Hello,
I have too many questions about things I know I'm doing wrong so this post is going to be very long, forgive for this and I thank in advance all type of help anybody can bring me, I’m really desperate, frustrated and I feel really helpless.
My LO (spirited) is now 4 months and 1 week old, he's only BF, goes into an EASY plan of 3 hours and unable to sleep by himself, he goes short naps of 30-45 min.
I've just finished my motherhood leave and my summer holidays finish next friday 23rd, day when I start to work once again :cry: so my mother will take care of him in our home from 9 am to 14:30 pm. I'll leave at 7:30 and be back at 15:30 and his daddy timetible goes from 9 to 14:30 in the morning, fortunately I don't have to work in the afternoon so, from 15:30 he will be with me but my mum, who is 72, doesn't agree too much with EASY techniques so, the more I get before this time the better will be to keep on going with them later.
Our day goes as follows:
7 am (sometimes at 6): BF and back to sleep til 9 am
9 am: Wake up and play in his cot until 10 am
10 am: BF
11 am: Short nap 30-45 min
13 pm: BF
14 pm: Short nap 30-45 min
16pm: BF
17 pm: Short nap 30-45 min
18:30- 19:00 pm: BF
Most of times another nap here between 19:30 and 20:15
20:30 pm: Bath
21 pm: BF and goes to sleep
00:30 am: DF and sleep (or at least so I try :shock: ) til 7 am
Until 23rd july (at his 12 weeks aproximately, I remind it cause it was his baptize day) he used to sleep from 9 until 3-4 am in a row, this day and the following one he slept even from 9 to 5 and after this everything began to go from bad to worse :cry: He began to wake every hour or two during the night. I thought it could be hunger but I’ve reject this possibility as during the day he feeds quite well eating only one breast at each feed (I offer him the other one but he doesn’t want it). ‘Til this time I hadn’t DF him regularly, I had tried a few times but as he kept on waking for the next feed at 3-4 I didn’t continued with it but, at this point I began to DF him at 0am to try to avoid him of waking at 1-2 am but didn’t seem to have any effect, instead of it he kept on waking for the supposed feed of 3-4 and later on 6-7 and many times a night between these hours. To make sure it was not hunger I tried a couple of nights to feed him when he woke at 1, 3-4 and 6-7 but he kept on waking many times in the middle. I thought it could also be a growth spurt but as it lasts for so many time I don’t think it could be that.
Today it’s 5 am, he went to sleep at 9 with no help (incredible), got asleep in 10 min. at 23:30 woke, gave him DF, sleep ‘til 2:00, calm him with pat/shh in less than 5 min (have to take him out of his cot, impossible to calm on it), at 3:00 woke and cried for some seconds but went back to sleep on his own, and at 3:45 woke and impossible to calm ‘til now, he is calmed while he is in my arms (now in his father’s) but as we incline him just a little to put him into his cot he begins to cry and cry (that’s why I think it’s not hunger), we are no using any prop (no paci) and we don’t swaddle.
I used to swaddle him before with a sheet (and he hated it) but as he learnt to unswaddle I decided to buy the Miracle blanket which arrived to me on 23rd august. I began to swaddle him from his DF at 0am to 7 am (as it says it's no good to swaddle him more than 8h. consecutive and previously to the DF he didn't woke up any time). The use of it hasn't gone as I hoped (although he seemed to like it much more than when I used the sheet) so I've stopped swaddling him after 10 days, first day I used it he slept in a row from 0am to 7am, the next day he woke at 4:30, gave him paci and went back to sleep, next one woke at 5:30, paci and back to sleep, next one woke at 6, paci and back to sleep (all these days he woke at 7, played for one hour in his cot and went back to sleep until 9:30) and the 5th day everything was ruined, as he began to wake and cry every hour and couldn’t get him back to sleep unless I feed him or rock him for 30 minutes. I know when he awakes is not hunger as previously he slept all those 7h in a row but from 9 to 3 instead of from 0 to 7. I'm sure the paci is the problem of his continuous wakings during the night.
Until now I used three methods to make him sleep, the first of all was holding him in my arms walking for 30-45 min in a completely darken room until he was almost asleep and put him into his cot then (if I tried to put him in his cot before he woke up completely only with the movement of inclination). The other one is to put him into his cot in stage 2 of sleep but with his paci and my hand beside his face, he plays with it while he’s awake but with his eyes closed and it takes it also between 30-45 min. And the third one is to rock him with his paci which makes him sleep in 10 minutes but with 2 props: the rocking in the arms and the paci.
Today I’ve been trying to sleep him without the paci or to take it out from his mouth before he’s completely asleep (this is called cold turkey, isn’t it??), I had to try it several times because he realises of it and begins to cry so I put it on and start again (now he doesn’t spit it out some minutes later as he did before and stays for the all nap during the day and many hours a night).
Another problem is he doesn’t take naps longer than 30-45 min so sometimes the EASY plan gets an EASYSEA or something like that as he can’t be awake for longer than 1,5 h sometimes and his naps are too short but now, what really worries me are night wakings.
So, at this point:
-Should I keep on swaddling him??, if yes, do I swaddle him at 9 or at 0 am, and how long?? (hours a day and days)
-Should I keep on BF during the night when he wakes??
-How can I get him to get asleep by his own?? Do I rock him for a while?? Do I use a paci to calm him
-When exactly should I take out the paci from his mouth??
-How do I wake to sleep for naps??
-As they are too many things, which one should I start for??
-Is it too soon to go on an 4 hour EASY???
I know they are too many questions for an only post but I really don’t know where to star for.
Thanks all of you for listen to me and for any advice you can give me.