11 week old baby. - naps are a nightmare

[singingpinkmonkey]

Hello!

I need advice or reassurance that I'm not screwing motherhood up totally.

My 11 week old son sleeps really well at night. We bathe him at around 6:30 and give him a quick massage, feed and rock him until asleep then transfer to his basket and he sleeps until around 7am perhaps waking once or twice for feeds in the night.

Daytimes, however are a different story and I cannot get him to nap, especially in his basket. The only things that work are the pram and car seat but both of these involve a lot of crying and screaming before he drifts off and I find it very distressing. I've tried a number of things to try and help:

Putting him in a darkened room and staying with him to encourage him to fall asleep.
Bouncy chair
Swing chair
Dummy
Baby carrier
Rocking him to sleep then transferring
Ewan the sheep

Nothing works and he gets very little daytime sleep and I'm worried sick. Is anyone else's LO like this and what can you recommend I try?

I've asked the health visitor but they weren't much help and it's really getting me down. I'm failing my baby and I'm desperate to try and help him sleep.

I'm also worried as I will be sending him to nursery in 6 months time and need him to be able to nap!

Please help!

[FATEdestiny]

Are you breastfeeding? Could you feed to sleep lying down and then leave baby where he falls asleep?

Don't worry about nursery, the staff there will be very experienced at encouraging daytime naps. Just focus on the here and now.

[EsmesBees]

Mine was like this. She's still a bad napper now. My issue is that she wouldn't ever really seem tired or drowsy, and didn't have the normal sleep cues, so I googled average awake times for the age she was, and then used that to work out when I needed to start getting her down for a nap. I swaddled, used a dummy and white noise which would work sometimes. But she mainly napped in a sling at that age. The biggest thing for me was not letting her get overtired.

[EsmesBees]

And Fate is right. Nursery workers are all part witch and can make even the most determined baby nap.