HELP!

my LO's used to take a nice, long nap at 2.
now they don't eat until 4 and are having a very difficult time falling asleep. i rock them, sway, the whole nine and they cant sleep. one LO is so incredibly fussy from 2:00 on for the rest of the day.

i don't know if i can do this new schedule anymore!!! here was today:

8 – 6.5 oz – 5 icecubes of pears

10 – 10:50 nap – baby b
10 – 11:20 nap – baby a

11:50 - 7 oz bottle

1:00 – 1:50 nap – baby a
1:00 – 2:20 – baby b

2:20 – fruit (2 jars!)

4:00 – 7 oz bottle
(it was here they began to fall asleep while eating but i couldn't actually GET them asleep!!!!)

44:5 – 5:15 - nap

5:00 - solids

 

I still feed them a bottle right before they nap, and snuggle and rock them to sleep, maybe, you could try that as they need a nice full tummy to settle for a good sleep?

 

The naps actually seem really pretty good-mine don't nap more than that. Also don't u still do an 8pm bottle?

 

At 8 months mine were taking two naps a day. How do your kids sleep at night, are they sleeping thru yet? What time do they go to bed?

 

At 8 months mine were on at least 5 bottles a day still at that point. We fed them on demand. They always got a bottle before their nap.

 

Mine transitioned from 3 to 2 naps around 9 months old, so maybe yours are starting to make that transition. Also, I was never able to go more than 3 hours between feedings for the entire first year and I did solids about an hour after bottles. So they were still getting 5 bottles per day, plus 2 meals. I started the 3rd meal at 9 months.

 

This was our schedule at 9 months. I looked for my 8 month and couldn't find it.

 

yes they still get that 8 pm bottle.

i am not sure; they have just been SO fussy and i am not sure why!
i am not sure if it's because they are still hungry or what!

at 2 they took that long nap and i fed them a bottle at 2. now they eat one at noon and at 4. i think thats my problem. they are looking for that bottle to fall asleep maybe?? i tried solids at 2 yesterday and it didn't do the trick. they napped at 4ish instead and then were still fussy when they woke up.

 

When are they up for the day? That first nap time seems really late depending on when they get up. And that nap sets them up for the day. Just a thought. At 8 mos we were still doing a nap no later than 2 hours after wake up. We had went from 3 naps to 2 (our 4 pm disappeared.) Also, you may need to start to adjust bedtime to earlier...so you entire day may shift. But you are saying fussy from 2 pm on and that to me sounds like overtiredness by an 8 pm bottle? Especially since they used to nap at 4 pm and now don't. Have you considered started to shift your bedtime down or are you able to do that in your family's schedule. Just a thought - I know you are focusing on bottles/food but I would start taking a look at sleep patterns...seems to drive everything. Just my opinion of course. Good luck.

Just to share...I just started a new schedule a few days ago and it is really working. Mine are a little older but I went through 6 weeks of chaos and I think I was literally misreading their signs. They only thing I did recently was merge 2 extra feedings into bigger bottles. They don't always finish - we get 21-22 oz a day usually total.

6:30 am wake-up and 6 oz bottle
7:30 am solids breakfast
8:30 am nap #1 (this has went from 45 mins to 2-2.5 hours since switching to earlier put down)
11:30 am 6 oz bottle
12:30 pm solids lunch
1:30 pm nap #2 (usually 1 hour - 90 mins)
3:30 pm 6 oz bottle
4:15 pm snack (usually cheerios)
5:15 pm solids dinner
6:00 pm bath, read, and 6 oz bottle
6:30 pm lay them down and they are usually asleep in 5 mins

**If I get them to bed later, say by 7 pm, they are up at 5-5:30 am. If I get them to bed on time by 6:30 latest, they sleep 12 hours. I find Weissbluth in HSHHC to be right on. Again, I know you are going crazy with this...just offering a different focus to see if it helps with the fussiness and feeding. It can be so frustrating.

 

Are they still getting a bottle when they first wake up as well? My two were on 4 bottles a day at that age & beginning to transition to 2 naps. They always had a bottle right before their nap & would get really sleepy while drinking it, then I would put them down.

 

they wake up around 7:45 - 8:00
then eat right away. they always nap 2 hours after waking up.