how to avoid an overtired baby when teaching independent sleep?

[bcmom]

Hi gang

I need more help!

One two occasion (one nap, one night time), we have tried to put lo down drowsy but awake.  What ends up happening is that he does go to sleep eventually but can take upwards of 40 min.  When this happened during the day, his naps were thrown off (not able to resettle himself thru arousals so I ended up nursing him) and at night, had many more nightwakings after my husband tried to put him down and he slept 30 minutes in a 3 hr feed cycle).

He is 6.5 weeks old and has so far been pretty good at night (bed at 9, up at 1:30/2 to eat, up at 5 to eat, back to sleep albeit fitful).  I have been working very hard to make sure he is well rested during the day so that he continues to sleep well (and longer) at night.  I start getting him down for his nap when I see his first yawn which is usually after an hour or awake time.  However, I have been using APing to do this (Bjorn or nursing) and wanted to start him off on the road to independent lala land.

I am just not sure how to do this without having a very grumpy, very overtired baby on my hands who sleeps worse that we started with?!?  And to avoid the overtiredness, it is VERY tempting to use APing to finally get him back to sleep which I know is confusing to him and not fair.

Please help!
K

[nursekat]

What I would recommend is start with the nap that he falls asleep the easiest with.  Some recommend starting with the first nap of the day so if that goes poorly you can make up for it with later naps.  Just work on getting one nap a day in the crib.  Work on doing this with the four-s wind down ritual and shh/pat.  It helps sometimes to start a little earlier if you anticipate having trouble getting him to settle.  Continue doing what you are currently doing with the other naps so you know he goes down well for those and gets some good sleep.  Then as he gets used to one nap in his crib a day, you will find it will be easier and easier to get him down for other naps as well.

HTH!