constant tiredness

[gillythekid]

My 3 month old son sleeps well at night but is constantly tired during the day. Sometimes he's awake no longer than half an hour and he's rubbing his eyes, yawning and very cranky. Problem is, he has to be coerced into taking his naps, which last no longer than 45 minutes. It's getting to the stage where we have no quality time as it's a constant battle to get him to nap. I've tried taking him out in the pram, introducing a dummy, feeding him, cuddling him, rocking in the moses basket but nothing will induce a long restorative sleep. He used to have to be roused from his lunchtime nap after 2 hours but since about week 9 he's just a right cranky pants and I'm exhausted. He's had a cold for a week so that may be making things worse but I'm at a loss to know what to do.

Just want to say that it's normal. My ds was always like this from about 10 weeks. He only napped for 30 minutes at a time and always woke up screaming and cranky but I never managed to sus it out. Trying to get him back to sleep just resulted in more crying and stressed me out even more. He did sleep through the nigt from 10 weeks though but naps were awful and days were very cranky. I have heard that if you partially wake them about 5 minutes before they are due to wake (for you after about 40 mins of sleep), then immediated soothe him/ feed him/ rock him back to sleep, it resets their body clock and you should get another 45 minutes nap. It didn't work for us though, it just p*ssed him off beyond belief but I have read it can work miracles!

Blimey, you just don't want to run the risk of making him even more cranky (if it's possible!) He's not sleeping through the night, I know it often takes BF babies a little longer. We put him down at 7, give him a feed and change at 11 then he used to go through till 5 or 6, this week it's been nearer 4 but he has been snuffly.
It's the 'cues' for sleeping that I'm trying to respond to, if I leave him up when he's yawning and grappling at his face, he just screams, sometimes after being awake for only 30 or 40 minutes. I need an instruction manual, I swear.

Ahh when I say sleeping through I meant I put him to bed at 7, dream feed at 10:30 then he'd sleep through til 6-7am. Sounds like you're nights are going well compared to most. It's difficult when they are so cranky isn't it??? I know how you feel. It did resolve its self in the end but not til 9 months when he finally was ablt to nap for an hour and half twice a day and also he just got to the point where he physically needed less sleep so was more content. It is just hard at the time.