Aw, poor baby and poor mama!
The good news is your baby is very 'advanced' because he appears to be going through the 12 week sleep change at 11 weeks!
Maybe you'll get lots of other fun advancements like early teeth!
12 weeks it is VERY common (almost universal) to kids go thru a sleep change of some kind. It typically starts with short napping, with jolting like you're talking about. Most kids will get a good 15-30 minutes of sleep before the jolt, but some are more sensitive. The reason is your baby is growing up! He now is getting sleep patterns that are more typical of what he will have throughout childhood with regards to REM/non-REM sleep. So instead of dropping into a deep sleep immediately, he goes into a ligter sleep and transitions into deep sleep after about 30-45 minutes. The jolting you see is him trying to make that sleep transition and failing; because he's not used to having to do that, it's confusing him and waking him up.
The best technique for getting them thru this is to hold them down thru the jolts so that they can get over that hump and continue their sleep cycle without incident. For most moms, I recommend going back into their baby's room about 5 minutes before their child typically wakes up; that way you are there to see the jolts begin. In your case, you probably shouldn't even leave the room! If the jolting starts almost immeditely what you need to do is apply gentle pressure to arms and legs. Your baby might still start jolting but you are going to apply some pressure so baby isn't flailing. You may feel like you're wressling an octopus, but that just means you're doing it right!
The first time it may not work. But you'll see with each nap period that you're able to help your baby get a little more sleep. As that happens, the OT cycle will begin to lift and that will also help the jolting (they also jolt when OT! ugh).
I find that about 3 days of doing this for naps is all you need. I worried that *I* was going to become a prop and would need to do this for the rest of his life! I had pictures of me holding him down while his wife slept next to him in bed. But, for some reason once you help them over that transition, they sort of figure out how to do it on their own. I was completely amazed the first time I went up to hold my son down, and all he did was roll around a bit, opened his eyes and then feel right back to sleep! Yippee! Your son will do the same. But be ready for 3 days fo being RIGHT there at the jolting phase. Since your child is jolting so soon, you may have to do TWO holding periods: Once initially, and again at 30-45 minutes later. Just watch his entire nap a time or two and see where and when he jolts.
Good luck! This is TOTALLY normal! And every baby gets thru it. If you can fix this problem now, you'll be giving yourself such wonderful naps for the rest of his childhood!
