Help! Catnapper

[Ready]

DD (10wks) struggles to nap for longer than one sleep cycle during the day. She wakes usually after 30 mins almost like clockwork.

I know she's still very young but she wakes up so grumpy and tired and it is affecting her days.

Any tips?

[roseability]

Can I join this thread!

I have a 16 week old catnapper so I fully sympathise. It is so bad that she melts down with overtiredness at teatime. Full on screaming, worse than when she was a newborn

She sleeps through the night and people keep saying 'well that is the main thing'. Argh! No disrespect to people with night wakers (I have been there DD woke every 2 hours until 13 weeks) but it is a real struggle during the day. I have a DS aged three and I get no quality time with him and my DDs meltdowns are bugging him too

I have tried everything I can think of. Walks in the pram, sling, breastfeed to sleep, rock to sleep etc

Like your baby she wakes after 30 mins (sometimes less and will not go back). Sometimes I struggle to get her to sleep at all. I just don't understand why when she sleeps so well at night she won't during the day.

I appreciate she won't need loads of sleep during the day as she sleeps so long at night, but she needs some sleep and IMO a decent nap at some point. If she wasn't tired and didn't need it then surely she wouldn't lose it.

sorry to rant but had a bad day!

My DS was a bit of a catnapper. He only sorted it out when he could drop to one decent nap a day after lunch and when he was on solids

I can't help but feel that if I left her to cry it out she would sleep better but for obvious reasons I can't bring myself to do that

[roseability]

I have even tried lying down with her when DH is at home. Doesn't work either

[Ready]

Join away
DD sleeps well (touch wood) at night now too, waking 1-2 times for feeds. It's just the daysleep - we try to get her straight back to sleep by ssshing as she starts to stir but then she will only sleep for a further 5 mins.

She's just really grumbly without a good amount of sleep in the day. Heartbreaking.

[Ready]

Yep, tried lying on our bed next to her cot - didn't work.

[roseability]

It is so tough and I get so of people who's baby naps beautifully during the day

I don't mind about a specific routine and try to go with the flow but the rare days she has done a longer nap have been so much better for me and my children

She is a baby who needs her sleep (unlike my DS who just didn't need that much) and it is making for miserable, unsettled patches during the day

[Ready]

I totally agree, I wouldn't really mind if she woke after a short burst and was happy, but she needs more sleep and cries or gets clingy.

[Ready]

Bump?

[nomoresleep]

Not much advice, but sympathies - both my DCs have done this. You'd really think that babies would be able to sleep as and when they needed it, wouldn't you.

With DD I found that the sling worked, if I kept walking.

With DS (6 mo) I am now using the sling for a morning nap and then feeding him to sleep on my lap for a lunchtime nap. I keep him on my lap and every time he wakes up I pop him back on the boob and he goes back off. He is sleeping up to 2 hours like that. Then I don't bother trying to get any more naps and I feed him to sleep at 6pm, sometimes earlier.

This only works since DD is at pre-school till 3pm so I can afford to spend 2 hours of my day doing nothing! But on the days when DD is home it's really hard, and she watches way too much cbeebies whilst I try to get DS to nap and deal with the wailing that inevitably follows from too-sort naps.

So basically, the only things that have worked for me are:

sling whilst walking, no stopping
constant breastfeeding
early night instead of late afternoon nap.

With 2 DCs at home, obviously the first two options are not workable unless your older DC will come on a walk in the buggy or watch a dvd whilst you feed. To be honest Roseability, I might even consider getting childcare for a few hours a day in your shoes, if you could find a method like breastfeeding that worked.

[Ready]

it's a mystery to me - the old addage 'sleep like a baby' is nonsense