DD just doesn't sleep during the day

[TiredofYorks]

DD is 11 weeks and exclusively breastfed (I'm putting this in in case it's relevant).

She is fed on demand and cluster feeds from about 6.30pm until 9pm when she has a 4 or 5oz top up bottle and then goes to bed. She then sleeps until around 4am. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep for an hour or so but sometimes she doesn't and is then awake all day unless we are out in the car.

Today she has been awake since 5am except for a 20 min nap at 10am. I've tried putting her in her moses basket where she sleeps at night (this is where she had her 20 min nap after protesting for 1/2 hr), feeding her to sleep, the pushchair, cuddling her, in her rocking chair. The rocking chair almost worked although she seemed to jump everytime DS made a noise so I put her upstairs where it was quiet and she immediately woke up.

When she's awake she'll be content for 10 - 20 mins and then wants feeding.

I don't know what to do for the best.

I'm going to try her moses basket at the same time everyday (when we're in the house) to see if this sets a pattern, but apart from that I'm at a loss.

Any advice welcome (I hope I've posted this on the right board)

Is she dozing when feeding?

You could try a sling for day naps - I used one constantly and it got DS into the habit of sleeping in the day. As he got older I could then persuade him to nap in his cot at similar times.

It doesn't sound like she's getting enough sleep. The quiet at night probably doesn't help - a constant background noise might help. You could try white noise or the radio (something "talky" like radio 4) on very low so it's not silent but blocks out any louder more disturbing noises.

My DD is now 5 so it's a long time ago...but she was like this. You say she's sleeping from 9pm till 4am - that is pretty good for an 11 week old!- but the flip side of that is not napping in the day. Unless she's getting overtired and frantic because she can't get to sleep IMO your only problem is you might want to try and keep her up a bit later and see if she sleeps later in the morning. 9am till 4am is brutal....11am till 6am not quite so bad.

If Iggly's advice doesn't work I'd suggest working more on getting her to go longer at night than to get her napping in the day. I don't think my DD napped in the day from about 4 months, all her sleeping was done at night. Doesn't give you any time to yourself in the day, but is great for getting a proper night's sleep!

Automatic swinging chair helped my DD learn to nap during the day when she was a newborn. She went to bed in a moses basket/cot at night fine. Then at around 8 months she suddenly became able to nap in the cot during the day too. And she napped well.