My baby won’t nap!

[Ellebel]

I have a 7 week old baby who absolutely refuses to nap. He sleeps ok at night- usually 11pm-6am with two wakes to feed,(we do try putting him down from 8 but he fight’s sleep until 11ish) but from 6am- 11pm he will sometimes not nap AT all. The best we get is if I’m pushing the pram/ driving the car. But even that isn’t fool proof and sometimes he doesn’t sleep then either. I appreciate he’s very young, but I’m sure he is very overtired and we are stuck in this viscous circle. He is combi fed and is gaining weight at a healthy pace, so I don’t think it’s down to hunger. And we’ve tried all the obvious things, sleeping on me, in the sling, white noise etc etc. If anyone has any advice, techniques they’ve used. I’d be very grateful, he needs more rest, and so do I!!

I feel your pain, my DD has always hated napping. I started watching her like a hawk for the red eyebrows, eye rubbing, yawning and thumb sucking. Download Huckleberry app for the sleep schedule. I try to start her nap routine 20 minutes before the apps nap time, or sooner if she shows tired signs.

We turn off all toys and TV, change nappy, try a bottle, pop sleepsack on. Then we walk around the house with me snuggling her in. I sway her slightly or, if she's fussing, I do little squats which, for some reason, always calm her down. After a few minutes we head to the nursery, pull the curtains, pop the lullabies on and I cuddle her until she gets heavy. I then lie her in the cot and leave. I sleep trained her at 3.5 months but before that if she cried I'd go in and cuddle again until drowsy then put back down. She's slept in her cot for most naps since birth. We did have the odd contact nap or swing nap too. The pram and car seat also never fail but I can't transfer her without waking her up.

Hope you manage to crack it x

I had two of them that didn't like napping.

They both slept through from 8 weeks and 11 weeks. I got reluctant to mess with day time sleep if it messed up nights. I just let them cat nap for 30 mins in the pram. If I held DS1 he would sometimes go longer but not always. DS2 seemed to nap longer when he was in his cot in the bedroom like at night time.

Do they have a dummy? Both of mine needed dummies to sleep.