nap problems ... happy to just lay in bed and over coming accidental parenting

[aim4525]

I am currently trying to get my baby from having no schedule to being on a 4 hour EASY.  He is fine with eating every four hours and can stay awake anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours for activity time.  He is a relatively good night sleeper in that it can be hard to get him down, but once he is down he will sleep until around 4 AM, feed, and fall right back asleep.   I am using shush pat with P.U./P.D. as a last resort to extend his naps, as too short of naps is what keeps him from making the whole 4 hours.   

  I had been doing a lot of accidental parenting including nursing, rocking, etc. to get my baby to sleep.  I watch for sleep cues and with these aides he is often asleep in under 10 minutes.  He does not stay asleep the entire two hours though.  I have now been trying a routine of getting the room ready, swaddling, reading a few books while rocking, and then putting him in bed.  He screams when I hold him and just sit there.  When in bed he is perfectly happy to be left there, but he will just stay and play for an hour or more.  I can do shush pat, but he often jolts awake as soon as I stop even if I go for 10 minutes or so.  What can I do?  I am driving myself crazy!  I get very frustrated with the pick up put down method taking SO long when I could rock him and be done in 5 minutes...  Does anyone have any good recommendations for a next step?

Thanks for any help in advance.

[clazzat]

You don't mention how old your lo is - it's difficult to see what the problem is without that.  Could you also post your day in EAS format?  My first thought is that your A times are not quite right, which is why he is not going to sleep easily at night (normally a sign of OT), and that is also stopping you from getting the long naps.

[aim4525]

My son is 4 months.  We are still just setting up EASY with a goal of this:

E:7
S:9
E: between 10:30/11
S: between 12:30/1
E: between 2:30/3
S:between 4:30/5
then bath, bed routine, E at 7, then sleep

I had been doing as close to EASY as I could but not quite 4 hours because of the short naps, but I am now trying pick up put down this week to get him onto the correct schedule... thanks!

[clazzat]

When my girls were 4 months, they only did 1h30 for their first A - shorter than the expected A time for this age (1h45-2h), but a lot of babies need a very short first A.  dd1 was quite flexible, but dd2 was much more difficult, and we found that if we didn't get the first A right then the whole day went to pot.

How is he when he wakes from his naps, and how long does he nap for?  Also, are you shortening his A time when he has a short nap?  He definitely won't be able to manage a full 2 hours after a short nap, so you need to really watch his cues for the A time after a short nap.

[magdalenapl]

hello
my LO is 5 months and 10 days old and she can manage 2 hours first A time now, so it can be too much for your 4 months LO
also I noticed, that when she is OT it is much harder for her to fall asleep in the cot, she is aerated (I hope it is a good word) and looks like she is happy...
when she has "appetite for sleep" she is playing with the blanket, paci, bubbling - sometimes even 20 minutes, but that is her way of self-sooting. First I thought she needs my help and I tried to help her, but was just disturbing her ! Now I am just sitting in her room and watching her without any intervention, sometimes I am just stroking her gently on her head or giving her a paci.
Maybe you can try to put your LO to cot earlier and watch carefully what is he doing ?
I hope it may help.