3wo and naps?

8 replies

WinterLover · 15/08/2011 14:11

I feel rather stupid for asking this but as a first time mum I have no idea.

DS is now 3 weeks old, and is really unsettled at night and it has just dawned on me (by reading a totally different thread) that the problem could be he's over tired because he's not sleeping as much in the day.

SO.... what should I be doing regarding naps? DP is at home now for a week so we are going to get a bed-time routine in place so hoping that helps a bit too.

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Sowlers · 15/08/2011 15:51

Hi, I'm a second time Mum and first time around I thought the less DS slept during the day the sounder he would sleep at night, how wrong I was!!! This time I have tried to structure the day around regular feeds and naps (DS2 is 18 weeks) and found he sleeps brilliantly at night since I did this. Generally I find that he responds well to being out down for a nap no later than 2 hours after he last woke, that way he never gets overtired. It seemed a lot to me to begin with and I was so worried he wouldn't sleep at night but he is thriving on it. He sleeps either in the Moses basket in the living room if the house is quiet enough, his cot if DS1 is around and in a noisy mood, or the odd time in the pram. I'm a routine kind of girl so it suits both of us to have this structure to our days. Good luck!

Sowlers · 15/08/2011 15:53

*put down I meant to type!

ningyo · 15/08/2011 18:32

My lo suddenly stopped just dropping off to sleep wherever he was around 3 weeks and I had a fair few stressful days of screaming/no real naps/cranky baby/tearful me! What worked for him (and me!) was putting him down for a nap 1.5 hours after he got up for the day or at the first sign of tiredness (rubbing ear, getting kind of twitchy, yawning etc), whichever came first. This nap was generally around 1.5 hours long, sometimes 2, sometimes a lot less), then another nap around lunch time (again, around 1.5 hours generally, but varied day to day), and another catnap around 4ish for about 40 mins or so. He could only be awake and really content for 1.5-2 hours at that age (and 2 hours was really pushing it...he'd get sort of twitchy towards the end, like he had electricity running through him!). Slowly the 'happy' awake times stretched to 2 hours in the morning, and longer later in the day. Having this loose structure worked well for us - it wasn't set in stone and sometimes he'd nap at home, sometimes in his sling and sometimes in the pram - but gave me a rough idea of what the day might look like and also helped me learn to read him/figure out when he was tired/hungry/windy etc as I found that quite hard at the start, especially as sometimes he was all 3!

booberella · 16/08/2011 07:41

Definitely let him sleep in the day! I am a first time mum to a 7 wo and she also cant stay awake longer than just over an hour without getting overtired. I had a dinosaur of a health visitor when she was just 1 day old- poor little mite was fast asleep at around 11am and the health visitor said to me "ooh you don't want to let her sleep in the day, she'll never sleep at night". Worst advice ever, after a week of cranky baby and awful nights I just let her sleep whenever she was tired in the day, although it seemed like a lot. Much happier baby. She still sleeps for a huge amount of the day but for shorter times and will go 5-6 hours at night if I'm lucky!

Original poster

WinterLover · 16/08/2011 15:29

Made sure he had naps most of yesterday and he slept for 4 hours at a time last night only waking for feeds so definately going to keep that up.

Going to start a night time routine if I can tonight so hopefully that will helpo me too...

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Sowlers · 16/08/2011 17:09

That's great news, getting some sleep yourself is essential for sanity!! My little one didn't have an early bedtime til he was 10 weeks partly as evening just happened to be his awake time and my 3 year old was in bed so it was nice and quiet. Don't stress yourself if the early bedtime takes some time, just keep up the day naps. Good luck xx

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WinterLover · 16/08/2011 17:23

Hes actually fallen into a 2am, 6am, 10am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm routine the past 2 days without trying so thats fairly good :)

DP did say I looked loads better this morning. It does help we've just switched DS from BF to FF due to my tablets making my milk bitter so until they have worn off hes on formula so he settles back to sleep really quickly too

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Sowlers · 16/08/2011 20:10

Wow thats brilliant, my little one does 3 hourly feeds between 6/7 am and 7pm with no night feeds since 12 weeks, I feel human again! After 10 weeks of no sleep after 2am due to reflux/wind and general grumpiness I was getting desperate! They are more than worth it but some days it us hard to remember that in the fog of exhaustion!!

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