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Help with daytime sleeping!

Sophie is 9 weeks old and over the last couple of days has started refusing to nap for more than five minutes at a time in the day, except first thing in the morning. She obviously needs the sleep as I see tired signs, and by the end of the day she's so over tired that it is impossible to do anything to keep her happy and it can then take up to an hour to get her to sleep at night. At night she sleeps for about 5 hours before waking up for a feed (she's breastfed) and then for another 4 - 4.5 hours.

We have a sort of routine in place. She'll wake up between 5.30 and 6.30am. I feed her approximately 3 hourly throughout the day. If we go out we usually go out late morning as that's when most of the groups meet. We start getting her ready for bed at about 7.30pm. She gets more than enough stimulation in the daytime so she's not crying through boredom. It's also not hunger as I often end up feeding her to try and get her to sleep.

In the daytime I try to get her to sleep downstairs. She was refusing to sleep in the moses basket in the day and would only fall asleep on me, or in the vibrating bouncy chair (where she could sleep for 2 hours at a time). Over the last week or so she's been less willing to sleep on me (thankfully!) and keeps waking up in the chair.

I'm wondering if it's time to try putting her in her cot in her room or the moses basket in our room (she still sleeps in the moses basket in our room at the moment) and darken the room for daytime naps. Although I'm a little confused as at first you're told to get them to sleep with the usual day time noises in the daytime, but later it changes to naps in a quiet place. I'm not sure exactly when you're supposed to change it!

Has anyone got any suggestions or tips?

Replies

  • Is it possible she's getting too much stimulation in the daytime? baby that young doesn't need much stimulation, just being out of the womb is stimulating enough! Also 7.30 might be a bit late for her, what about it you start bedtime routine at 5.30 and have her in bed by 6.00? Also the more they sleep the more they sleep, when my LO has struggled I just MAKE him sleep by any method, usually a sling and I get as much sleep in him as possible, I cancel groups etc and have a few peaceful days at home where I just focus on getting him calm and tanked up with sleep. Then once he's not overtired anymore he goes back to his old 'routine'. You sort of have to remind them how to sleep. Good luck
  • My DD is very similar to yours by the sounds of things and we have a very similar routine)! She will catnap for 10 mins a couple of times after a feed during the day, but often that's it. Her record is 19 hours without sleep!

    I was worried about it, but just figure that some babies need less sleep than others as she is well in herself and sleeps well at night. It does make it hard to get things done sometimes though! If I try and put her down for a nap it doesn't seem to matter where, if she is going to sleep it could be in her basket or bouncy chair downstairs.

    She is 10 weeks btw.

  • my lo was like that at that age then from 12 weeks i started putting him down in his big cot in the afternoon to get him used to it and e will now settle himself for a sleep he never could before 12 weeks. Now at 14 weeks he has a snooze in the morning in his chair and a sleep in the adfternoon in his cot. He goes to bed at 11 sleeps untill 7and is breastfed.

    I asked the hv who said some babies just dont need as much sleep so keep going and when your lo is a little bit older you will probably find when you know they are tired clean and full you can put them down awake and they will fall asleep themselves
  • Thanks ladies, she's finally gone down for a nap in her chair and had a good sleep this morning, so maybe she's just had a couple of off days.

    Dollywotsit - I always worry about the stimulation thing - is it too much or too little.

    Lizzie - thankfully we've never had a 19 hour session - my goodness!

    Hopefully it will start to sort itself out.

    It's hard this parenting lark, as soon as you think you've sussed it they go and do something unexpected!
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