Hello, I am new to this site and super glad that it exists! I have read the book and used the easy method for our first child. Now Iīm reading it again as we have a 9 week old little son.
The reason I am writing is because I am really at the end of my rope with naps/bedtime. Up until about 6 weeks our son slept pretty great, day & night. Not super long stretches at night but it was ok as I know it will get better. But then around 6 weeks his naps became super short. I know they go thru a growth spurt btw 6-8 weeks so I just figured weīd ride it out and do what we needed to do. But now weīre here at 9&1/2 weeks and his naps are still terrible. This week I found a post from another member here who was going thru a similar experience and I found that helpful. I realised that the E was a part of A and that I was keeping him up too long so he became overtired. So I figured it out that 50 mins after waking I need to already be helping him wind down for the next nap. That really worked and I was so excited. Because before that I would put him down and heīd sleep for 15-30 mins and then start crying. And then I would try everything to help him fall asleep again and the cycle would repeat itself. I could see all he wanted to do was sleep but somehow couldnīt.
Anyways, like I said, after shortening his wake time naps improved. Up until yesterday he had a bit of a nighttime rhythm- fall asleep around 8-9 and sleep for about 3-4 hrs. Wake for a feed, sleep another 2.5-3 hrs, feed again and then sleep another 2.5 hrs in the early morning. But after "fixing" his nap problem his nighttime sleep pattern went out the window. Last night I got a total of 2 hrs of sleep in one go!! And my husband got hand foot mouth disease so he hasnīt been able to hold the baby for a week. Now my husband is better thank God and able to hold the baby again which is great. But I am really confused as to what is happening with my sonīs sleep.
This morning after our terrible night he only slept 1.5 hrs and I knew he wanted to sleep longer but didnīt. That somehow set the tone for the day and heīs slept poorly all day.. only 1 hr and then he wakes crying and it takes forever to get him back to sleep.
I have to say that altho I am trying to keep the easy rhythm we are only doing it loosely at this point. It seems he wants to eat before his nap and so of course I feed him. Then I hold him for about 20 min before putting him down to make sure heīs sleeping deeply. I know that itīs better to put him down drowsy but at this point I need to help him catch up and I think itīs more important to help him get his sleep than to sleep train. So sometimes that works but if it doesnīt then of course he cries and I end up either walking with him or rocking him until heīs calm. Meanwhile I am seeing the day in my bedroom getting nothing done and this is getting pretty discouraging. And when we go places he gets fussy more quickly tho he never did before and I actually think he is a pretty calm little baby.
Does this sound normal? Can anyone please help me? How much should he be sleeping during the day? I thought 4-5 hrs. Yesterday it was a total of 6 and 1/2 and I thought maybe thatīs why his night was so bad. Can someone please give me some advice cuz this is really weighing me down.
Thank you so much in advance.
