Thanks again Layla for taking the time to reply and help me, 3 girls is just so much work plus school holidays and then to jump on here to help me! Just know I'm so grateful and really feel a lot better having someone supporting me thru this xoxox
I got dh to read what you wrote coz he has been telling me for ages to set a nap time but I didn't listen to him coz I wanted to let DS sleep as he needed hehe but I will start tomorrow! Hehe but what happens if he wakes earlier as he sometimes does at 5-5:30?
We went to sleep school mid aug (that's when I came home and started ssh patting) their techniques is either go in rock/shh pat/ once calm go out, or go in ssh pat once nearly asleep go out and in no case help them to actually sleep. Well, they said to us that we just need to shh pat til he is asleep coz there was no other way as he goes berserk and would munch on his hands and kick his feet and this would continue for the whole night from bedtime to wakeup, so back came the swaddle and then back came a night feed (i thought sleep school was meant to help you wean, not reintroduce) lol hence I came home and ssh pat DS to sleep and have been doing so ever since and have now replaced rocking with ssh patting! And now have an extra feed which I have to get rid of coz of his weight (that's another story, but I only feed him once)
Here is what I do, low key activities then my windown is just holding him in his bedroom while its dark for about a min as any longer he would start trying to play then I would rock him a tiny bit usu I would watch his eyes and see how drowsy he is and use that to judge how ready he was for sleep. Then I would put him in the cot kiss him goodnight and leave, he would cry and scream, usu if that happens I could go in and usu it would be easy to shh pat him to sleep, but if he is calm then there is no way of doing so, he would just lie there for what feels like forever on and off mantra scream babble play with dummy roll rotate etc
So, with your suggestion, I have a few questions, say he wakes at 6:30 and due for a nap at 9, and knowing he would just cry on and off for a long time, do I put him down at say 8:30 so he could maybe settle by the time his window rolls around? How long do I try for and how would I go about his next nap in regards to A time (assuming he doesn't sleep).
Thx!