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Daytime sleep issues

Does anyone else's LO find it hard to sleep in the day. P is getting worse. She used to sleep if i rocked her for at least an hour or put her in the sling but now even that doesnt work. She cries for hours because she is tired but just wont/cant sleep. No amount of rocking, holding, driving, walking makes any difference. I just cant deal with it anymore. She slept for 8 hours overnight (broken with 2 feeds which is fine of course) the night before last and napped for one hour yesterday in chunks of 10-15 mins so she had 9 hours sleep over a 24 hour period!! I am grieving for my mum, trying to sort out her affairs, clearing her house, worrying about the funeral, thinking about G starting school next week and with P sobbing if she isnt feeding all day long its just getting too much. I am being pulled in every direction.

Any new tips for getting P to go to sleep in the day that i havent thought of??? 

Sorry that was more rambly/needy than i meant it to be but this non stop crying is driving me maf.

Replies

  • Hugs, you have such a lot going on. I wonder if she's picking up on your stress? Is there anyone you can delegate anything to?

  • Sending you a big hug - you have so much on your plate at the moment - it's so tough.  

    How long is she awake for before her first nap? It may be that she is overtired when she is going down and you may find that putting her down a few minutes earlier might help.  E is really good napper when we are at home (outisde the house is another matter!), sometimes she just has off days for no apparent reason - However, it could also be because the wind is blowing fromt he east/it's raining or any other random reason.

    Hopefully she will find her way to sleep again soon x

  • I was trying to put her down at the first sign of tiredness after 1.5-2 hours of being awake but she just wont sleep and i do then think she is overtired. I guess i would cope better under normal circumstances and G starts school on Weds so i guess there will be less pressure. Mum's funeral is also on Tuesday so i wont be stressing about that.

    Sorry for all these rubbish needy posts and thank you xxx

  • I second Alocin in that its a really fine line with my E between sleepy enough to sleep and overtired enough to scream all afternoon before finally passing out.

    How do you get her to sleep at night? I ask because I've been reading a book that says a baby expects that for the next sleep they'll expect the same "experience" as the last sleep... so we now go upstairs into the dark room and put into a sleeping bag as we would at bedtime.  Sometimes I feed before,  sometime not depending on the time.

    Otherwise,  I also agree that P may be picking up on your stress.  You poor thing,  you sound like you have a hell of a lot on and I hope that you are getting plenty of support.

    I know it's not much help but just wanted to say that you're doing a brilliant Job just to be standing right now!  I really hope this passes soon x

  • F is barely sleeping at the minute as well day or night. I find that there is nothing I can do and the more stressed I get the more difficult it is to get him to sleep. The only thing which seems to get a decent nap from him is swimming! What age is P again? There is a massive development at 15-19 weeks which I think can cause sleep disturbances. I am hoping that F is just going through it early. I spoke to the HV yesterday and she said it will not harm his development and just to ride it out. Do you have anyone could take P for a hour or two to give you a break?

  • I've got a non day sleeper as well. He will fall asleep but only for 10 mins. He has circles under his eyes when he is shattered but after a 10 min cat nap wakes up bright and happy! I have no idea how he can cope on so little sleep.

  • As LM said, when #1 was younger he had his day sleeps in his cot, in sleeping bag. Sometimes with a feed or story beforehand

  • A is a nightmare for daytime sleep as well, really fights it and its a battle everytime. I have to rock amd shush her, let her suck my finger (she won't take a dummy) and I have to play white noise quite loudly right in her ear. The white noise is what does it I think...have you tried that? I don't have an app, just a recording of our own dishwasher on my phone!

  • I really feel for you as B is also a fully fledged member of the 'Can't Sleep, Won't Sleep' club. Luckily she doesn't cry, just whinges, but I can imagine how extra hard it is for you. We also have about the same total hours of sleep over a 24 hour period and I've been stressing over the X amount of time babies her age (4 months) should nap. I'm relieved by JRJ's comment that development isn't affected!

    I've just finished a TWO HOUR breast-feed...feeding commonly takes over an hour as B naps and nibbles between milk let-downs. I have wondered if this counts as daytime sleep?? Does P do similar?

    B will only get to sleep by feeding or being bounced by H on the gym ball. When she's obviously tired she swishes her head around with her mouth open, looking for boobs to get her to sleep. I've worn bald patches on the lawn trying to rock her to sleep in her pram and when an hour or so's effort does pay off, it's only for 1/2 an hour's zeds at most!

    Sometimes when she slips off the boob asleep she will stay snoozing on the feeding pillow for a bit but I daren't move her as she'll wake up. She won't sleep in her cot in the day and can't self-settle (by the time she might doze off, it would be feed o'clock again and therefore pointless?!)

    I've tried every trick and I wish I could help you but unfortunately all I can do is say you're not alone! Hugs for everything else that is going on too.

  • I guess it all gets easier with time. Thanks everyone. She has slept more today so i have had more of a break. Sorry to hear there are some of you having a hard time too xx

  • You have my sympathy MM.  W is an absolute nightmare to get to sleep during the day.  He cries when i put him down, but i've got this baby monitor that plays music.  I put him down about an hour and a half to two hours after he wakes and he's never impressed with me.  I'm probably a bad mummy for doing it, but i let him cry and put the music on.  Within about 5 minutes he goes quiet and falls asleep.  It's maybe only for half an hour to 45 minutes, but it makes a bit of a difference to his mood.  We can go through this process 2 or 3 times during the day.  He goes to bed at night between 8 and 9 and sleeps right through the night until about 6 when he's looking for a feed.  I have noticed that if i get up with him around 8 in the morning, he'll go down for a nap around 10 and sleeps for an hour to 2 hours at a time!  The other day he slept from 10 until 2!  I was shocked, but he was recovering from a fever, so i'm not sure if that had anything to do with it.

    Big hugs to you.  Make sure that you're getting some time to yourself some times.  You're going through a lot and need a bit of you time too. xx

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