ok, did a 4.5 hour A time, he went to sleep fine, woke up at 1 hour 20mins, i went in there and started patting him, he immediately started to fall back to sleep, this is a first in a long time, usually he wont go back to sleep if hes had more than an hour of sleep! so i figure ok, hes really tired if hes wanting to go back to sleep, so once hes calm i leave... he cries, i wait, he cries more, i go in and pat him again until his breathing is really light, i leave and he cries, i wait, go back in, pat him again, after a while i stop and watch him, after a minute or so he looks around for me and begins to get upset, so i go back to patting again, this time till hes asleep, i left the room 7mins ago and hes still not woken yet....
what the blinking heck is going on with him!! if i did WI/WO right then there was no way he wouldve gone back to sleep, however its getting ridiculous with me having to pat him again, he falls asleep ok but its these nightwakings/EW/ and short naps he needs me to assist him back to sleep, i thought i was done assisting him back to sleep, but im so desperate for him to get a decent nap in that i did it, how do i get out of this mess? GW doesnt work wiht him at all and I know he knows how to sleep without my help but hes basically refusing to do so now! Im getting really mad with it because I know he knows how to do it! this is supposed to be MY time while he is sleeping (as short as it is!) but instead i spend it trying to get him back to sleep!!!! i want to do WI/WO but it doesnt work wiht extending naps!!!!
what do i do?? should i just keep doing it? surely its not ok to be patting him at this age??
update - i got 3 more mins out of him so i just got him up... ugh! hes in a fantastic mood, kissing me and Daddy all over the show