Day time naps in breast fed baby

[Trillian42]

11 week old DD is a very reluctant daytime sleeper. She's got a semi-routine of sleeping for 7 hours at night - typically from 11-6 though this can vary (I know I'm lucky there!).
But she doesn't nap much during the day at all. She'll sleep sometimes for the odd 20 minutes in the pram if we're out and about, but usually wakes up the minute we arrive back at the front door (or if I decide to try something on in a shop )

As a result, she might not have slept at all from 7am until mid afternoon and she's very cranky at this stage. If I feed her lying down & she falls asleep, she will often stay asleep for 2-3 hours which seems excessive for a nap, but she's obviously just exhausted.

I'm guessing regular, shorter naps would be better for her, but she seems to fight sleep. The 'Baby Whisperer' seems to say that it's because she's over tired, but I've watched out for the signs she's tired (yawns, 7 yard stare or whatever she calls it, avoiding eye-contact) and tried putting her down in a quiet, dim room at that stage, but she either cries or thrashes about until she cries.

What sort of naps do your breast-fed babies take? She's been like this from the start

Can't offer much help, but a 2-3 hour afternoon nap sound reasonable to me.

Hi Trillian,

My Ds is now 6m and we like to joke that he is so fond of routine that he has a new one every day.

I try and aim to get him down for three naps a day, but some days this might be one, others five, so that shows how effective I am . ALso he dosen't sleep through so I know his night sleep differs.

I have known babies to nap like clockwork, but they don't stay like this for more than a couple of months anyway ime.

I think you may need to work on ways to help your dd go off to sleep. We've been through various phases, eg, being held and walking around, laying on a bouncing knee (!), the rocking chair, the car, and now the most reliable is the buggy. He wakes if I bring him in so I park him outside the kitchen window/open back door and get on thit tea or whatever though feeding to sleep is a perenial fave.

He has even, on two very memorable occasaions sent him self off to sleep by being placed in his basket/cot with me near by! though my best friends baby does best in a quiet room alone

So now as soon as he is cranky and eye rubbing I check he isn't hungry then pop him in the buggy for a little stroll. The dog likes it and I think it's helping me shift some of the baby weight, though it may be a rod for my own back come winter. I'm banking on him moving on to something else by then [optomistic emoticon]

SO keep going with your lie down feed = sleep and watch out for anything else that works...it could be the next tool in your armoury! Also, throw the book away. Struck me as unreasonable even when pg. Now there is now way I could be arse...can't see how you can fit it in with having a life tbh!! [cheeky emoticon] !

LOL at new routine every day! I'm not too keen on the book either, but I had to persuade husband not to get Gina Ford (we had friends who swore by her) and it seemed like a good compromise as she's less regimental. We've ignored most of the feeding advice as she seems to know nothing about BF, but were looking for tips on sleep.

I've always found it hard to fall asleep (even as a child) - maybe baby is the same! Our early tricks to get her asleep have all stopped working... rocking her on knees, walking with her over the shoulder, patting her back, singing quietly. Thankfully lying down feeds are working most of the time for now.

Any more baby nap times?

If feeding her to sleep is working then stick with it for now.

And throw away the book :)

DS2 barely sleeps through the day, mostly "boob" sleeps but he does 12 hours at night with one quick feed at 4am, so I can live with the lack of daytime naps.

He does tend to have an hour maybe 2 in the afternoon but not always. He is grumpy at bedtime but he goes to sleep so it isn't an issue.

DD ended up having lots and lots of naps yesterday! :) Just goes to show, I can worry about something for days, and then when I post it up here, she decides to change everything

Husband pulled his shoulder a few days ago, so I've been doing all the transfers from bed to basket as well as general soothing - walking around with her in my arms etc, and it's going to get difficult to do the transfer to cot when she gets any bigger My arms are killing me!

My DS has about 7 naps a day! Even more 'snaps' (snack and nap) which are very brief. 12 hours at night it two bursts so I'm worrying about the other end of the scale!

After a couple of weeks I bought Gina Fords book as I just felt so lost with a new baby but I found that trying to stick to a routine stressed me out even more.

I was constantly either trying to put DS to sleep or trying to wake him up, now I just let him do hat he likes. The only really useful piece of info I got from the book was to try and not let him go for longer than 2 hours without sleeping.

I still cant put him down on his own, but recently I've notice that if I lay down with him, rocking him gently and pretending to be asleep myself he tends to fall asleep. Other wise he just lays there for hours staring at my face.

Other things that have help in the past is laying him face down on my chest and letting him suck a finger. Or laying him in his cot and patting his belly gently. My DH plays him rock and roll music and dances with him to get him off to sleep. But none of these methods always work, I guess when he's ready to go to sleep he just goes, you can't make him.

He's neary 7 weeks now...