Thanks for the reply, we've just done the quiz again and we would say that he's a textbook baby with tendencies of a spirited baby, ie reaches milestones on cue etc, but does seem to know what he wants, and his crying often reaches a point of rage almost like all hell has broken loose!
We're now wondering if you are right about the boredom signs, we're going to change his activity during this cycle if he starts to ear pull/ yawn etc. How long should he be up for? Nap times vary tbh. It feels like we're constantly trying to get him to sleep! I would say either two or three naps a day depending on how long he previously napped for. When he eventually does go to sleep he will usually have a good nap as in 1-2 hrs.
We used to shush pat until about 4 weeks ago, one night he woke and his crying didn't escalate so we left him and he self setted, after that we tried to follow his lead and put him in his cot after our wind down routine, calm and drowsy (trying to calm him in his cot if he fussed but if his cry escalated then pu/pd) this worked for 2 weeks (heaven!).
For the last 2 weeks he's been different again. It seems like he gets hysterical whenever we do our sleep associations e.g going into his room, reading a story and so on. We tried to take it back, do shush pat again as nothing else worked but now that doesn't work either. Nap times are bareable, and we're now thinking that perhaps he's bored not tired.
NW I really struggle with, at present we still bath him at 7 and then feed then story then lullaby. he used to be asleep by 8. At the moment he could even be crying until 10:30 ish. I usually df at about 11 before I go to bed, with him going to bed so late I've waited until he woke on his own, but then the problem is getting him back down. Or sometimes he just keeps waking.
He doesn't suffer from reflux, or any thing else as far as we're aware.
Thanks in advance! x