Hi, I'm new here and have just been starting to get familiar with the baby whisperer techniques. I've been trying to put my son down drowsy but awake now but I can't even get to that point because the last 2-3 weeks now he has been screaming his head off during nap time. We have a little routine where we do some down time with a book, then diaper change/swaddle and lights off. I've tried ssh/pat techniques, I've tried sitting in the dark, and doing old tricks like bouncing, walking, singing. I've tried not swaddling, music/no music. It's like as soon as he knows it's naptime he starts fussing then crying than screaming. He doesn't take a pacifier, and usually he cries until he passes out basically.
I asked a friend about it and said that he goes about 1 hour and 15 minutes for his awake time and then he yawns and I get going on putting him down. She suggested he was overtired, so I've tried getting him settled earlier but that was horrible, and then I tried a bit longer, like 1 hour and 30 minutes, and that didn't work. I'm trying to just pay attention to his sleepy cues to get it right though, this morning's nap was horrible again and even though we started the routine earlier between him waking up in the morning and finally actually going to sleep was more like 2 hours, but I feel like if I wait that long I'd be ignoring his sleepy cues.
The only other thing I noticed is he seems to hate everything about being put down for a nap so much that if I hold him and walk him out to another room he stops crying, and then if I walk back with him he starts up again. I've also tried getting him ready for nap in another room but that didn't seem to work because as soon as we'd go in there he gets upset. He used to nap in there just fine, I can't think of anything I did that would make him hate it, and other times he is totally fine about going into his room.
I don't know how well you can tell at this age, but he seems to be a mostly spirited baby followed by touchy.
