For all of you with babies around 12 weeks - advice needed

[lots33]

Hi everyone

I am looking for some advice and tips about your daily nap routine for your little one.

I have a lovely 12 week old ds.He sleeps really well at night, has a routine of breastfeed, bath, massage, songs and into cot awake at 7. he sleeps 7-6 with 1-2 wakings for bf so no complaints there! He has never fed to sleep maybe because of first few weeks in NICU.

Until about 3 weeks ago he just fell asleep for naps wherever he was, eg, bouncy chair, buggy, car seat and would sleep through anything. I don't have a daily routine and he has fed and slept on demand. He doesn't nap in his cot in the day. About three weeks ago, he struggled to fall/stay asleep in his chair or buggy and now he is only catnapping in the day or sleeping on me. Noises, ie, the dogs are now waking him and he gets over tired and upset. i have tried to put him in his cot in the day and he just gets upset.

Can you tell me about your routines and advise me? He has just fallen asleep on me having been awake, apart from a short catnap, since 6am. He got v overtired and distressed and i hate seeing him upset.

TIA

Hi lots33,
My dd is now 21 weeks but I posted a very similar situation to yours when she was around 12 weeks about daytime naps and what I should be doing. Like yours she was a good night sleeper but had no routine during the day when it came to naps. I got some really good advice. Apparently now is a good time to start working on naps, but they say daytime sleep doesn't really settle till 4 months.

I didn't know anything about naps and sleep requirements and I was advised by another mumsnetter to read some different books e.g. Baby Whisperer; Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child; SleepEasy; No-Cry Solutions. I requested them from the library and just had a read through to get ideas. The one that helped me the most was baby whisperer which suggested a pattern of feed, activity, then sleep to be repeated throughout the day. One of the books suggested not more than 2 to 2 and half hours of continuous awake time during the day. The Healthy Sleep Habits book tells you about signs to look for when a baby is ready for a nap and urges that you catch them before they become overtired ie. crying, fussing. This really helped aswell, as I found that if I had a rough idea of how long my dd had been awake and what to look for in terms of tiredness, I could then try to encourage a nap with different soothing techniques. It's only very recently though that my dd is in a better pattern and I know what works for her. I wouldn't worry too much about getting it perfect at the moment but if you have a look at some of these books you could start implementing some strategies/patterns of your own, and hopefully you'll see a routine develop with time.
Bit of a ramble but HTH.

yes similar to above. Ds is 13 weeks and I've just started implementing a daytime nap routine which is going pretty well.
The routine goes (roughly):
Wake at 7am, big feed
Start nap at about 8.30-9 (look for yawning, eye rubbing etc)
Wake about 10, big feed
nap about 12
Wake about 1, big feed
nap about 3
wake about 4, big feed
7pm big feed then bed.

I often give him a small feed about an hour after the big feed as he struggles to go 3 hours between feeds.
For the naps I put him in his pram and if he doesn't settle I put the hoover on which works like magic! If he wakes to soon and I want him to nap longer I put the hoover on again.

hth

Hi,

My DS is 15 weeks and about 2 weeks ago I could have written your post.

He is also a great night sleeper (touch wood) but I had tried to put him in his cot for naps in the day to no avail- just lead to hysterical screaming.

He used to nap on the sofa but that had to stop because of the rolling and then in his bouncy chair but we were also at the stage where he couldn't go 20mins without some household noise, or just discomfort I think, woke him up.

But then suddenly at 13 weeks or so he decided his cot was a perfectly good place to nap! I did nothing to persuade him of that so my advice would be keep trying to put him down in his cot- one day he might just go with it. (It did happen for us the day after the day from HELL when he hadn't managed to nap AT ALL so he was exhausted so maybe you have to get to the bottom of the barrel before it happens )

Currently his routine is
up at 5
feed
cotnaps (45mins each) at 6.30 and 8 (I would like to blend these into one but no joy yet)
feed at 9
cotnap at 11ish (if we're in, or buggy/carseat if we're out)
feed at 12
cotnap at some point yet to be pinned down to a regular slot in the afternoon.
feed at 3
gradual deteriation into fussy tired baby hell
feed at 5.30
bath/ topup feed/ in bed at 6

I agree with what DairyMilk said about just repeating eat, play, sleep on whatever length cycle your DS can cope with.

Good luck with the cot thing- I hope it happens for you too!

Thanks everyone really really appreciate your time. We do follow EASY and i look for tired cues although with DS they are brief and easily missed! I'll keep trying the cot, that's hopeful thanks EBD.

He has napped OK yesterday and today but they have all been on or ended up on me (started in bouncy chair, woken crying by something and then cuddled back to sleep on me), if I try and move him once asleep on me he wakes. I do love him sleeping on me but not great for getting anything done although I do get time on MN! :)

my DD is now 14 weeks and up until about 10/11 weeks she would nap in her bouncy chair or car-seat happily, oblivious to all going on around her. all of a sudden every little noise was waking her up and she wasn't getting any decent sleep in the day and was very grumpy about it. she did not want to go in her cot but i just had to persevere with it for a week or so, putting her down when she looked tired and letting her cry for 5-10 mins and often she'd drop off by herself, if not i'd take her back out and she'd get sleepy again and so I'd try her again in her cot. i also just went along with when she was tired, she doesn't seem to be able to stay awake longer than 1hr 30, and doesn't really nap for longer than 45mins-1hr, except when she had her jabs.
when i got her naps sorted that also seemed to be when she stopped waking for a feed in the night, probably coincidence, although she's still a pain in the arse sometimes actually getting to sleep at night. has only been a couple of weeks of good naps so i'm not counting my chickens yet but i'd say perseverance is the key... or just luck.

So interesting! This is happening to us right now OP (DD is 11 weeks). It started yesterday. She used to be such a good daytime (and nighttime) sleeper, but over the past day or so she's easily woken in the day. Yesterday she didn't have a daytime nap at all and was all over the shop before bedtime, resulting in me and my DH running up and down the stairs to try and comfort her for about 3 hours. My head's still ringing today with all the screaming. I shall watch this thread with interest...

Ex