Sleeping pattern at 16 weeks

Hi everyone,

Ds has a hard time falling asleep, especially in the evening.

At the moment his sleeping pattern is more or less as follows:

Wakes up at 8
Sleeps for an 1/2 hour to 1 hour around 10
Sleeps for about 2 hours around 12-1
Sleeps for 1/2 hour around 5
Sleeps for 1 hour around 7 or 8
then won't go back to sleep (though yawning and rubbing his eyes) untill 10

Is this normal? He generally is very unsettled when tired. How can I help him relax? Sometimes it helps walking with him in an upright position, or rocking him to sleep in the pram. How do I help him relax/ settle himself? Or is this just a phase and will it pass? He's never been a great sleeper, only slept for 6 hours at a time maybe 8 times since birth.

Thanks a lot!

Hi Madelon, it sounds like your DS may be overtired? Have you tried putting him down for the night at 7 - 8pm instead of just giving him a 4th nap? He probably only needs 3 naps a day at his age instead of 4. My DS (he's 6 1/2 months) usually has two shortish naps and one long nap per day and then goes down for the night between 7 - 7:30pm.

Overtired babies tend to be very unsettled, especially towards the end of the day and they then struggle to get to sleep and stay asleep. Doesn't make sense does it?!

Anyway, that's just a suggestion! Hope it kind of helps :)

thanks trish,
i try to put him down as soon as he's showing signs of tiredness, but that won't do the trick really.
take his toys away etc, give him a dummy etc.
just read a tip to put a cloth over his eyes to calm him down so might give that a try too.
don't mind him hardly sleeping during the day, but the unsettled nights are really getting to me!

I'm definately no expert here, but I'm inclined to agree with Trish, maybe cut out that 4th nap and make it bedtime instead? Give him a bath and a massage at about 6:30, then when he wakes up, feed him in a dark room and pat or cuddle him back to sleep?

I hear ya on the unsettled nights! My DS was pretty bad for a while there.

Your DS sounds like he is doing pretty well with his day naps anyway! I reckon if you put him to bed a little earlier at night (like I said above), he may sleep better for you throughout the night. For some strange reason babies can have really unsettled sleep when they are overtired. Why don't they just sleep deeply like the rest of us?!

I hope the cloth trick works, it is definitely worth a go!

Hi Madelon

i would try perhaps cutting out the 4th nap and then setting up a bet time routine so he knows when its time to have a good long sleep..

heres the routine i use that seems to work..

playtime
bath time
baby massage
feed time
cuddle time/quiet time
bed time
my ds seems to love this routine and sleeps through the night with no problems. and when he is a little older we will be adding story time between cuddle time and bed time

Sirenz, eating and sleeping are very linked too. Does he feed when he wakes up from that last nap? Maybe the trick is to add an extra feed in during the day. He might still need a dream feed, or he might wake for one, but maybe not. And even if he does, he might go straight back to sleep. How many feeds is he having now?