Now that my son cries every time I pat him (even for burps) and my hand/wrist/forearm are sore from patting for almost 3 days straight I'm at a loss...
He turned 10 weeks the day we started ( we started with bed time because I thought that would be easier). The next 3 days after have been a nightmare. He used to sleep 7pm-8am and nap about 5 hours a day (but nursing to sleep which we wanted to break) and now it's down to 6:30pm-5 am and MAYBE 2.5 hours of naps.
Here's how today went:
Wake 5 am
E 5-520 let him try to fall back asleep on his own but ended up crying after about 15 mins then tried shush/pat until 630 and gave up
A 630-730
S Shh/pat until 820 (he got 30 mins of sleep in this time)
A 820-920
E 920-940
S Shh/pat (slept 955-1040)
A 1040-1120
S Shh/pat (slept 1135-1210)
E 1210-1230
A 1230-1300
S Shh/pat (slept 1310-1333) Tried again at 1400, gave up at 1420
A 1420-1500
S Shh/pat (slept 1520-1555)
E 1630
S Shh/pat 1645 (sleep 1710.....it's not 1900 and he has not woken up. I chose not to wake him because I felt so bad that he has gotten little to no sleep the past few days. Normally I do his cat nap as a walk with him in the carrier. Then he baths around 6, eats 610-630 and off to sleep.
As you can see our day is all over the place because I can't get him to nap. I'd also like him to sleep until 7am at least.
He cries every time I lay him down for a nap and sometimes cries REALLY hard when I do shh/pat. Sometimes I have to pick up a few times to calm him before setting him back down and trying again. He takes anywhere from 10-40 minutes to close his eyes then I often have to continue shh/pat until he wakes up. I've experimented today with tapering it off earlier and he usually fusses then I start up again. I've also had no luck lengthening his naps with shh/pat. Sometimes the 30 or 40 minute naps have been lengthened with shh/pat to get to the 30/40 min mark:(
Our wind down routine is: diaper change, lights out, noise machine on, hold him and sing Twinkle Little Star, lay him down to swaddle him (he usually starts crying at this point), tell him it's "night night time" with a kiss, put his stuffy in front of him, cover his bottom half and start shh/pat.