Newborn not napping well in the day

[bleachblondemom]

My baby is 3 weeks old and for nearly a week he’s struggled to nap during the day. Sometimes he has 2-3 hours, but a lot of the time I can only get him down for about half an hour. He spends so much time awake it worries me as I’ve read they should only be awake for about an hour at a time at this age. His feeding is all over the place because he wants to eat when he wakes up then by the time he’s ready to sleep again he’s also hungry. He’s also noticing he’s hungry faster because he’s awake so gets into the habit of eating little and often. Advice online is confusing me because it says to keep day times bright and noisy, but that baby needs quiet and darkness to sleep. So how do I do both? For a start my house is not dark at all during the day so I can’t even take him to a darker room just to get him off to sleep. By the end of the day he is very grizzly and overtired because he hasn’t had much good quality sleep in the day/evening. But to be fair to him he does sleep some really good 4-5 hour stretches during the night. I feel like I can barely breathe when I put him down to nap during the day as I know he will wake up at any moment. Also feel like I’m having to force him to go to sleep rather than being able to spot his sleepy signs and just put him down and let him go happily to sleep. Any advice?

@Ahorsecalledseptember thats great! It's such a relief isn't it and so nice to see them more content after a good sleep.

We've got a tiny love play mat/gym that's black and white and he quite likes lying on that. Tummy time not so much... good thing he gets plenty in the sling!

@bleachblondemom you could look on Facebook marketplace for a secondhand one?

@addler oh good idea I never thought of that

DS has been asleep in his pram for 3 and a half hours and I really miss him 😂

That’s amazing!

Ds slept in the car for a solid three and a half hours, woke up, had some expressed breast milk, filled a nappy, had it changed and is now asleep on me!

I’m soooo happy. I don’t even mind it there is a bad night.

Careful @bleachblondemom you might rue saying that later

I know what you mean though, on his good sleeping days it can be wake-change-feed-sleep and I feel like I hardly see his eyes open! And then I long for those moments when he's been awake for hours.

@addler we just can’t win can we 😆
@Ahorsecalledseptember aww that’s great, glad you’re having a good day

I’m really hoping that having had a sleep he’s realised he’s actually tired!

@december212 my sister in law suggested massage too but I haven't as she hates having her clothes off, or could I do it over her clothes?

@DicklessWonder no unfortunately not. I try daily as it'll be a dream in the day

@addler we have a purflo thingy and she will settle better in that in the top of our bed. I'd prefer her in her Moses basket of course but have this to use. We have even tried heating up the Moses basket before 🤦🏻‍♀️

Wish you all luck tonight. My husband is about to come upstairs with our daughter so I'm getting ready for the nightshift

Good luck everyone, we’ve had a late night as it’s a Saturday so currently trying to get DS into his crib!

We increased DS's formula supplement by another oz as he still seemed hungry after feeding and he's just slept for 5.5 hours!

I wish I had made the most of it and gone to bed early like last night, or that he did this stretch later when we're in bed, instead of deciding to stay up and watch a film with DP. I feel like I've wasted it! 😫

Ds was mostly great yesterday but he did get grizzly in the evening. I gave him a bath which cheered him up but then he started crying at half ten. I decided to bring his feed forwards and he had some expressed breast milk but still wailing afterwards. Walking round worked so I did several circuits of the house! Eventually OH had him at midnight and I went to bed. Anyway, I woke at 430 and ds was still asleep, so expressed some milk and ds woke at 5! So I had a good four and a half hours sleep - blimey! Feel bad for OH though! I’m hoping ds went to sleep about ten minutes after I went to bed ...

addler that’s great news about your baby though, and it’s so important for your relationship. It was nice to be in the car with oh today and just to be able to talk and laugh a bit.

mycrazy I massage ds tummy over his clothes, I’m not sure how much difference it makes. Sometimes (it depends on his mood) he likes me massaging his forehead. He also likes having his bottom patted. I was told to rub his bottom but he definitely prefers a firm pat!

bleach I’m so glad yours had a proper sleep too. It’s as if it re starts something in them, they realise they are tired after all.

