How to get son caught up on sleep

[jcsmom]

I posted earlier about my son's sleep habits and the 45 minute nap. I am trying to get him on EASY but am failing miserably. His naps are NEVER longer than 45 minutes, he awakens miserable, we have tried to hold through the jolts to no avail and I am afraid to shh/pat him through for fear of him not getting the sleep he needs. He seems so overtired and we just can't seem to get out of the overtiredness. He cries and whines all day, after his bath at night he is hysterical. He simply can't sleep longer than 45 minutes ANYWHERE. I have tired the stroller, car seat etc. to get him caught up so we can get started but 45 minutes, JOLT and he is awake. 10 minutes later he is crying because he wants to get back to sleep but can't fall back asleep. This was never a problem until 8 weeks. He can fall asleep on his own, but can't fall back asleep once he is overtired. The only place he will sleep for long periods is on me in a sling where I can get him through the jolts, which are crazy and because it blocks out visual stimuli. We are in a vicious cycle of trying to get him caught up and creating some really bad habits in the process.

He is 10 weeks and after 30 minutes, he is ready for winddown, which he hates. After 45 minutes he is asleep. This tells me he is overtired. he was staying up before when he napped for 2 hours for 1.5 hours. Now, after 30 minutes he is showing signs of overtiredness. He is 10 weeks old and I feel bad that I have caused him to get into this cycle of overtiredness. How do I break it?Last night was horrible, he was up at 5:20 after being put down after a 4 am feed and bam, 45 minutes and awake. All morning. We shh/patted back to sleep, but again, awake. How do I get on track?

[debo620]

Hi there,
when is the usual wake in the morning?
what time is the first nap?

[jcsmom]

We are still doing 45 minute naps! It is impossible to do EASY with him, I am trying loosely but everyday it seems to get harder and harder. He is now 12 weeks and only is able to stay awake for less than an hour. Are the 45 minute naps changing his internal clock?
Here is a typical day
6am-feed
6:30 sleep
7:15-awake and crying/screaming and no amount of shh/pat, jolt holding gets him through
7:15-8:15 Activity-try to keep low key so not to overstimulate but by 8:15 has yawned 4-5 times and is fussy and falls asleep within 5 minutes.
The rest of the day goes like this. He is getting 5-45 minute naps and as the day goes on he is able to stay up less and less. We out him down for the night between 6:30-7:30 as the earlier he goes down the later he wakes up.
Help. I need guidance. Is he overtired and is trying to catch up on sleep? He can't sleep anywhere else for longer; in his stroller for 30 minutes and in carseat the same.
What is going on with my son? His doctor doesn't seem worried but when he is chronically overtired and is 12 weeks staying up for only 1 hour it worries me.

[debo620]

we really battled the 40min naps from like 5 weeks until the age of 6months.
they are partly developmental, they work on their night sleep first and then the day sleep starts to develop at 6months of age or so.

Are the nights okay?
I would stick with a 6:30pm bedtime
and a 6am wake

I honestly understand that he may be overtired but I do think you have to extend the first activity time a bit. He may be tired to go down after 30-40min but he will not be tired enough to sleep longer then 40min at a time and thus the cycle begins.

I really would encourage you to work back up to 1.5hrs of awake time in the morning before the first nap, maybe adding 15min every few days. If the awake time is not correct before the nap, then extending it will not work.

do you swaddle-this may help with the jolts.
also you can try wake to sleep, what I did was go in to his room about 5min before the usual wake/jolt time and actually held my arm across his body and shielded his eyes with my other hand, having him swaddled really helped wth this. 1/3 times I was able to help him transition to the next sleep cycle.
If he woke fully, I tried to not let him see me (hard) and waited for him to cry and then I did ssh-patt (didn't work well fo us) but then I moved on to pupd at the age of 15weeks or so.
If you are not able to extend the first nap, then you do as you have been doing and shorten the next actvity time to 1hr max.
Some really do end up with 5X45min naps and just modify the EASY to ake it work.

For us the short naps were so habitual, that once he got used to sleeping longer then he actually wanted to sleep longer and he would often wake and put himself back to sleep.