Just started my sleep training and I want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong before I cause a problem
Doing the EASY method and LO is almost 4m old but seems to be happy on the 3h schedule at the moment. Main issue seems to be going back to sleep after he wakes from his nap....I've spent from 30min-1h doing pu/pd or just trying to shush/pat and all he does is scream bloody murder the entire time, only calms down after I pick up and pat for a minute but returns to screaming as I put him down.
For some background:
He was very clingy from the start. Would wake up and cry if put in the bassinet even at the hospital. Only way we could get him to sleep 95% of the time was to hold. The other 5% was the swing on occasion he would sleep. We didn't have a schedule for him so he often ended up over tired and we would rock, bounce, pat, nurse him to sleep. If we put him down he would quickly wake and cry so we ended up just rocking him for every nap. We ended up bedsharing because it was the only way we were able to get any sleep, he sleeps ok at night but needs some work but naps come first. This is obviously not something we wanted to continue so now we are working on sleep training.
We have made great progress already on the getting to sleep at the start of nap part of it. He starts nodding off withing 5-10 min of just sitting then lets me lay him down with little to no fussing and falls quickly asleep. I have only ever been able to get him to sleep on his side or belly so we keep a breathing monitor on the crib. Since yesterday we went from napping 15 min at a time up to 45 min at a time so I think he's settling down to the idea of sleeping in the crib.
The problem:
When he wakes up he WILL NOT go back down. He's definitely still tired, probably over tired but will not settle. I try to wait until he starts escalating his crying to go in to him but this seems to happen really quick. I start by trying to just pat him, he normally starts to settle then jerks himself up and starts crying at the top of his lungs. I'll pick him up at this point, he settles and I put him back down. He starts screaming again....this goes on and on if I keep picking him up. If I don't pick him up and just pat him while he's screaming after like 10 min or so he will start to settle then jerk back up and continue screaming. This happens with the first 3 naps of the day every time. I haven't been able to get him back down once. I have been trying to keep at it until the "end" of naptime. Soon as I step away from the crib and open the curtains and turn off the white noise he settles right down then I take him out to the living room to nurse.
Am I doing something wrong with my pu/pd? I feel so terrible for my little boy just screaming for almost an hour and I don't want to keep doing something wrong.
Sorry for the longgggg post. TIA!
