aren't ready for a schedule, either?? And that's why they get fussy. I don't know but I would def ask the pedi about solids!

 

I would try this:

Move the 1pm bottle back just a bit to say 1:30. Leave their 2 to 315 nap. Let them have play time til 4 or so. Then go for a walk (this is what I had to do at that age to get them to nap at that time of day). Walk til 4:45 or 5pm. Then last bottle at 5 or 5:30. Bed time at 6pm.

This is what we did for months. Now, we no longer need to use the stroller to get them to nap at that time of day. But it is the hardest nap for them to take.

Good luck!

 

For us that last nap before bed was hit or miss. Either they didn't take it and were miserable or did take it and then were up until 10pm. It didn't get better until around 6 months when we finally dropped that late nap. We started taking them for a walk in the stroller and from there they started holding out more and more. I am sorry it is not the answer you seek just wanted to weigh in.

ETA-We could never get ours to go to bed that early-that seems to be the norm for most between 6-7 pm for bedtime but our babies go to bed between 8-8:30 and do sooo much better

 

Thanks for all of your suggestions/experience. I feel much better knowing others have "hit or miss" days.

Right now this is the "routine" we are seeing...

645 wake/eat
815-1030 (sometimes 11) nap
1045/11 eat
1215 nap
2 eat
315-415 nap
4-530 afternoon walk on the beach
545 bath, pjs bed
615 bed

They changed to a 4.3.4 hour schedule and dropped down to 3 naps.

Of course ask me tomorrow and it will be totally different

 

I try to get my girls to take 2 hour naps and have them awake for a couple cours between those naps until 3pm, then they are awake until bedtime at 7pm at six they are getting sleepy somedays they are so sleepy they do not eat as much after their bath right before bed, but make up for it at the next feeding. Do you wake them, maybe one of the naps needs to be a bit longer to get them to stay awake for that last stretch.

 

My schedule is very similar to yours give or take and I find evenings are always hectic...they wake from their last nap around 4ish and bedtime routine starts around 7:30ish so by then they are not happy campers. Just last night they were both really fussy at about 6pm so I put them in their swings so we could eat dinner and let them fuss and as soon as I knew it they were sound asleep. Ryder woke on his own at about 6:45 and I woke Reese up at 7. We played for about a half hour and then started bath and bottles and they went right to sleep...I guess they could use the little cat nap and I have to admit it was nice to have a break from the fussing for a little while.
I dont know if this helps but this is how it goes at my house...and starting today we will attempt the evening catnap.
Good luck!

 

we ditched that third nap and now bedtime (around 6:30)is SO much easier and better.

The only time we do a third nap now is if Roman wakes from second nap before 2 pm (less than one hour of sleep time). Then he takes a third nap. Joel never needs a third nap.