hi everyone! i would love some advice...
i started my 6 month old (textbook/spirited) son on a 4 hour easy (starting at 7 a.m.) a week and a half ago. we had been sleep-sharing and he had been napping beside me/on me for his entire life. i also had been nursing him to sleep... accidental parenting at its worst. as you can see, i needed to turn things around, and fast. hopefully i will be able to give you enough information so that you can give me suggestions.
he took to the new schedule right away (i breastfeed and started solids around 5 and a half months). although he fought against napping in his crib, after two days, he was becoming fairly used to it. i started him in his crib at night right away, and that has been going very well. i am doing a dream feed at 11 ish and another around 5:30 a.m.
his second tooth just started coming in, and he is beginning to crawl (definitely backwards, and attempting forwards). he can also pull up if he positions himself correctly.
my problem is the napping. i am uncertain about how much to help him get to sleep when i put him down at naptime. i am doing my best to catch him when i see his first sleepy signals, and put him in his crib after a short wind down. sometimes, he will play for a short time and then start a mantra-cry. i can put my hand on his back and he will settle almost right away.
at other times, he will get on his hands and knees and rotate around, while crying wildly, for what seems like an eternity (20 minutes or more). he won't settle until i put both hands on his back and hold him still for a while. even then, he turns his head back and forth repeatedly and screams. i have tried pu/pd, but that seems to agitate him more... he arches his back and kicks. i've tried everything i can think of (shush without the pat, etc.) and don't know what else to do. i don't want him to depend on me and need my hand on his back, and me in the same room, to settle. i know he needs to learn to self-soothe, but i am worried about the amount of crying that he is doing. how to i teach him to get to sleep and avoid the moving and crying?
i appreciate, ahead of time, any advice and words of wisdom that anyone can share! thanks.
betsy