Any advice on helping baby sleep during the day?

[chloemegjess]

Hello. I have a 4 month old DD who is awful at sleeping in the day. We pretty much have nights sorted now (other than tonight!) but in the day, she is always soo tired, but refuses to Nap. I manage to get her to have one nap in the middle of the day, but it takes her about 45mins to an hour to get to sleep, then only sleeps for 20-30mins! She is then so grumpy all afternoon as she is tired but I can't get her to sleep.

She sleeps in her cot in her own room now (only for the last week)and at night, I leave her in her cot awake and within 5 mins she is usually asleep. She doe wake in the night but is easy to settle and only wakes 2-3times most of the time which I am fine with as she is usually hungry.

But this daytime tiredness is just driving me mad. She needs to sleep but just fights it so much. She just always wants to be watching whats going on and is very alert and always has been really.

Any suggestions? I am getting quite stressed with it and it is spoiing the time I should be having with my DD as she is too tired to play happily!

any chance you can cuddle up with her in your bed? You then both get sleep.

Hi

Lisa, it is a good idea, but I am hoping to become a childminder as soon as possible so would ideally like her to sleep on her own as otherwise she will have to start all over again when I start to childmind as there would be no way I could do this with her then.

The idea is nice though!

I dont know if iyts any help to you but could tell you what I do.
I make sure she isnt too tired, make sure she is feed and then has BF upstairs. I then put her down awake and she drops off. I know its properly not much help. Do you put her down in her cot?

Yes, that is what i have been doing. I will leave her if she is just whinging slightly, but if she is actually crying I will go in and calm her down, mabe give her a cuddle, sometimes a breastfeed if needed. I don't want to leave her to cry really. Nothing seems to be working!

She only started sleeping well at night about a week ago when I started giving her a tiny bit of baby rice in the evening so I am wondering if she will sleep better when she is having 3 meals a day? But really she needs to stay with one for a while i think?
She only has 1 teaspoon of babyrice in evening.

bless her, sounds like your doin everything possible.Your right she might settle with a little more food but your right to hold off as long as possible.
Im sorry im not much helkp, but wanted you to know your not alone.

Hi chloe, I have a 5 months old son and we have a very similar problem. It takes ages to make him sleep in his cot during the day. Nights are nice and easy, he drops off on his own. The only thing which works for us is a pusher and a walk. I don't know if it will work with your childminding but Im taking my ds for a long afternoon walk in a park every day. His first nap is usually in his cot but lasts 30 - 40 min. and as you said it can take up to 1 hour to settle him. So good luck to you. I only hope it will get better with time...

CMJ, is it possible that your lo is very overtired by the time you start trying to settle her for her nap? It took me a while to realise that despite a long night-time sleep, my ds needed another nap only an hour and a half after waking in the morning (and still does, at 6mo now). If I catch him before he starts showing too many signs of tiredness - eye-rubbing etc - it seems to be a lot easier to settle him. And having the morning nap has made it a lot easier for him to nod off after lunch too. He's always much harder to settle if he's got to the point where he's really tired; perhaps your dd would benefit from a nap earlier in the day?