Bedtime is messy

[MommaStorms]

Baby boy is 6 weeks old. I've been doing 3 hour easy with him from day 1. He's been pretty good with it, as far as staying awake when he is finished nursing, taking good length naps, etc. All things I struggled with with DD. We've had a couple bumps along the way but overall I think he's doing well.

1. One thing I have noticed, it's kinda bothering me. It's not consistent so I can't figure out why he is doing it but 30 minutes before he should wake up to nurse he starts fussing in his sleep. He won't take his pacifier, he'll spit it out, fall asleep again, then start up a couple minutes later. This will go on until, well, I usually give up after about 15 minutes and I'll get him up and nurse him.  Any thoughts? OT/UT or developmental?

2. This probably matters to me the most- he has a very hard time falling asleep at night. This has been going on for weeks. He sucks and sucks on that pacifier with his little eyes just rolling around, it falls out as he is drifting off and it wakes him up, it's kind of a cycle until, like for the past couple nights, I just put him in his swing. Or he'll end up getting held until he falls asleep. Now this is the reason DD developed SO MANY bad sleep habits. And I couldn't break them until she was 15 month SO I CANNOT repeat with child #2.

Here is what we did today

E: 6:30am
S: 7:45 (started fussing toward the end of his nap)
E:9:40
S:10:35
E:12:40
S:1:50 (fussed at end of nap, I held him for last 30 minutes)
E:3:30
S: 4:40
E: 6:15 (was fussy so I got him up 15 minutes early)
S.... I started wind down at 7:20 but he wasn't asleep until probably 8:30 when I put him in his swing. 

Usually he'll nurse one more time in the evening, sleep until 2/2:30 and then I'll get up with him at 6:30 again. ANYTHING I can do to prevent bad habits? DD turned out being low sleep needs, is that something siblings would both have?

[lauradj]

To be honest hon, this sounds really typical of a young baby.  My midwives always referred to this as 'the Witching Hour' and it usually settles down around 12 weeks.  Two things I can suggest that worked well for us.  We would swaddle DS and place him in a sling until he fell asleep, then transfer him to his crib.  After two weeks of tired arms, we tried Happiest Baby on the Block by Dr. Harvey Karp, which I wish we had done sooner.  We recommend the book on our resource page but get the DVD, it's faster and easier to understand.  His practice is in line with Tracy's but the motion is different and there are five components you do all together.  It is brilliant!!  That worked like a charm and I used it until DS was 4 months old.