Hi everyone! First of all, I’ve been reading this forum for some time and there are really good tips in here, thanks everyone for your wisdom!!!
I need to address a variety of problems with my 4 month old. We’re dealing with some but I don’t know in which order I should do it!
My son is a short napper. His naps go from 30 min to 45 min, sometimes wake to sleep works (not lately), and very occasionally he sleeps longer naps (1.5-2h). Sometimes he wakes up happy, when he doesn’t we try shush pat but he usually doesn’t go back to sleep. We’re doing the EASY and his awake time is around 90-100min, that means I always end up feeding him every 2-2.5 hours and I’m pretty sure he’s got into the habit of snacking. We’ve been rocking him to sleep for naps and we want to eliminate that (he’s getting heavy and my back is killing me!!), so we’ve tried the 4S (kind of) combined with shush pat. This is what we do: I start by reading a board book (the same one all the time), start singing a lullaby, put him in his sleeping sack because he’s too old to be swaddled (here’s when he starts to realise he’s going to sleep and starts complaining or crying), pull down the blinds, sit on the edge of the bed and start bouncing until he gets quiet, when he does I sit there still but he usually complains again so I have to bounce until he’s really sleepy. Then, I put him in the crib, usually eyes closed, sometimes he opens them a little bit but goes to sleep. Sometimes he wakes up completely and I do the shush pat or grab him from his bottom and shake him a bit (this has worked better than the shush pat lately). Sometimes that doesn’t work without the pacifier. And sometimes he gets so mad I have to pick him up and start all over again, but he usually falls asleep as soon as I pick him up and start bouncing. I would like to eliminate the bouncing but just sitting makes him really mad!
Apart from that, he wakes up several times during the night, usually 3-4 feedings (sometimes including dreamfeed) and a couple times more when we have to rock him to sleep (many times it’s due to gas).
Bedtime routine: diaper change, same board book, put him in his sack, pray, breast, hold him for 20min (he has silent reflux, so I have to do this after every night feeding). Sometimes the breast doesn’t put him to sleep and I have to rock him afterwards.
Twice a week we give him a bath before the routine.
My questions are:
Am I doing it OK?
Is he going to be able to sleep on his own eventually without modifying this method? (apart from the breast at night, I’m OK with that but I would like to know if it hinders his ability to go to sleep by himself in other moments)
How can I avoid snacking with such short naps? Should I keep trying to extend his naps?
He’s 4 months and 1 week and I read that between 4m-5.5m is more difficult to sleep train, is that true?
Here’s our EASY, it’s approximate because it all depends on how long he naps, so at the end of the day it may vary up to an hour. It’s been a bit messed up since daylight savings but I’m trying to go back to it.
Wake up 8:15
E 8:30
A 8:15-10:00
S 10:00-10:40
E 11:00
A 10:40-12:20
S 12:20-1:00
E1:15
A 1:00-2:30
S 2:30-3:10
E 3:30
A 3:10-4:45
S 4:45-5:20
By this time it’s when it starts to vary the most, because if it’s late I don’t want him to nap so he usually gets overtired and I feed him sooner, and sometimes he naps and I feed him later:
E 6:00
A 5:20-7:00
Start bedtime routine, asleep sometimes at 7:30, 8, 8:30
Any input or advice will be appreciated!!!