Hi! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.
OK, first up, I wouldn't expect him to be able to sleep 12hrs straight at this point without a feed. 12hrs sleep yes, but there will be feeds within that time (some babies do sleep through, but it's not the norm).
Are you on a 3hr EASY generally? This will encourage him to take a nice big feed and therefore you will not need to have the small feed before the nap yet his belly will hopefully be full enough to sustain a longer feed. I would also pick a "wake up time" to start your day. Wake him up, give a feed. Help him stay up for around 1 hr, take him into his room at that point, start a long quiet winddown in his room with curtains closed and let it last for maybe 20mins - this is really important for spirited babies who are quite stimulated and need some winding down for sleep. Don't feed him, but incorporate some other sort of activity that is soothing: read some stories, rocking, singing. Don't let him fall asleep before getting him into bed though. Even though down further I have suggested to get rid of the swaddle, perhaps he will be more receptive to it if you've calmed him down first this way. Then I would help sooth him right to sleep to start with using pat/shsh with him lying in his bed, but picking up if he gets really wound up. Once you start to have success with this, then you can start weaning out the pat/shsh.
Feeding before his nap is likely creating an association with needing that feed and therefore he's having trouble flicking into the next sleep cycle. I really suggest cutting this feed out and it will hopefully have the flow on effect of fixing some of your night wakings which I suspect are linked in with not knowing how to resettle himself without your help.
He sounds like he's filling up on calories during the night hours - but possibly due to needing the feed to resettle rather than hunger, you could then risk him switching his hunger to that time of day (like if you or I decided to wake at 3am and eat a full meal, soon our body would adjust to this need). I would probably work on the day naps first and hope that the way you put him down to nap and bedtime will help with those night wakings.
Is a yawn always an indication of tired like when I wake up after a nice long sleep I sometimes yawn but I'm not tired, is this the same for babies? I ask because he often yawns 30 mins or so after a sleep.
I found with my ds that he would often yawn not long after waking up, I found if I ignored it he would keep going, so I think they can kind of yawn but not necessarily need to go to bed.
He has only in the past 2 weeks begun ‘intentionally’ sucking on his hand, however I’ve not kept them free as he still tends to jerk a lot in his sleep, in fact when I move from the chair after his feed and burp to swaddle him he goes nuts and that's every time these days, he knows what's coming, puttin him in his crib is becoming more difficult as although he's tired he doesn't want to go down.
Maybe it is time to let his arms out, I found both my kids wanted their arms free quite early on. My ds used to scratch his face a bit too when overtired. But see note above.
When feeding his small feeds to get him to sleep I always feed him in his room – also at night after his bath I always save his feed until last as he has major meltdown after bath time when I change him in readiness for bed time, the feed always calms him down.
I would start to replace that small feed before naps with some other form of calming/soothing. Start with a gentle rocking, but lay him down in the cot before he starts to really doze off, continue to pat/shsh if he needs it. Since he seems to be spirited, I would think that pu/pd may be a little too overstimulating for him, so work on a calm environment to start with. I've always found feeding directly before bedtime fine, as long as you're not feeding him to sleep, maybe do a quick quiet story afterwards to create a little break that becomes a part of the routine.
I’ve been researching a white noise machine which isn’t that easy to find in Australia have you heard of them and are they any good
A lot of people swear by them, I too have never seen one actually advertised as a white noise machine here either. I have heard that a fan set on low can be great. A radio set off the station can also be used.
My husband finds that when he’s alone with Thomas and he fusses he changes position in his arms a few times and if that doesn’t work he will either walk him around outside to look at the trees etc or he’ll put him in his stroller and he has to walk him around as Thomas will fuss if left stationary while in the stroller.
Are you referring to Thomas sleeping in your DH's arms or just when being held? My ds didn't like me sitting still and holding him while awake or lying in the buggy still either - hmmm, personality perhaps?
He hasn’t had a lot of tummy time purely due to the fact that being a reflux bub he’s been quite intolerant of it but I’ll perservere.
Yes, definitely persevere, now that he is likely awake for longer, you can easily wait after his feed for 20mins or so and then work on some tummy time.
Sorry if it's all a bit random and disjointed, but post back if you need clarification.
HTH
