Catnapping during the day

[middlecm]

Hi
My 4 month old son is continually catnapping during the day. Will only sleep for about 40minutes at a time and then is up again for 2 hours. The problem is that by the end of the day he is way tired. Any ideas on how to get him more settled during the day. At the moment he has no daytime routine (not through the lack of trying though) and his day sleeps and feeds are all over the place.

A little history
He is baby number 2
Had colic for the first 12 weeks (OMG what a shock to get bub 2 with colic)
Breast refused at 8 weeks and was bottle feed EBM until put onto formula at 14 weeks.
Surprisingly has always been a great night sleeper and settler.

Ive tried using Tizzy Halls routines but he just wants to do his own thing. All this with his 20month old brother running around as well (note: with his brother I followed the Contented Little Baby routines and never had a sleep problem with him)

Any suggestions would be great. Really didnt think number 2 bub would be so so so hard.

Christine
Callum (20mths) and Aaron (4 mths)

[annb]

Personally I would just keep perservering with the TIzzy Hall routine, I used it and loved it, but had a catnapper as well, just took a bit of perserverance to keep resettling if he ony did the short nap, I think it took me about 2-3 weeks till he finally started taking longer naps and eventually it worked!!! and we havent had a problem since and he is now 17mths old, I ended up after solids starting on the Gina Ford routines a little bit as well
I just love routines!!!

[middlecm]

Thanks annb

The biggest problem I have with him is if I let him get just a little bit overtied he will scream the house down. So if I put him down at 9am (he wakes at 9.40am) there is no way Im going to be able to keep him awake until 1.00pm!!!! (Tizzy Hall's routine) He very quickly reverts back to the colicy baby if overtied.

So Ive become paranoid about him becoming overtied. This baby doesnt give me any tied signs, just goes from OK to overtied-screaming in a blink of an eye. This is the reason Im so desperate to get him on a routine as now Ive got to consider what is best for the family unit.

I'll keep trying with the Tizzy routines as I didnt realise that it could take 2-3 weeks to established. All the stories in the book had routines established in 1 day!!!.

Why dont children come with manuals????

Christine

[annb]

could you keep him up till 9.30am do you think or would he be too overtired by then? then he might sleep till 10.30 and then 1pm isnt that far away. Or work using the basis of the routine but give yourself half an hour leeway each scheduled nap time just until the routine is more established

also have a look on the www.thebabywhisperer.com website there are heaps of routine tips on there

[Aras Mum]

I would never touch Tizzy Hall. What a horrible terrible book to of written. I did try this detachment parenting thing before I knew better. My poor poor baby would scream for anything up to 2 hours then sleep for 10mins. I did this for a month before I came to realise the dammage I was doing to my baby and to my family.
If you need a baby manual I suggest askdrsears.com there is lots of good advice you can try in there. Take and leave what you like. But after two months our baby wakes up once now after she used to wake up every 45mins. She sleeps with us...and is a wonderful angel.

[Kez06]

Did you know that 40minutes is a baby sleep pattern. My DD was the same only catnapping during the day then up for hours and at the end of the day shes a kranky pain in the ***.
What i did was when she woke up i resettled straight away...not always successfull but now getting better. My DD has never been a good night sleeper atleast he sleeps of a night, mydd 6months old and the best she has done of a nighttime is 4hours.Tizzy Hall??? whats that never heard of it.