Trying for That Third Nap (or early bedtime)

The first half of the day has been great lately.  Addie takes two naps but is awake by 1pm.  This is ideally the time that the second nap should be beginning-- not ending.  I suspect it's because of the nights not going so peacefully.  So we are on a new vicious cycle perhaps of a restful morning followed by an overtired evening followed by night wakeups that have nothing to do with hunger. 

At night we cosleep because it makes breastfeeding easier and I'm much more rested.  (We follow all the safety guidelines which make it safer than crib sleep, which is another bonus).  Nights aren't so much the problem as are evenings.  At night she rolls over toward me and we both fall back asleep as she nurses.  When she's done she rolls back over and I fall asleep on my back.  But during the early evening it takes a lot of rocking, patting and holding to get her to sleep.  Sometimes holds her for hours to get her through that wakefulness.  She always wakes crying and agitated.  Not hungry, just mad.  We used to think it was gas but her digestive system has matured enough that we now know that's not the cause.  Also, the first night of the new nap schedule, when she had that third nap, she went to bed happily and stayed alseep until she was hungry.  So we know it needs to change.

I will post tomorrow as to how things go. 

We are also trying to re-establish an afternoon nap for our toddler who has been having a restful video time since she gave up her afternoon nap.  We also moved her bedtime up which helped a lot but I suspect she could use actual sleep in the afternoon and want to try to give more of a chance to have that.  That will be Jeff's job.  Good luck, honey!