How do I get him to stay asleep during the day??

[MrsBumblebee]

My first DS (aged 3 months) generally sleeps well at night, but is a bit of a nightmare during the day. I've recently started putting him down for proper naps, as before he was only catnapping on my lap, which meant I got nothing done, and I thought the time had probably come to teach him to sleep properly. He's very bad at falling asleep on his own, and he often needs a dummy or some white noise to help him. But even once he's deeply asleep, he wakes up without fail after 20-30 mins of sleep. I can then get him to go back to sleep again, but he'll wake up again 20 mins later. After this has happened once or twice, he's then too upset to get back to sleep. It's definitely not that he doesn't need the sleep - he spends quite a lot of the day being very crotchety and apparently overtired. One possibility is that he's waking up because he's missing his dummy - but a) he doesn't always use one, and b) why wouldn't he wake up at night in the same way?? Does anyone have any ideas??

At that age its all about routine. If he has been used to cat napping on your lap its going to be tough. Establish daytime sleep times and stick to them. Try to make sure that he sleeps in the cot where possible and not the buggy etc. Eventually he should get hang of it. Thats all the advice I can give - good luck

Sorry, this is going to sound a bit "Claire Verity" (), but fresh air really helps my LO to have a good long nap. Although it's a bit brisk at this time of the year, my DD2s first nap of the day is usually well wrapped up in the pram outside, so that when i'm ready to take DD1 to preschool, I can just wheel her off without having to wake her.

Also, try not to wait too long before putting your LO down for a nap - most young babies can only manage about 90 mins awake before needing another nap. You'll find there's not much time to feed, change and play with your baby before it's time for a kip again, but regular naps stop them getting overtired and they sleep better.

HTH

Thanks Murphyslaw. At least I've got feed routines in place now, so we've got some sort of structure. I'll just have to persevere with the sleep!

I would keep with it. Your lo is making a big change in his sleeping habits so it will take some time for him to adjust. If you keep persisting your lo will gradually sleep for longer and will get used to the idea of sleeping on his own.

My ds was similar except he did 40 min naps. He was difficult to settle in the first place and like you I took the time to re-settle him. Suddenly at about 4 months he started going longer for his naps.

My dd was always pretty good at settling herself but still only did 30mins naps when she was 3 months old (3 or 4 of them per day). Somewhere around 4 months she started doing longer naps.

I think it is something that they develop naturally pretty much regardless of what you do. So I would go for whatever gets you through the next few weeks and fingers crossed your DS will suddenly start going longer.

Thanks for the advice. It's good to know that he might just learn to sleep better pretty much by himself. Roll on that day!

thought i'd add my experience here -I had hell with my DS daytime naps for the first 6 months at first he wiuld just sleep downstairs in his bouncy chair then as he got older and more aware i started trying to get him in his cot and it was hellish. He would scream everytime i tried to put him down and we would have to repeat the walking round the room, soothing pat sussh thing til he was almost asleep then i would try and put him down and off he'd go again. It broke me and i was quite depressed over it but then suddenly round the 5 or 6 months mark he just started going into is cot and going off to sleep from wide awake. I did nothing different so i agree it's a developmental thing it must be. it's horrible at the time though and almost ruined my early months if being a mum so you have my sympathy xx

I am having a similar problem with my ds, i have read on various occasions about establishing routines but they never suggest how to achieve it. I can lie him down for a nap at anytime but if he decides he is not tired enough then he will fidget, then buck and then cry and not fall asleep until he is completely knackered. Sometimes he is awake for up to 3 and 1/2 hours at a time. Do you have any suggestions for establishing nap times? Thankyou

Some children will sleep like a DREAM in a sling and then you have a hand free for doing something else. Ring slings are the easiest (I loved the Huggababy), but in a Wilkinet or similar you get to have 2 hands free. Sometimes a baby will go into one and fall asleep, sometimes you need to slip them in once asleep - depends on the baby.

Another thing which might work is for the two of you to lie down together on a rug or blanket, and then once the baby is asleep you can slip away without waking them. Unless you've dozed off too, in which case a nap is what you needed as well!

If you do move away, stay nearby ready to catch them after 30 minutes when they startle - you can often get them back to sleep if you snuggle down with them again at that point.

my dd didn't get them hang of daytime naps until I weaned her and got her into a routine of a 2 hour nap after lunch
before that wewent for long walks to get her to sleep in the day