My ds will be two weeks old tomorrow and I have been trying to establish the EASY routine since a week ago. I dare say that I was moving forward, but today I feel like it is just impossible. My dh is going back to work tomorrow and I have a twenty month old to take care of. I can't leave her alone for 30-40 minutes to help my new lo get to sleep.
We have a few issues besides the time input to work out and any advice would be greatly appreciated as right now I am feeling very overwhelmed and doing quite a bit of crying. As you can see, I am a sleep forum moderator and firmly believe in teaching independent sleep. Having said that, I started with my daughter after six weeks of age and was hoping that starting earlier would be easier. Not seeing that. Obviously every baby is different so I am trying to figure out what is going to work for ds.
First of all... swaddling. I'm at a loss. I'm a very good swaddler... did it with my daughter until she kept breaking out of it and then she found her thumb soon after (which by the way was between six and eight weeks). Ds is already breaking out and gets seriously upset when I put him in. I have tried to compromise and leave one arm out. The other one is always out in a matter of minutes. I know that consistency is key with babies, so I am trying to figure out a plan and stick to it, but I'm in a fog and feel like I'm floundering. I'm thinking I might give up on the sleep teaching part and just work on the EASY routine for now.
Is it possible that today was just a fluke and he is having a growth spurt and is therefore impossible to settle to sleep because he is hungry again so fast? I guess I could give it a break for a couple of days and then try again, but like I said... I have a toddler to care for.
I need some encouragement and some ideas for starting so early. If it gets too hard, I may just give it a rest, do whatever works and try again when he is a bit older.
Thanks all,
Sandy