Sorting out daytime naps

[Zimm]

Hi all,

DD is 12 weeks. Her usual pattern is go to sleep around 9.30pm and sleep til about 4.30am, wake for a feed and usually go back down until 8.30am. This part of her sleep is brilliant for her age I know (she is EBF) but she takes virtually no daytime naps! This has loads of downsides, not least that she is very cranky in the evening because is overtired and it takes us ages to settle her - her routine is feed - bath - feed and then DP usually rocks her to sleep in rocking chair. She will take daytime naps in the buggy if we are moving - but not always. I would love her to be able to take a couple of daytime naps in the house (better for her and me!) and also to go to bed a bit earlier (I think she would if she wasn't so overtired by the evening). I know this might result in an extra night feed which I wouldn't mind - the lack of daytime naps is hard to deal with as I can get a single thing done and have to put her in a bouncy chair to stack the dishwasher!

Any advice?

i would embark on sleep training - this worked for me. i.e. putting her down in the cot awake and either doing pick up/put down or controlled crying til she learns to settle herself. if you're interested i'll go into more detail, but if you're totally anti the idea of listening to crying, i won't waste your time with the low-down!! not the easiest but definitely worth it imo.

We had that problem from about 6 weeks until about 3 months if I remember rightly - no sleep in day unless in the car or buggy, which meant I never got anything done and DD was permanently overtired and crying.

Two things helped: started using a dummy to settle her and basically worked on gettign her into more of a routine with naps. Previously she had napped downstairs with noise etc, which I liked to start with when she slept easily to teach her difference between night and day. SO instead we started mimicking night - upstairs in sleeping bag with blackout blinds drawn - they definitely help. We tried to follow the baby whisperer a bit, although never really got the right routine going with feeds. Did use her method of just sitting with DD going sssshhhh and putting hand on tummy for reassurance. Picked her up and rocked if she got really upset, but put her back down awake. To start with I could be there for an hour going shhhh, singing etc, but she got the hang of it eventually. Now we put her down with her dummy, close the blinds and leave the room, and she babbles to herself for a bit then drops off happily.

And, and the best piece of advice anyone gave me is that young babies can only stay awake for about 2 hours before getting overtired and being harder to settle. Once I realised that we made sure we settled her after 2 hours as much as possible, and it did help - obviously the time gradually increases.

Good luck!