New with questions.

[sgpurple]

My LO is 10 wks.  I just read the BW book over the weekend and found this message board yesterday.  I've been doing some accidental parenting and I did not start like I meant to go on.  I'm ready to make some changes because I'm becoming so frustrated, exhausted and I'm sometiems finding it hard to enjoy my LO.  So, I'm looking for a little guidance as I get started.  Also, we're going out of town Fri-Sun to visit family for a high school reunion.  Is this a bad time to start?  Or, is any time a good time to start?  Up until yesterday afternoon my LO has been sleeping in his swing for naps (bad, I know!).  He has also only been sleeping for 45 min (I now know why!) and he's becoming so overtired.  I been able to get him to sleep with the sh/pat.  However, when he is overtired he cries I can't get him to settle down and I end up holding him in cradle and rocking him until he settles (I know, this is bad too).  Once he's settled I can lay him down and sh/pat.  But I know holding/rocking totally defeats the process, but what else do I do?  I guess I don't know what to do when he's screaming.  I know it could be because he's overstimulated, but it's more because he's overtired from taking such short naps.  I put up something over his window so that it's much darker in there.  I'm keeping his activity time 10 min before his nap very low key with dim lighting. 

Anyone have any suggestions?  I want to make this work, but it's so tempting to give up.  Thanks for your help!

[marensmama]

Hi and welcome to the BW community.  Nothing you have done is 'bad', just accidental.  Now you know better you can start to change those things.  Firstly though, I would wait until you're back from visiting to start sleep training because the key is consistency and you can't be consistent if you're not at home.  Holding and rocking is not bad to calm him down, it only becomes a problem if you are doing it to the point where he's fallen asleep.  You want him to be calm but awake (drowsy is fine) when you put him down and then if he needs you to pat/shh you can gradually do that less and less and he'll figure out how to soothe himself.

Don't give up, it may get harder before it gets better - when he's crying just try to think of it as him saying, "But Mommy, that's not how/where I fall asleep.  Help me through this!"  He'll be confused because you've taught him that he sleeps in his swing.  There is an EASY board to get hints on tweaking/establishing your routine and lots of good information all over the site.  Read all the FAQs and posts that have similar questions to yours before posting because your answers might be there already.  We're here to help in any way we can, so if you have further questions just ask away!