Trying to start daytime naps for 16 week old baby - advice please!!

[DawnAS]

Hello there,

My 16 week old DD already sleeps through the night for 12 hours, but due to feeding issues, only takes four feeds during the day of 6ozs (and even then doesn't finish them all). So we'd like her to start having some daytime naps and maybe reduce her night-time sleep to just 10 hours.

I go back to work in 2 weeks so need to be waking her at 6am anyway to get her to the CM on time.

I've tried putting her down in the day as she generally falls asleep on me after her feed, but the minute I put her in her cot, she wakes up and won't go back to sleep. At night I can put her in her cot wide awake and she just goes to sleep when she's ready, without making a sound.

I've tried using the blackout blind and leaving the blind up, but neither way has been successful.

Can I please have some desperately needed advice?

I am out for the day today, but will be back mid-afternoon and will respond to people's kind advice then.

Thank you in advance for your help!!

xxx

I have no advice, but am having the same issue with DS. Hopefully we'll both get some ideas!

Bump!

are you saying your 16 week old baby doesn't sleep during the day?

ime babies only sleep when they need it, sorry. You may just have a babe who likes to see it all during the day! She may start napping during day when you start back at work and therefore getting her up earlier.

Babies do need a nap and it can be hell to get them to do it if they are not one of those babies who will just nod off in their prams or where ever they are.
My DS was a nightmare. A good bit of advice I got from a book was to make sure the baby got a nap from 2 hours after they last woke. So if you wake her at 6am, she will need to be settled for a sleep at 8am. If you miss this time and she is over tierd, forget it. Over tierd, over stimulated babies fight sleep. Apparently they are meant to have around 40 mins in morning sleep and at least 2 hours in the afternoon. Huh! I just left him sleeping in the morning for 2 hours as could never get him to sleep later even if I woke him but you could try it.
He eventually (around 15 months) dropped the morning and had 2-3 hours in the afternoon and still does at 2.4.
Was hard work getting here though.

Thanks for all the advice ladies.

Whensmydayoff, I may try that as I'm trying to feed her every 3 hours, so that morning sleep may work and then she'll wake in time for her bottle if she has an hour.

Frazzledbutcalm, I am suspecting that Ellie is just one of those babies. But my worry is that I've started waking her up at just after 6am to get her into the routine for when I start back at work, but instead of sleeping in the day, she just gets tired at around 5pm instead and gets really upset.

I'm going to be working until 6pm so would like to keep her awake a little later than that if possible, just so that I can spend some cuddle-time with her. That probably sounds really selfish and I don't mean it to, but I'm dreading going back to work as it is and knowing that I might not get to see my DD at all if she is too tired, makes me really sad...

Anyway, I'll give the tips a go and see what happens. Today is the first day that she's had 5 feeds and she has taken quite a bit more than she usually does which is good as she was dropping down the centile charts and not drinking enough.

Thanks again everyone!

xx

Ah,5pm, I remember it well. It has reminded me of that book again. At her age she apparently needs 3 sleeps if you take into account the every 2 hours after waking.
It suggested a nap of 15 mins at 5pm to get them through bath bed routine. We often jumped in the car just to stop the screaming and he would nod off. Nothing else worked at that time.

Whensmydayoff, unfortunately Ellie is one of those rare children that doesn't sleep in the car!! Until her, I'd never heard of a child that wouldn't sleep in the car! In fact she hates the car. She's fine when it's moving, but if we have to stop for traffic lights or traffic, she starts to cry!! Makes for quite a stressful journey and some loud music to keep your head! I will try and get her to sleep for 15 minutes at 5pm tomorrow. Difficult though as she won't sleep in her cot in the day and will only go to sleep on me and then I put her down. Strange though, that in the evening, I put her down wide awake and she just goes to sleep!!

She's going to be a problem I think... A wonderful and gorgeous problem though!!

xxx