Baby sleeping during the day...or rather not sleeping during the day.

[MissLucy]

Hello ladies

This is my first thread here, been lurking for ages but not really posted anything.

I'm after some advice. My LO is 8 weeks old and is an angel to get to bed at night, wakes up every 4-6 hours for food but I really don't mind that. Anyway the issue is is that she pretty much refuses to sleep during the day unless she is able to sleep on me (note not DH or anyone else just me) even then she'll only sleep for maybe 20 minutes at a time, this will happen maybe three times during the day.

I really don't want her to make a habit of this but she won't sleep in her pram or on any of her chairs. I haven't tried to put her in her cot because I wasn't sure if this would confuse her about day time is for mainly being awake and night time is for being asleep.

How much do your LO's sleep during the day ? I'm worried that she's not getting enough sleep during the day but I don't know how I can help ? Also do you have (did you have) set times for naps during the day at this sort of age? Like I said she's really good at night and is ready for sleeping at 8pm every night even if we've been out with family etc but the day is a bit of a nightmare.

Any help/suggestions gratefully received

 

[Kitten-B]

Happy first thread

Sam's never been a good day time sleeper. After the sleepy newborn phase he just stopped napping during the day unless out and about and happened to fall asleep in the car seat or pram. I just made sure I went out a couple of times a day for a while.

Gradually then (at about 12 weeks I think) started putting him to sleep in the carrycot part of the pram in the morning (took me a while to catch on that it was tiredness but he'd get very whiney about 2-3 hours after he'd got up so I'd wait for the sign first). I'd set the carrycot on the sofa, play some baby lullabies and rock the carrycot for side to side. He also had a dummy for naps which helps. At first took ages, could be rocking, mixture of slowly and quite vigourously, for half an hour to get him to sleep and then he'd never sleep more than half an hour. Gradually he got better at falling asleep and then I cut out the rocking and then tried to carrycot in his big cot upstairs before finally putting him down in his cot upstairs (he was 6 months by the time I got to this stage).

We were usually out in the afternoon so he'd usually snooze in his carseat for half an hour or so.

Worked great although in the last week he doesn't seem to need a morning nap anymore

Obviously different things will work for you but I found recognising when he was tired and really perservering every day to try to get to sleep in his carrycot (ie: not carseat or on me!) worked in the end. Long battle though!

From about 5 weeks he would only sleep for 1-1.5 hours during the day, usually in 2-3 short naps. Now he's dropped to most often 1 nap of 30-60 mins. Nowhere near the amount I expected but after talking to people it doesn't seem uncommon. I think the books lie!

 

[MissLucy]

Thank you for replying

When she will sleep on me it's usually 2-3 hours after waking up in the morning or cat napping during the day. I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to put her in her cot to sleep during the day but I might try it as I really don't want to get in to a bad habit of sleeping on me for any sort of napping during the day!

I guess every baby is different in their need for sleep too!

 

[Fabby]

To get lo to sleep longer have you tried a wind down routine? White noise is what we use here. I change his nappy and put him in his pushchair on a duvet that came with the bedding and i put the whiye noise on and a qucik rok of the pushchair and he is asleep. He usually sleeps anywhere between 45 mins to 1hr and 30 mins...... 45 mins been a rareity. We had problems with naps last week BUT he did come out on a horrid cold the later end of the week so i put it down to that but now we are back to normal naps now even though he still isnt 100% better. Also at your lo's age they dont/cant seem to go any longer than 1.5 hr - 2 hr awake time - 2hrs been the absolute most. Have you tried putting your baby to sleep before the 2 hr awake time cus i always find that if my lo has gone over tired then thats when he has a shorter nap ie 45 mins. Still now at 7 months he can only go 2-2.5 hr awake time in the day before he is wanting nap x

 

[MissMooMoo]

Hi, I can not offer any advice but just wanted to say I could so have written your post!

Jacob is 5 weeks and only wakes up once between 10-30 PM and 8-30AM so is an angel at night but is the same as you LO in the day. I am having to keep him entertained all day and the only time he will sleep for longer than 30 min is in his pram when we are out. I dont have the enregy to walk for the whole day!!!!

My mum keeps suggesting putting him in his room in the cot (he is in a moses basket with us at night) and draw the curtains and put the blackout blind down but I dont want to confuse him incase it mucks up his amazing bed time routine?

So glad its not just me!

xxx

 

[cheese lover]

I could have written the same post, and can still say the same thing. As soon as my LO discovered there was a world out there she basically quit napping. On the back side of growth spurts she'll nap but otherwise she naps about 1-1.5 hours a day. She seems fine. Is a happy baby most of the time so I'm not too worried. her pediatrician isn't worried either.

 

[MissLucy]

Thank goodness it really isn't just me.

We try to do the Eat, Activity, Sleep, You thing but if we feed her in her chair then it becomes Eat, Sleep, Activity (You time, what is that then?!) I think I'll try winding down, I don't mind that she wants to see everything but when we're at home and there is nothing new to see why can't she just sleep??!!

Thanks for the replies, even if people can't offer advice it's reassuring to know that it isn't just Izzy who is a nightmare for napping.

Edit to add- Miss MooMoo, this is why I'm reluctant to put Izzy in her cot during the day (however I did put her in there the other day as she was screaming and wouldn't stop) I don't want her to get confused, but then if she won't sleep downstairs and needs a nap what else can we do? It's a bit of a catch 22.

 

[moomin momma]

I could have written the same post, and can still say the same thing. As soon as my LO discovered there was a world out there she basically quit napping. On the back side of growth spurts she'll nap but otherwise she naps about 1-1.5 hours a day. She seems fine. Is a happy baby most of the time so I'm not too worried. her pediatrician isn't worried either.

This is us. Lucy started off not napping, then we got her into a good system of napping every hour and a half, a rough EASY routine. Then at about 4months-ish she just stopped napping properly. She now only naps in the car, her sling or on me after a feed
Not sure what we're going to do as I'm going back to work in 5 weeks and then her Dad will have her all day. Am hoping that once we get past wonder week 26, and she starts properly eating solids so isn't hungry all the time she might settle down a bit better