feed, play sleep routine

[ShanJakson]

Hi I have a 15 week old son Jakson. He is breastfed. He is also a catnapper and I am trying to break the habbit. He was feeding every 2 hours and only sleeping 30-40mins at a time. I would try everything to resettle but to no avail. Anyway I have since spaced out his feeds to 3 hourly thank god, but he is still only sleeping 45mins at a time. I try for 30mins to resettle and then feed him. I have been following the feed,play, sleep routine since he was born and it has always worked really well. Now he is older should I be changing his routine to play,feed,play and then sleep? This would keep him up for longer periods and then sleep for longer? He sleep really well at night from about 9pm until 6am sometimes 7am which is lovely.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks
Shannon and Jakson

[Pandora]

Have you tried feed, play, feed sleep?
thats what I changed DS' to as he got older and was still breastfeeding.

Just remember not to space out his feeds too much if he is actually hungry, as this won't necessarily help him sleep.

[shellbell3]

My DD used to be a catnapper also, we really didn't get some sort of routine til 7 months. Our feed/ play/ sleep was everywhere, I just went with the flow. If she wanted a feed she got it and I put her down when she was tired. Her play times used to vary quite alot.
Also too keeping him up longer won't necessarilly make him sleep longer, if he gets too overtired he could be harder to settle.

[Snacks]

Hi Shannon, I know how frustrating a catnapping baby can be! Unfortunately what I have discovered is that you can't make a baby sleep longer - resettling can work for some people, it didn't work for us. TBH, we didn't really get into a routine (other than a loose feed, play, sleep routine) until only recently - say, a month and a half ago? Natalie is now happy to be awake for about two hours, then she wants a sleep. She has developed her own sleeping pattern which I am happy to follow.
It is totally your call, but in your position, I wouldn't feel pressured to change to a different pattern if Jakson isn't ready. Like, if you have people telling you Jakson 'should' be feeding 4-hourly by now and that doesn't sit right with you, ignore them!
For us, there is trouble if Natalie doesn't get a feed after her sleep! She is so used to that routine.
All the best with whatever you decide to do.

[Evie76]

Hi Shannon. I tried the strict feed/play/sleep thing, it worked for a while but Daniel put paid to it. It's now - (as shellbell3 says) go with the flow. Daniel is a cat napper and won't often sleep more than maybe 3 x 20 minute stints during the day.

However, he goes to bed (which he did about 10 minutes ago) and I probably won't hear from him again until 7am tomorrow morning. I've learnt that trying to "make" a baby do something is usually to no avail. Daniel will do whatever he wants, when he wants. I've stopped stressing about it (which I totally was - you should have seen me!! What a mess.....) and now we're both happy and relaxed.

I'm also willing to go the daily sleeps - see and play with my son most of the day - and have a really great sleep at night. However, if he even wakes up an hour too early in the morning - the day ain't pleasant - funny that. Some days are diamonds...........

I also feed him whenever he's hungry (which is just about every three hours), and he's happy with that.

Hope that helps.

[JoMarie]

Nicholas feeds 4 hourly and I keep him up for about 1 1/2 hours after each feed for a play. He is usually tired after about an hour, but if I keep him up that extra half hour, he seems to go past that first sleep cycle. If he wakes after 20 mins,and I can't resettle him, I get him up again for about 1/2 an hour, then try again.