@addler @Ahorsecalledseptember wooo well done both!
DS did a 6.5 hour stretch last night 😮 still wish his daytime naps could come a bit easier, but we got him down for a decent amount of time combined yesterday either on one of us, in the sling or in the pram

That's great! Well done babies!

That's the thing for me, if I can get 6 hours all together during the night even if it's broken up I'm alright during the day without feeling like I need a nap.

How is today going?

Ds napped first thing but has now been awake since 10. He’s due a feed at about 1 so I’m hoping he’ll sleep after that.

DS had a very nice sleepy morning, basically just had little naps on me or DH in between feeds. And he’s just woken up from a 2 hour nap in his pram. Would’ve liked him to have gone to 3 hours but never mind! So really his napping is good, it’s just a case of it has to be on a person or in his pram after a walk, so that’s what I’m learning to work around.

I wish ds would go in a pram!

We had a brief sleep at 1 but then he woke up less than an hour later. Nodded off round the supermarket then woke up at home but he was due a feed. Then his dad upset him so I’m walking around with a baby strapped to me again!
(We don’t know what OH did, breathed or something!?)

@Ahorsecalledseptember oh dear, hope the walk helps. Weird how your DS doesn’t like being pushed in a pram as he must like movement if he likes you walking around. Maybe it’s the fact he’s not in contact with you. You could try putting something that smells like you in the pram with him?

He hasn’t napped very well these evening, just a short burst between 6 and 7. Gonna see if he’ll nod off on me now for a catnap before we bath him at 9.

I hope he’s gone to sleep!

After a restless morning and afternoon, I took mine for a long walk at 5, got back at half six and he’s stayed asleep. Woke up for a feed but soon nodded off again and is still asleep!

Let’s hope it’s a peaceful night!

I've had maybe 20mins of sleep since 4:30am and from 1am until then it was very restless with lots of burping and having to hold him upright for 20mins or so to get him back to sleep. Good thing I went to sleep at 9:30 so I got a few hours in then 😴

God me too ... changed ‘shifts’ with oh at 1:30 and I was expressing milk then ds woke at 230 abs had a feed. Tried to put him back in his crib but he was having nine of it. As soon as I picked him up he fell asleep so just kept him on me expressing milk! Then at 530 he had another feed and I thought he’d sleep in his crib but he was in one of ‘those’ moods where he wouldn’t stop flailing his limbs and thrashing about . I ended up putting him in the sling and going for a walk outside and he fell asleep almost immediately, but I’m so tired!

I spent three hours trying to get him to sleep longer than 5 minutes, he's finally been asleep for nearly an hour so put him back in his bed and 5 minutes later he's awake. Now back on my chest and back to sleep!

Going to be one of those days I think!

Oh I know that feeling. Mine has nodded off in his crib while I was in the shower (he wasn’t crying or anything and it’s an en suite so I could see him!)

Why couldn’t he have done that at 6?

I love him loads but last night I was flagging - I gave so so much and wanted so little and I still couldn’t have it!

This thread is good therapy though!

Managed to get DS in bed just after 10 which is a new record! But he was very fidgety even though he was asleep, I had to stay awake for a bit to keep putting his dummy back in and soothe him so he didn’t fully wake up. Took a while but eventually I could relax and fall asleep myself. And he did another 6 hour stretch! I am fully prepared for this to not last 😂
I even coaxed him into a nap on my bed this morning so I could get my head down for a bit longer, again it took a while because he didn’t want to stop moving but he stopped eventually. It’s just such a faf that I can’t just put him down when he’s asleep and off he goes, he needs constant supervision for like half an hour or even up to an hour before he’ll stop bloody moving!
Having some sensory play now and I’m aiming to take him for a walk at about 1, fingers crossed he will stay asleep in his pram when we get home. If not I’m gonna take us both back upstairs to bed and let him sleep on me while I watch tv.
@Ahorsecalledseptember it has been such good therapy hasn’t it 😂 did you manage to get any more sleep once baby was in his crib?
@addler my DS does exactly the same, he can be having a lovely sleep on me and as soon as I put him down he wakes up in like 10 minutes. I don’t understand how he can be asleep, then go into his crib asleep, and then suddenly be like oh no you don’t! Come back and hold me!