Help with 14w putting to sleep

[nfoizen]

Hi there. New to this board but desperately need some advice!
We have numerous sleep props that had been working great for our 14W baby - 5 Ss and nursing to sleep, and he was sleeping wonderfully. In the past week, he has been resisting all of our efforts to get him to sleep. He slept great swaddled, but has gotten very good at rolling so we have stopped swaddling. His startle reflex is still very strong and constantly wakes himself, so we have him in the merlin sleepsuit to help calm his reflexes. We never mastered the drowsy but awake, and have alwasy relied on getting him fast asleep then setting him down.
He has been on EASY for almost two months, and goes down for a nap every two hours but only snozes for 45 minutes if set down - can sleep for 2 hours if he is held. With the short naps, I have him napping 4-5 times a day. He was averaging 7 hours before his first wake up overnight, but that has been all over the place since we had to unswaddle him. We are ready to help him sleep without the props, but not sure how to do shh pat for a baby not swaddled. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!!

[trimbler]

Hi there and welcome to BW I won't be able to stick around with you atm as off for Christmas, but will alert others to your thread so they can jump in, ok?

For starters, could you post a recent day, like this:
Up and E: 7am
S: 9-9:45
E: ??
etc...

Seeing it written down like that can help us hopefully spot patterns and make suggestions, since sleep training works best on the most appropriate routine for your LO.

Shh pat can be done without the swaddle - some will pat their backs whilst they're lying on their side, and then roll them over to their backs later on. With DS, I patted him kind of on his chest/shoulder. Some prefer not to be patted but just a hand laid on them, I suspect your LO will need some hands/arms on him if his startle reflex is still strong, you may need to keep that up until he's in deep sleep at this stage, but he should eventually be able to get through those jolts himself. Be aware that there's a transition between sleep cycles at 45mins (you probably realise this from your experience of him waking at that time), when LOs will often jolt, and if he's unswaddled, you may need to hold him through those jolts, so go into the room just before the time when he wakes, and lay your hands/arms on him as you would when helping him off to sleep in the first place. It may not work at first, but stick at it a few days and see how it goes...

[lily_layne]

I'm here to help while trimbler's away!