My almost 12 week old has had trouble with napping since his refulx started disrupting his naps at about 5 weeks old. I didn't know about the EASY routine before that, but instituted it soon after. Only very generally, because I had not read the book. I was just going off of what someone had told me. ANYWAy. T (my son) started to get into the routine once we got him some medicine, and he did real well for a while. He even started putting himself to sleep in his crib. But his naps were always inconsistant (30 mins, here 45 mins there, and sometimes a two hour nap - those are awesome). So here we are again though. He has had diarrhea for almost four weeks now. The Dr thinks it's related to food alergies and we are now starting on formula. He is easily upset and goes through screaming fits because of it.
Saying all that. Last week I tried instituting the four S's bedtime routine. I think we had some sort of a routine - but I might have thought it wasn't working because he wasn't sleeping very long and/or we were totally off schedule (I think due to this whole food alergy thing). Well it seems like things have gotten worse. I have been trying so hard to read and see his sleepy clues (starring off at nothing, sucking/licking his hands and fussiness). Once I see them I immediately start the four S's. THe problem now is that as soon as I get to the saddling he stars crying and I can't get him calmed down. The Sitting "S" can't be done sitting - he screams through that and never mind putting him down he screams through that. At this point we are only sparatically doing the Shhh-Pat because he screams so hard sometimes we don't know how to calm him down - we try many various things. I'm afriad that I have done something to make him think that nap time is actually screaming/upset time and that is takes a good scream to get to bed. I don't know how to reverse this. My family keeps telling me that he's probably doing this because he isn't feeling well from his Diarrhea, but I'm not convinced. It either that I conditioned him to do this as part of the routine OR I am putting him to bed too late. But like others - it seems because of his short naps - he's tired soon again just after eating (within 5 -10 mintes after eating). This keeps us from doing ANYTHING but sleep and eat and SOMETIMES getting some play time in.
So we just had an after noon of screaming. He had woke up at 11:15 from his 2nd 45 minute nap of the day and I couldn't get him back to sleep until 3:00 - it's now 5:00 and his 5:15 (or so) feeding should start soon - I guess i should wake him for it. I'm afraid he won't have enough sleep and he'll be difficult to get back to sleep.
Is the wake to sleep method ok to use on babies under four months of age?
What can I do to make him not hate the four S routine?
It seems like it's worse at each sleep time. I try so hard to read his sleepy cues.
I'm glad I'm not alone here with the short naps and short wake times.
Thanks for the support and suggestions if you have any!
KTH