Shh/Pat is taking forever!

[gdalton]

I have a 5 week old, and she is inconsistent on getting to sleep.  I've been b'feeding about every 3 hours (sometimes takes her 15 minutes... sometimes 40), diaper change, then about 15-20 minutes of activity.  She starts to yawn at this point, and after the second yawn, she starts to cry and wiggle and act unhappy.  I put her in the crib and start to shh/pat.  The first 15 minutes is typically crying as she tries to get her fist to suck on.  Then she's calm, but suddenly whimpering/crying as soon as she hits REM sleep.  Even after 30-40 minutes, I barely see her enter REM sleep.  I gave her a pacifier to help start naps 2 days ago, but she will wake up screaming for it every 10 minutes, so I've given up on that. 

She did the same yesterday, got OT, and stayed up 2 hours straight.  I managed to shh/pat her down this morning after she did the 30-minute wake, and she slept the rest of the way.  She barely woke up during the next feeding, so I just put her straight back down.  She slept 4 hours after that.  (I had pity on her and let her sleep since she was awake and crying so much of yesterday.. she woke up very happy).

So it's typically 30-50 minutes of patting and then she'll sleep about 30-45 minutes.  Any suggestions as to what's going on?  I thought it could be lack of activity, but she really is unhappy at the 20 minutes mark. 

[creations]

It could be that waiting for the second yawn is too long for her?  Sometimes OT has already crept in by then and it's harder to settle?

[Shiv52]

{{{hugs}}}

I think she is OT and with all the patting she is ending up much more tired by the time she gets to sleep.

What A time do you think she is managing? At 5 weeks my DD2 was managing about 45 minutes so that was basically a feed and a nappy change and a quick cuddle,  If I missed that window at all she was so hard to get settled to sleep.

ALso what wind down are you doing before naps?  At such a young age she probably needs a bit more help to get settled to fall asleep. 

and after the second yawn, she starts to cry and wiggle and act unhappy.  I put her in the crib and start to shh/pat.  The first 15 minutes is typically crying as she tries to get her fist to suck on.

So when you are getting sleepy cues rather than put her straight in her cot where she is crying, you'd do a wind down routine.  So you'd swaddle (if you do that) snuggle her and pat her in your arms, sing a song for example and help her relax and get drowsy and then at that point put her in her cot and keeps sshing and patting to sleep.  Then once she is settling well consistently for a while you can work on puttin her down more and more awake and work on self settling.  At this age it is so important they get sleep so they don't end up OT rather than how they get to sleep IYKWIM.