Daytime naps

[Catriona74]

I have a 7 week old baby who has decided not to sleep during the day anymore. She used to sleep happily in her moses basket in the sitting room, and when awake would lie on her playmat on the floor. However, 2 weeks ago she was in hospital with viral meningitis and since then seems to have stopped sleeping during the day and so by the evening is so tired she ends up screaming and we cannot calm her. The past few days she does not even want to be put down, so I am struggling to eat or go to the loo without leaving a baby screaming. Has anybody else experienced this problem, or got any advice about what we can do to get her to sleep during the day.

A sling? I had DS strapped to me for most naps at that age - could easily do stuff while he dozed away. Was a godsend.

Have you tried swaddling? It worked great for us until DD was nearly 6mo

you may need to wind her down to sleep first by following a consistent pattern, to signal to her that "it's time to sleep now". If it helps, our pattern was like this:

1. notice tired signs (ie grizzling, rubbing eyes, tugging at ears, turning away, rejecting cuddles)
2. walk her to her room saying "oh you're very tired, very tired"
3. pull the curtains
4. swaddle
5. lie her down and shh shh shh
6. walk away and shut the door, ignoring any little grizzles

We put DD in a darkened room during the day for her daytime sleeps, away from household noises. I reckon this helps, but some people swear by having them sleep in a light room.

Also, perhaps its worth staying at home for a bit and not trying to fit too much into the day until you get the naps sorted? Babies can get overstimulated so easily: even havnig them in the pushchair while you do shopping or whatever can really tire them out.

Slings are fine if you want to set up a pattern of your baby sleeping on you (some people love this, and that's fine). If you want them to sleep in their cot/moses basket then (as my mother always says) you should start as you mean to continue.

Watching with interest as I'm having the same issue, and have a toddler that is starting to get very annoyed that I've always got a baby on me. Tried slings but he will only sleep in it when we are out walking, so can't do anything in th house with DS1

No helpful advice I'm afraid, I'm just as stuck as you, so you have my sympathy

Thanks to all of you. We hve bought a black out blind for our bedroom and when I see she is starting to get tired take her upstairs, put her in her sleeping bag and then put her in her basket with the blind over the window. This has worked fine in the mornings so far, but the afternoons have still been a bit grizzly, but that may have been that I have been out both lunchtimes and so have probably missed her starting to get sleepy. We have a weekend at home with no visitors so hope to get a bit of a routine sorted out then. I think she is to interested in what is going on around to go to sleep in the living room now!