Hello! I'm a first time mum and new here. My DS is 6 weeks and we've pretty much been on a 3hr day/4hr night EASY routine more or less from the beginning however I've found myself doing accidental parenting for sleeps and am looking to correct this but am confused and would love some advice...
I've been walking/jiggling him to sleep which usually does the trick in about 5-10mins. Once he's asleep I put him down at different times with varying degrees of success (he'll either wake up straight away and cry or suddenly seem all perky and awake and it takes a while to settle him back down - or he'll stay asleep, usually when I've been cuddling him for a while). He sleep much better at night in his Moses basket in that once he's down, he'll stay asleep until he needs to feed (except he gets very restless from about 4-5am - but that's another story!)
So I've just started trying to get him to fall asleep on his own- this morning I was shh/patting him for the full 1.5hr nap! If it wasn't for the dummy he would have been crying... I would manage to calm him to the point of nodding off but then he would startle and be wide awake (not crying - initially) and I'd have to start over... didn't have to pick him up though.
Eventually he got hungry so we got up, fed, changed and did a bit of activity but he was obviously knackered so I tried the sh/pat again but gave in and walked him to sleep after a bit as I didn't want him to get overtired. He slept really well in his cot for 2.5 hrs- only woke up once after about 45mins but quickly fell back asleep when I picked him up and rocked him a bit (then put him back down).
I thought perhaps I was overstimulating him during activity time and that's why he kept waking up so much when he startled this morning so decided to keep things really mellow after his lunch nap & start winding down as soon as I saw any hint of tiredness. Well to my pleasant surprise this worked really well - I put him down drowsy and he fell asleep, no dummy! (with a bit of shh/patting - more like rubbing his tummy - and shielding his eyes).
It does mean he went to sleep about 30mins earlier than the 'scheduled' time though so I'm now in the predicament of what to do next...
Am I supposed to let him sleep until his next feed, meaning he may be oversleeping today - 2hr nap instead of 1.5hrs (or does the lack of morning nap cancel it out?) - or do I encourage him to wake up? If he wakes up anyway, do I feed him or do more activity until his next normal 3hr feed?
Also, generally when he wakes during a nap, am I supposed to rush in and do the shh/pat before he wakes too much or only when he starts to fuss?
Should I encourage him to continue sleeping so he does 1-2 hr naps or just go with the flow if he wakes up after say 30-40mins??
And how critical is the sitting still before putting him down? Is it okay if I do some gentle movement to get him calm/drowsy and then put him down before he falls asleep? I tried the sitting still and shh/patting and it seemed to just get him really worked up... but can keep trying this if for the best...
Sorry this is so long and thank you in advance for your help...!
