Am I miss reading nap cues?

[Dovely73]

Hi,
I'm having some trouble with the routine for my second baby and think that it stems from his naps. He's 13 weeks old. I need him in some sort of routine so I can manage things with my toddler. We've just been on holiday for 2 weeks where EASY went out the window so need to get back on track. If I can sort out the naps I'm sure everything else will follow.

I've been using a dummy to settle him which works brilliantly. He sits in my arms for a minute or so, sucks his dummy and when his eyes start closing I put him into his cot (still awake) where drifts off on his own. It only takes a couple a minutes which is great. The problem is that he wakes after 45 minutes. I go back in and put the dummy back in, rest my hand on his chest and he quickly drifts off again - until the dummy falls out! Then he wakes up crying and we start the cycle again; I put the dummy back in, he drifts off and then wakes when the dummy falls out. I tend to do this until he's due his next feed.

I know I'm doing things wrong but don't know what to change. I have real trouble understanding his cues so he may be under/over tired when I put him down. He usually does a little grumbly cry about an hour after he wakes so I try to put him down then. Is an hour of A too little at 13 weeks?
Should I try and get rid of the dummy so he's not reliant on it to resettle? He only has the dummy for naps not at night. At night he goes down at 7.30'ish, has a dream feed at 10.30 one night feed.

Any thoughts appreciated. If I can crack the nap issue and get into a routine it's really going to make life a lot easier! 

[Emami]

Hi Dovely, welcome to BW!

45min naps are often UT and could be routine related, and you're right an hour is short for his age.  Can you post your day in EAS format so we can see when he is eating and sleeping and how long he is awake for?

It also sounds like the dummy might be a prop if he's at the point that he needs it constantly re plugging.  Hopefully it should be easy to fix though if he's used to sleeping at night without it.  My LO never took a dummy so I don't have any experience weaning it, but if you think it could be part of the problem have a look over here:
Props

It could just be a case of keeping him up a bit longer though so that he's tired enough for a good long nap

[Dovely73]

Hi,
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond.
To be honest, the short naps are ruining any possibility of a proper routine. I also don't have a consistent wake time. I suppose that's the first place to start. Start the day at 7.00 and go from there. Given he's 14 weeks now, do you think I should start to stretch him towards a 4 hour routine?
I find it very difficult to read his cues to see if he's tired so I've just started putting him down later (1.5 hours after waking) and that seems a bit better.
He is searching for his fingers to suck so I'm going to give him one more week to find those and settle back home after our holiday and then I'm going to get rid of the dummy. Thank you for the link. I'll definitely take a look at that. I'm really not looking forward to ditching the dummy but I think you're right, he seems reliant on it to transition to his next cycle for naps.

[Emami]

Is he BF or FF?  My DD was on a 4hr routine at 3 months on formula, but I think that's slightly in the young side and it's usually closer to 4 months.  And not all breastfed babies make it to the 'ideal' 4hrs because breast milk is quicker to digest, so it might be more like 3.5hrs.  You can start working towards it if he seems ready.  If increasing his A times gives you longer naps then it's easier to space feeds out too and things kind of fall into place!
Enjoy ygur holiday, and don't stress while you're away! It's hard to stick to a routine when everything's different, so have fun and think about A times and dummies when you're back!