10wo does not sleep, help!

[FluffyJawsOfDoom]

Dd is awake until 2.30am (at least; it can be 4am) without fail, despite doing the bright in day dark in night thing, and is awake by 9am - she naps only for 2-3 short periods (like, .5-1.5hrs) through the day, and she clusterfeeds in the evenings.

It's been like this since she was 2 weeks, and I'm utterly confounded by those that say "put her to sleep early" or "every few hours" - how?? If I lie her down before she's ready at 2.30 she just cries.

I'd be fine with the 2.30am thing if she actually slept in the day what can I do? :(

[er1507]

what time does she wake from her last nap? Do you a bedtime routine yet? You need to do small things to shift her routine a bit.

[Nigglenaggle]

I can only offer my sympathy - it will get better!!! Maybe not great, but better!!! What do you think about co-sleeping? We never wanted this, but in the end it took so, so very long to get DC to sleep that we did a bit. To start with we took it in turns to sit with him or lie in the bed with him and read a book for naps - it took a long time to get him to sleep at all. We just kept putting him in the cot when we could. It was awful, to be honest!!! Now at 9mths he isn't the best sleeper in the world, but things are better. I dont have the answers, really, I am just offering solidarity!!

[SamraLee]

I found I have to literally put my daughter to sleep.Vacuum sounds, shushing, rocking, anything to help her to sleep for a nap. Eventually I found putting her in the sling and walking up and down the hallway, patting and shushing her while she sucked my finger was the magic potion. It normally took about 15 minutes to put her to sleep, some days she would need the vacuum and some days she would give a cry (a tired cry) until she fell asleep. I also hold her while she sleeps though, the whole time she sleeps. Now though, she's learned that the sling means nap time. It takes all of 5 minutes, if that, to get her to sleep and I just pat her back and sometimes a dummy. Hope this helps with nap time!

[Nigglenaggle]

Oh yea white noise! Forgot about that! We got a CD and it was extremely helpful!!

[FluffyJawsOfDoom]

We have no bedtime routine really (but is she a bit young for that to make a difference?) - baths upset her, so we just clusterfeed in the evenings til she gets sleepy. About 1am I cross my fingers and take her upstairs and sit in the dark (sob) feeding her to sleep but it can be 4am and a few attempts at putting her in her crib til she settles.

Co-sleeping just isn't for us - and tbh there's so little sleeping going on anyway it would be nearer co-getting-bashed-by-flailing-newborn-limbs than co-sleeping! But it's just not for me, at least while she's so little.

I'll try the hoover samra - atm the only thing that works is the pram; I'm walking hours every day which is at least helping with the baby weight!

[SamraLee]

If the Hoover helps, once my daughter was asleep form vacuuming, we switched to a youtube video of vacuum noise for about 10-15 minutes after she was asleep, as the actual vacuum is much louder and we could transition from vacuum, youtube video, to regular TV noise or something similar.

[HarlettHoHoHoScara]

Hairdryer noise worked for DD at that age. Then we invested in a cot mobile with light projection and sounds which worked like a charm after a week or so. At first she was just excited by the lights but then it soothed her to sleep and now she is usually asleep in minutes at bed and nap times.

[FluffyJawsOfDoom]

Harlett, could you link to something similar? :)

[HarlettHoHoHoScara]

It's this one

Not the cheapest but worth every penny, IMO :)