Help- Can't get on track!!

[bheemeryck]

I thought getting my second baby on board with EASY would be easy... but it hasn't been!! Our girl is pretty much textbook, very easy going, except when it comes to getting daytime sleep!! I have to admit, with moms up visiting the last 2 weeks she's been held A LOT, but I decided not to become the nap Nazi until later, but that may have backfired on me. I'm not sure if I'm expecting too much from my newborn, but after rereading my babywhisperer books, I've decided I need help.

Dd won't go to sleep on her own, which I do expect some of, but with a very active 20 month old I can't sit and rock her to sleep for an hour everyday!! We've been on a sort of schedule:

E 7 - 7:30 am
A 7:30-8:15
S We try to get her during the yawning phase, swaddle her, shush-pat, this can go until 9:15

E 9:30-10:00
A 10:00-11:15 ish
S  anywhere from 11:30-12:30 Again, tough to get her to sleep, I should be napping during this time because my ds is napping, so I get very frustrated when she doesn't sleep...

E 1:00-1:30 (I let her sleep longer if she took a long time to fall asleep)
A 1:30-2:30
S 2:30ish to 5:00 she usually falls asleep pretty well for this time

E 4:00-4:30
A 4:30-5:30
S 5:30-7:00 She is hard to get to sleep during this period as well, I think mostly because we are usually trying to clean up from dinner and get ds to bed... she's left to the mercy of the bouncy chair.

E 7:00-7:30
A 8:00 bathtime
S 8:15-10:00 she rarely sleeps during this period, and her 10:00 feeding is mostly a little nibble to send her off to dreamland... We don't do dreamfeeds,I just find it wakes her up too much still, maybe later on we'll try again, but they did not work for ds either...

E 1:00 am
S by 1:45 usually

E 4:00 am
S by 5:00 am usually

She does like to suck before falling asleep during the day, we have tried a pacifier, but if she falls asleep with it in her mouth it backfires when it falls out, but if I go to pull it out she wakes up, and I really don't want to to depend on anything to get to sleep!

Does anyone have some advice on how I can work on teaching her to fall asleep on her own? She's on a fairly reliable feeding schedule,she does go 2.5-3 hours during the day, it's more the lack of sleep I'm worried about, and the fact that she's dependant on being held to sleep. Is a 45 minute waketime pretty standard for this age? Seems like she's yawning constantly from when she wakes up... I'm not sure how to catch her before she's overtired, or maybe she just likes to be awake? She's not really fussy, except when we lay her down and she wants to be held/patted to sleep. My ds is staring to resent the fact that I'm always telling him to wait, mommy is putting baby to sleep, I'm sure there must be an easier way... please help, any advice about what we're doing would be appreciated!




E 9:

[Meggie]

It looks like you are doing a great job already!  In my opinion the most important thing when your LO is so young is getting her on some sort of routine.  In the first 2 months or so, you will need a very fluid routine.  There are many growth spurts etc, that throw things off track, but the most important thing is to keep the spirit of EASY going.

Some mothers do try to get their child to sleep independently from day one, but it does take a lot of shh/pat and can get very frustrating.  I personally did not try to teach independent sleep until my DD was about 7 weeks old, prior to that I held her to sleep, but tried hard not to rock, sing, feed to sleep, I just held her.  At 7 weeks, she took to independent sleep immediately and needed very minimal shh/pat (she's an angel baby). 

I do not believe that you can create a dependence that will be hard to get rid of when she is so young.  So if holding her to sleep is helping her, I say do it.  Remember she is brand new to this world and it can be very scary for someone so small.  You need to think of your own sanity too!  Do what works for you now, do not feel like you are "screwing up your baby" if you need to hold her to sleep (I felt that way many times when I held DD to sleep).

Do not loose faith, like I said I think you are doing a GREAT job!

[Meggie]

I found this thread very helpful for me when I was feeling discouraged about my LO's naps and EASY

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=65842.0