Naps......struggling and need advice.

[bettieblue]

I have posted on her before (im the one obsessed with routine!) I know lots of people are not in favour of them but im afraid for my sanity I need to be in one.

My DS is now 9 weeks and im following a 3 hourly feeding routine between 7am- 7pm which is broadly 7, 10, 1, 4 , 7. He wakes now at 5am so lately its been 8, 11, 2, 5, 7. Im struggling with establishing naps. He will sleep if im out and about or in a car but when im at home im not really sure when I should be putting him down for his naps (ie- how soon after a feed and should it be after every feed and for approx how long?) My next dilemma is how to get him to nap at home? I have a bedtime routine and he goes down to sleep ok but I guess hes getting a feed and being put straight down (hes awake so is that feeding him to sleep?) Can anyone receommed any techniques to get him to nap in the day (that doesn't involve dummies, cds etc). He just won't sleep!

Thanks.

Hello Bettie, first of all; don't apologise for liking your routine! It's easy for people to rubbish them but you do what works for you. I loved/love mine (ds is 21mo now)

I did the same as you at 9wks, a loose 'baby whisperer' - 1.eat 2.'play' 3.sleep sort of thing. It worked really well and he learnt to self-settle quite soon (I had to cuddle him 'til dozy for a while)

How long will he sleep for? DS was an annoying 'short napper' for ages so he used to have a nap after every feed. Then we started dropping them, starting with the last one of the day.

The easiest nap I found was the first one. He always needed this stupidly early ie within 1.5hrs of waking up, in the early days! I'd swaddle him, cuddle, shhhh and rock if necessary, 'til he looked nearly asleep, then put him in his basket and leg it out of the room.

But they're all different and tbh what worked for me and ds might not work for you - worth a try though.

Also bear in mind that he's very tiny still and you might need to just do whatever's necessary at the moment, then come back and try the napping thing again in a week or two.

Why no cds? I got to a stage where dd was going to sleep well by herself in the evening but not during the day. I started to play the same music at bedtime and naptimes, and she seemed to make the association. I take it with my on my iPod and use it if I'm trying to get her to nap or go off to sleep in other houses.

Fed at 2.10pm, was awake for 20 mins or so before feed and have just put him down. Is screaming the house down. Ideas please? Was it too early, there seems to be a fine line when he gets over tired and goes into melt down........

What do you do when you put him down? Is there a wind-down period? Did he do any sleepy signals? (mind you, I could never spot those...)

Doesn't sound too early to me, but then my ds was a really sleepy baby.