Please help with a sleep routine

[bumb1ebeesknees]

DC is 14 weeks corrected, 20 weeks from birth.

Over the last few weeks day time naps have shortened considerably to 45 minutes three or four times a day. This can be extended to a couple of hours if out and about in the buggy or if he sleeps on my chest, but then I get nothing done.

He seems to always get tired and need a nap at 6 so we now do bath at 5:30. He will breastfeed to sleep usually and then wake an hour later and cluster feed / be unsettled until he finally goes down at 8:30 / 9 on a good day. Then wakes for a feed around 12/ 1 and again at 3 / 4 and again at 5 / 6 and then again at 8. Tired again by 9:30.

I've tried not feeding him but he just gets upset and judging by how full my breasts get at night, I would say he drinks a good portion of his daily calories over night.

Night time wakings he usually just feeds and goes straight back to sleep. He is on ranitidine for silent reflux so I keep him upright on me for ten minutes or so to burp and digest a bit. We're up no more than 45 mins.

Day time naps are becoming increasingly difficult to settle him as he is no longer feeding to sleep as very interested in what's going on around him or gurgling and smiling at me between crying episodes. I find myself patting, jiggling, rocking and using white noise (vacuum cleaner seems to work best!) to get him down.

I'm worried that the rocking in the day is a bad idea and something he will come to rely on.

He is ebf and won't take a dummy (I've really tried). He is still swaddled due to flappy arms.

I'm wondering if some sleep training is needed now or if something will click?

I would preserver with the dummy. It sometimes takes persistence to get baby to accept it. I believe it will be "The Answer".

I also think a bouncy chair (play arch removed) would help you with daytime naps. Don't use vibrate, just bounce.

This teaches baby to go to sleep without being held or fed. It is also really easy to bounce baby back to sleep if they stir slightly. It's a great position for a baby with reflux, since head is raised slightly.

45 minutes is a perfectly normal length of time for a little baby I'm afraid. You just have to make sure they have enough 45 minute sleeps rather than expect to lengthen them. They do lengthen at around 6-7 months usually around crawling time.

It's exhausting though!

Won't baby then need to be bounced to sleep all the time? At the moment I've been very consistent with putting him down in his crib for sleeps when we're at home. But he's pretty much always put down asleep.

I've got five different types of dummy! Is any type more effective?

Yeah 45 min naps are pretty normal for this age. We used a dummy with our ds until he started sucking his thumb at 18 weeks, and it did work well to extend naps. We used the avent ones. He still woke up after 45 mins but would go back down again for another 45 with the dummy. Did become a bit of a nightmare with the four month sleep regression though as we were up and down all night replacing it! Thank god for that thumb...

If he's struggling to go down for naps maybe he's ready for slightly longer awake times? I can't remember exactly when ds moved to 2 hours but it was somewhere around that age.

Do you have a naptime routine to help him wind down and know it's time for sleep? Ours is pretty simple - nappy change, blinds closed, cuddle with song playing on mobile then in to cot drowsy but awake (usually sucking thumb). He'll sometimes play a bit once I leave the room but normally drops off after about 5 mins

Won't baby then need to be bounced to sleep all the time?

Assuming you use a cot and not a bouncy chair at night, I've not known a reliance in four children. Once you are getting better quality and longer daytime sleeps, you start moving daytime naps into cot like night time.

My DD is just turned 5 months and has just started lengthening naps to more like 90 minutes and so is now having her bigger two naps in the cot, smaller 45 minute catnaps still in bouncy chair (as all her naps have been up until now).

I've got five different types of dummy! Is any type more effective?

Ah, the great Dummy Challenge!

Different people will swear by different dummies. Personally, we have always used the bulbous 'cherry' type dummies first.