Help with routine

[janelle]

I need some serious help!  My ds is touchy and I am having real toruble getting him to nap, have been since about 3 weeks whenhe"woke up"  Normal naps last anywhere from 20 mins to 5o mins max.  Every now and then we manage to fluke a 90 min nap.  I am aiming for a 3 hour EASY kind of 7,10,1,4,7, DF at 10:30 then 3am.  But this is what our last couple of days have looked like.

Yesterday

E 7:00am
A
S 7:45 - 10:00am
E 10:am
A
S 10:45
A 11:30
E 1:00
S 1:15
A 2:00
S 3:00
A 3:30
E 4:00
A
E 6:45
S 7:30
DF 10:30
E 4:00

Today
E 8:00
A
S 8:45 didn't fall asleep until 9:30
A 10:10
E 10:30
S 11:00
A 11:20
S 11:50
A 12:20

This is where we are up to.  Our days are all over the place.  I have tried extending awake time and that makes it worse.  Generally if I can get him to bedd between 45mins to an hour after he wakes he goes down ok but still doesn't stay asleep.  He is a tummy sleeper so we don't swaddle unless he is really overtired.  If we do swaddle it helps toget him to sleep but he sleeps even less. 

Any advice as my 2 year old daughter and I are going mad!!!!!

[janelle]

Anyone?...........

[janelle]

I haven't tried wake to sleep as once I get him to sleep I am too scared to do anything that might wake him as he sleeps so little anyway.  I think you are rigth about that first nap being seen as a continuation of night sleep.  SOmetimes he is ready to go back down pretty much straight after I have fed him!!! If I did shorten that first nap to say 1.5 hours do I just change EAS to EAS...AES for the rest of the day?  Our wind down is pretty much, go into the bedroom, turn of lights, put on white sound,  cuddle in mum's arms with dummy until drowsy and then lay down in cot.  If I manage toget that window (which is vary rare due to being overtired all the time)  Then I only need tohold him for less than a minute before his eyes get heavy and then I lay him down.  If he is overtired that calming down time can take forever!!!

[janelle]

Thanks!  The first WTS senario sounds like what I try to do at the moment.  When dd is napping I sit with ds for his whole nap and when he stirs I lay my hands on his legs and head (lightly) until he goes back into a deeper sleep.  This can take quite a few attemtpts sometimes before he stays  in a deep sleep though.  I think my problem is withh a 2.5 year old running around and wanting attention it is hard to spend 20 minutess doing pat/shh when he initially goes to sleep or spending time watching him while sleeping to do WTS.  If I od I end up with dd screaming outside the bedroom door which wakes him anyway (sigh)  I think I will stick to the 45 minutes for the first nap and try WTS when I can and see what happens.  Thanks again!!