My baby doesn't nap! Help!

[firsttimemothergoose]

Just that really. My DD doesn't nap at all but is clearly tired and by the evening she is often screaming as she is so overtired.
What can I do? I'm starting to think that putting her in the Moses basket and just letting her cry it out might be an option. She will fall asleep whilst bf but as soon as I put her down she will wake up and cry. I have tried rocking her in and out of the Moses basket but she will not settle into a sleep. I have also tried a dark room with little noise, like bed time. She sleeps fairly well at night.
When she does occasionally sleep it seems 10 mins is the most we will get. She is 9 weeks old .
Any suggestions?

[Pointlessfan]

Mine was exactly the same, she has gradually improved. Will she sleep on you or in a pram/car seat? Those are the places DD slept in the day for quite a long time.
It's exhausting though isn't it?

[Hoggle246]

I really wouldn't let a baby that young CIO. She's still tiny!

My ds wasn't a particularly good napper but a few things helped us - a dummy for daytime sleeping which helped him switch off plus served as a prop for him knowing it was nap time. He also napped on me - rocked to sleep - until he was 9/10 months old. I concentrated on night sleeping and took the naps any way I could! Now at 11 months he naps in his pram, even in the house, and is doing really well with a long nap in the morning plus a shorter one in the afternoon. So the pram could be another idea?

At your dd's age I made ds nap every two hours. Not letting him get overtired also made him so much easier to get to sleep in the first place.

Good luck with it! But please don't leave her to cry this early!

[Toadsrevisited]

Get a sling and feed in it? Worked well for us.

[firsttimemothergoose]

Thank you, she will sleep in the car but wakes as soon as we stop and isn't and ideal solution.
She will sleep on me after feeding but I either need to sleep myself or get up to do things so again, this Isn't helpful.
Hoggle, when you say you made DS sleep, how? That's my question, how can I get DD to sleep without getting in the car. Is it simply a case of rocking and rocking and rocking while she cries it out or am I missing something?

[Hoggle246]

I literally did this every time - put dummy in, cradled him in my arms, softly bounced him up and down, and softly repeated 'shush shush'. If I had timed the nap properly, when I knew he was getting tired but wasn't yet so tired he was then wired, it wouldn't take long - usually no more than 5 mins. Sometimes a bit of crying but not often - crying would usually indicate over tiredness. I'd then just sit with him sleeping on me until he woke up. Not ideal at all I know, but tbh it was the only way I could get the bleeder to sleep! We like you had hours and hours of hideous awake time in the early weeks, until I read somewhere that at that age they can only last max 2 hours before needing to nap again - I just hadn't picked up quickly enough after the newborn stage wore off that ds wouldn't just fall asleep on his own anymore when tired. So I started watching him like a hawk for tired signs - glazed eyes, grumpiness, yawns, eye rubbing - and when he did any of those I started the routine. I won't lie, I was pretty strict on him having a nap because it made the world of difference to his happiness when awake - and it does restrict you slightly in terms of I did fit my life round his to promote naps wherever I could. I know that's not ideal or wanted for some mums, and I can see why. But my ds was super alert and really did need my help to get the naps in - and still does although the older they get the fewer naps they have and that makes things so much easier. I really did find getting those naps sorted one of the hardest aspects of having a baby so you have my sympathies.

[Hoggle246]

Also I found a book 'your baby week by week' massively helped for so many simple things like max awake time etc that people don't seem to spell out anywhere else - or at least I'd managed to miss them!

[Redling]

If she sleeps on you, then she can nap but you might have to bite the bullet and just let her sleep on you. If she's very overtired everyday this is bad and you need to give her a couple of days of sleeping however. At that stage I would still be sitting on the sofa holding a sleeping DS for about 2-3 hours in the afternoon as that is when he'd be getting Crochety if he hadn't napped well, and to me it was more important he slept then I 'got on with things'. Yes shit piles up but I dealt with it at the weekend when SH was around. You don't mention of you have other children? If not can other stuff wait? Your daughter isn't refusing to sleep, she's desperate to but can't do it alone and may still need to be held. She is tiny and a lot of babies do still need to be held majority of the time at that age. She'll grow out of it, my DS will now fall asleep on me and then I can pop him in the pram to nap. You are not teaching her bad habits of you hold her, and at her age just 'leaving her to cry it out' will have no effect but to distress you both greatly. As a PP mentions a baby that age can't go more than an hour without sleeping and she won't just drop off herself, pick her up and do dummy, rocking, feeding or whatever she needs to sleep, then settle down for a sit and cuddle. It won't be forever, this is still the newborn period. DS is 13 weeks now and as I said easier to put down. He still can't go more than 90 mins without me needing to settle him for a sleep.