Hi there,
Hoping someone could offer me some sort of hope (or at least sympathy).
My DS, Daniel, is three months old and has been on a three hour EASY type routine since about three weeks. He has been 45 minute napping since he was about 7 or 8 weeks. He is not really a shh pat kind of baby (it seems to distract him) and unless he is really upset and overtired the best way to get him to sleep is simply to leave him in his cot and he will grizzle for a bit and then go to sleep.
At first, I was able to extend the naps simply by waiting to hear him grizzle at the 45 minute mark then going in and giving him the dummy - it took a couple of goes but normally worked and he would then nap for two hours plus. Then it took me staying in the room avoiding eye contact with my hand on his chest holding the dummy for about half an hour and I would get another 45 minutes. Now nothing works - he just wakes up, whether I go in before or after he has actually woken up, is full of smiles and ready to get up. But 20 minutes later, he is very upset and tired and won't go back to sleep. I have been trying to keep him calm until the next feed, feeding him and then putting him back down (still awake). But he is so tired and unhappy and this has a knock on effect for the nights as he always has a bad night if he has not had enough daytime sleep.
He has just had a couple of particularly bad nights (seems to have regressed a bit when he used to be good at putting himself back to sleep at night) and because he can't compensate for it with his daytime sleep the last couple of days have been really miserable for both of us. He is so tired that it is taking him thirty minutes plus to get to sleep, whereas when he is well rested he will be off in ten minutes or so. It makes it really difficult for me to go anywhere as his awake period is so short (and as he gets older he seems to find it more difficult to sleep in the buggy or the sling). And it is a shame for him as he is so keen to discover the world but so affected by his tiredness. He is always smiling and talking through his tired cries and yawns.
I don't swaddle as I didn't feel it made a difference, I was worried about cot death and because he is starting to suck on his fingers, which I am keen to encourage as a dummy substitute. I don't use white noise because I didn't think it made a difference and watching him stir around the 45 minute mark it isn't the noise which is causing the stirring. The room is darkened, though I don't think that is particularly the issue as he still does his 45 minute naps at the end of the day when it is dark outside. Difficult to post any kind of schedule because it all depends on when he gets up (early waking is part of the night problems when he doesn't have enough daytime sleep). Basically it starts off with a feed and an hour and a half of wake time and then starts to go wrong from there on. Bedtime is always between six and seven, which must be the right time for him biologically as he never does the 45 minute wake up after six o'clock. It will need to be later when he is seven months as he will start nursery then and won't be picked up till six (but we can deal with that as and when...).
Better go - he is stirring.
Freddie