6 week old only takes naps in a sling... any experience of what happens next?

[Milco]

Hello All. I'm wondering if anyone has any experience which might help me.

DD1 will be 6 weeks tomorrow. Since Saturday she has "decided" that she will only properly nap in a sling. Not in her pram, moses basket or even car (I am particularly surprised at this one as I thought ALL babies slept in the car at this age!)

After a lot of settling she might manage 30 mins in her pram or carseat but then wakes up unhappy and seemingly still tired (she is grumpy and will then go back to sleep when held). In the sling she is sleeping 1-2.5 hour stretches.

Thank goodness (at the moment at least) she sleeps well at night(with wakes for feeds obviously) in her moses basket. So I know I can't complain too much. But I have a DS1 who is 2.5 so I can't sit still for too long at a time and I can see that giving DD1 4-5 hours of sleep a day in a sling is going to be tiring, particularly as she gets bigger. Also the issue with the car and pram is a bit limiting....

So my question is, has anyone else experienced this? What happened next - did you eventually manage to get your DC sleeping apart from on you and if so how and when?

DS1 has napped well from a fairly early age, but I do remember putting quite a lot of effort in to achieving this (rocking,cuddling to sleep etc) . Its a lot more difficult with a toddler to look after too, but I am wondering whether DD1 might not be so responsive to these approaches anyway. So far she doesn't seem to be.

Or is this just a short-lived phase (here's hoping?!) Until this weekend she sometimes did nap elsewhere, but often woke and needed some rocking, cuddling etc to go back to sleep.

Many thanks in advance

Oh yes, forgot to mention that she seems tired about every 1.5 hours after last waking, so it is at that point I having been trying to settle her, though I must admit I have probably been a little late in doing this on occasion. But the sling seems always to work a treat.

Hiya, I think what you describe is fairly normal. Your baby is trying to make sense of the world and as most adults she has found herself a favorite spot which she probably now associates strongly with sleep (i.e. you, not really the sling I'd say. Its your smell, your movements, your voice). I had trouble establishing a good napping routine during the day and I used a book called Sleepsense which frankly was genius and also troubleshoots sleeping problems well into toddlerdom and beyond. It also tells you how many hours the child should sleep at a certain age and recommends good tips for establishing safe and healthy sleeping for that age. Its not expensive so I'm happy to recommend it (under £10). Good luck!

Thanks very much for the recommendation Snuppeline - I'll look it up now on Amazon.

Yes, I agree it is pretty normal! And I know it will pass eventually. But it would definitely help to hear from others how long it might last and to what degree you can assist babies of this age to sleep elsewhere or whether you just have to wait it out...

from my records it was 13w when i got DD to go to sleep in moses at 7pm (and then usually only 1h) and 22w when i got her to nap in cot in the day , before she was mainly napping on me but she would sleep in car/ sling. she used to sleep in moses for first 1-2months but i know we had to make an effort with her crying down to settle at the 7pm bedtime

I agree with the above. Between 9 and 14 weeks my DS would only nap in the sling (we didn't have one before 9 weeks!)

Most babies are unsettled for the first few months and 6-8 weeks is when it's supposed to peak. By 3 or 4 months most are calming down and are easier to settle to sleep.

1.5 hours of awake time sounds about right to me at that age. If you can try to get her to sleep as soon as you can after she seems tired, it will be a lot easier than if you leave it a bit late.

When my DS stopped sleeping in the sling, I would swaddle him, lie him across my lap as if feeding, give him a dummy (he couldn't keep it in but my elbow stopped it falling out), rock him and play white noise. That would get him drowsy. I progressed from holding him to putting him down fast asleep, to putting him down drowsy but still awake.

You could try swaddling and then jiggling him as if you were using the sling, but holding him against you in your arms IYSWIM. For some reason this cedidn't work for DS.

I also found that once he got to 14 weeks or so, he would feed to sleep during the day, which he would previously only do at bedtime.

The HV, GP and a paediatrician all told me that he associated being upright on my chest and moving with sleep and wouldn't easily learn to sleep any other way, so I needed to put him in his cot and let him cry until he 'got the hang of it'. I didn't do this, and fortunately they were all wrong.

Oh, and around 6-9 weeks my DS started to refuse to sleep in the car, and would only sleep in the pushchair after hysterical crying. Prior to that, both had worked. Once he became more settled ie from around 14 weeks, the car and pushchair worked again (although he needed a dummy too for a while; now he sleeps happily in both without one).

He might well have got better before 14 weeks, but I was completely mis-reading his tired signs before that, so when I took him out in the car / pram it never worked, as he wasn't actually tired!

I'd keep trying the car / pram every so often if you can. She may turn out to be a short napper - when he first started napping in his cot, DS would only do 30-45 mins there, but up to 2 hours in the sling. Then it became only 30-45 mins even in the sling. At 5 months he spontaneously started taking longer naps, although he's stopped again (now 6 months).

Dd started sleeping in the pushchair at about 4 months - prior to that every nap was in the sling and quite a big chunk of the night was in bed with us. I also have a 3yo ds and although sling occasionally got in the way when trying to play with him etc it was much better than me spending hours in another room trying to settle her!

She is now 12 months and still naps in pushchair, althuogh this is mainly due to pre-school drop off/pick up - she will thankfully fall asleep if you rock her a little, so don't have to take her out for a walk if we are staying in.

Sleeps at night in cot, occasionally even through the night...

Thank you very much for your responses. They have reassured me thats things should change as she gets older without my having to embark on some big training programme. AngelDog I was told a similar thing to you by my GP today

As DS still naps in the afternoon, I am going to try for one sleep in the moses basket a day if there is one which cooincides. I tried this today and although she woke up after 30mins, she did still settle for that nap reasonably quickly. I sat with her in the dark while she slept and it was as if a little alarm went off at exactly 30 mins after I first put her down (in a light sleep)! But anyway, 30 mins gives me hope! I couldn't settle her back after the 30 mins mind you and she is still grumbling in the sling now, so perhaps it was a bit counterproductive.

Anyway, at least we don't have any long car journeys planned until she is nearly 4 months

Any more responses much appreciated. With messages of hope or warning

Oh, well done baby Milco! 30 mins is probably one sleep cycle at this stage, so although a longer sleep might have been good, it's enough to be going on with.

to the GP. Anyone who knows about child development shouldn't advise a 'let cry' approach to baby sleep at this young age since most aren't really capable of self-soothing to any great extent until 3 months.