Help!! My lo squirms so much going to sleep he never gets there!

[luvmykidsjaj]

I'm getting to the end of my rope with my 5 week old ds and his naps. I've been trying to get him to go to sleep in his bed himself with shh/pat and his soother. The problem is that every 1-2 minutes he starts grunting and squirming and then his soother falls out and he comes back awake. We don't even make the 10 minute jolts Tracy talks about, and I'd almost be thrilled with 45 minute naps! I can literally stand by his bed for his entire nap time doing the shh/pat and replacing his soother. I thought maybe the soother was becoming a prop so I tried to get him to go to sleep without it this morning, taking a bit more wind down time in my arms. He got really drowsy so I put him in his crib and thought we might actually get a nap out of him when the grunting and squirming started. I've tried swaddling, he still squirms, I've tried leaving his arms out and he still squirms and ends up knocking out his soother. Ahhhhhhhh!!!!! I don't know what to do!

He is doing fine at night going usually a four hour stretch followed by a 3 hour and without his soother. Our problem is his daytime naps.

Can anyone help???

Kim

[Colesmom]

Hi there,

Sorry you're struggling with your los naps.  Any chance you could just hold the soother in place until he's fallen asleep?  Then you'd only be in there 10-20 minutes as opposed to the whole nap.  Once asleep though, be sure to let the soother drop out.

Also, have you looked into why he's grunting/squirming?  Could he have a bit of gas?

[Livbueno]

Kim
I'm having the same problems, what I did is, I'm wrapping him after he is asleep. It's working. I've only been doing it for 2 days.
The problem now is, it's getting harder and harder to calm him down when he gets tired. He goes crazy!!
It takes 45 to 60 minuotes to put him to sleep.
Anyway, try the wrapping and see how you go

Luv
Liv

[lucyrs27]

I had this too for a while with my LO..I swaddled tightly in blanket and then tucked in a slightly stretchy sheet all round her.. seemed to do the trick. 

[LŠuren]

Hiya
Have to agree with others, trying swaddling - your baby is still young and may need to feel swaddled (as she was for 9 months). 
My DS is 20 weeks and still needs it, although have started to wean him off it this week.

Hope this helps

[luvmykidsjaj]

Thanks so much everyone for your ideas! I'll definitely give swaddling another try. My lo is such a squirmer he gets out of my swaddling attempts every time, but maybe I should try again.

I really appreciate your thoughts, it's nice to know I'm not the only one dealing with this!

Kim

[LŠuren]

search on  the forum for the "Aussie Swaddle" if you are not sure.

[jsorrow24]

I am having the same problems with mine. My 5 week old ds squirms and grunts so much and throws his arms around. But he does go back to sleep and like your lo it does take a while for the patting and shushing to settle him down. He does get gas at times, but I can tell when it is. He is just a grunter. I have swaddled him and he just seems to get mad at that. But I keep doing it as much as I can.

Like you, it's nice to know I am not the only one either. I was just with mine and he was just squirming and grunting away this last nap. Very exhausting to sit there while he settles into sleep. Like you, I am usually by his crib for a good  patting/sshushing and putting the binky back in. But I don't want to keep putting that back in if he spits it out. I just keep patting and I also have white noise playing in the background.

It can be hard sometimes, but don't give up. I am on day 3 of getting him to extend his naps...doing well today.