Hello,
Would love any advice from anyone who has tips on helping baby have a day time nap.
My DS is 9 weeks old and whilst he started off napping just fine in the day at home it is becoming increasingly elusive as he becomes more active. I would put it down to the fact he is just an active baby but he will drop off in the sling/pram when out ... and I mean as soon as we head out the door he is straight into an epic sleep! So on days when I am out and about this works just fine, but it is making showering, eating, general stuff round the house (we are in the process of moving - arghh!) near impossible. Moreover I can tell he is really unhappy and tired due to lack of sleep and I am worried about the effects of not sleeping on his wellbeing. I want to be able to help him but am struggling. A couple of days ago when I had friends over with their new baby (and who weren't up for a walk in the cold weather) he only had 1 hour sleep between 7am and 8pm! Our friends were really shocked by his lack of sleep and I am worried this is really unusual and detrimental to his health. And of course the longer he is awake the harder it becomes and we enter into this horrible sleepless cycle!
So far setting up sleep cues at night have worked a treat - which is great. He has a bath, nice long skin to skin feed/story and music box in dimly lit room before 10mins with a dummy and generally he will go off! As a result I am trying to use daytime sleep cues to help him. I try to catch him before he is too tired and give him a little feed, play his music box, lullabies, rocking, then down with a dummy (but only when snoozy). Sometimes this works (about 3 times in last 2 weeks) today being one of them and hence my chance to post. But a lot of the times it is to no avail! Is this just a case of perseverance or should I stop trying to push it and just head out with pram. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.