I am having great difficulty in getting my 11wo daughter to take day time naps. From birth she was always a big sleeper but only wanted to sleep on me. At 6 weeks we introduced a bedtime routine, worked wonders but still had the daytime nap challenge. One day I decided to pop her in the car seat, rocked her for a bit and off she went, I was amazed. So every day from around week 7 to week 10 she napped in the car seat during the day. She got herself into a routine. Wake, feed, play, sleep and she?s have two naps a day each lasting usually around 2 hours 30 mins, then bedtime at around 6 or 7pm and she?d go straight down. The better she slept during the day the better she slept at night, sleeping up to 12 hours straight through by 9 weeks and even able to self settle, both in the middle of the night and also in getting herself off to sleep initially.
Then she started getting a bit fussy at night time and we made the assumption that maybe she was getting too used to the car seat. She also wouldn?t nap anymore when I took her out in the pram (which is obviously flat like a crib) during the day. So I started looking up techniques for getting babies out of car seats and into their cribs, I knew it was only going to get harder as she got older. I was horrified to discover that sleeping in car seats is bad for the babies spine (MIL had problems with her spine) and also can restrict their breathing. This just compounded my feelings on the matter.
It?s been near on impossible to get her out of the car seat. Today is day 6 and it?s been so exhausting that I?ve now come down with a horrible cold etc, I?ve literally spent all day every day trying to get her to sleep! IF I do manage to get her to sleep in the crib she will wake up after 40 minutes (which I understand to be as either waking up or transitioning into the next sleep phase). This 40 minutes usually coincides with her next feed, so I feed her because otherwise she will scream the house down. I have tried getting her up after this 40 min nap, having a play etc and then putting her down around an hour and a half later but she won?t sleep because she?s overtired. I have also tried putting her back down after feeding and she?ll fall asleep but it?ll take me a good hour to get her down. A family member said that maybe she?s getting enough sleep since she?s sleeping through the night. I know she?s not because she?s yawning, rubbing her eyes and has huge dark circles under her eyes. She has also started waking for a feed at 5am.
On Thursday DH said ?it might be bad for her to be in the chair but is it not just as bad for her to be so overtired?? so to experiment he put her in the car seat and she went straight to sleep and slept for 2 and a half hours and slept right through again. So he suggested that we try her in the crib in the mornings and the car seat in the afternoons, to phase it out and so she gets a better amount of sleep. Yesterday she slept for 4 hours and 5 mins in the afternoon (car seat) ? she must be shattered!!! ? then she slept right through again. Today we have carried this on but tried putting her in the buggy instead (which is obviously more flat and a bit of a transition), she keeps waking up and won?t seem to stay asleep.
Any ideas would be most welcome? This is totally exhausting but I realise it?s my karma for having a baby who sleeps through the night (well for now!!). I wonder if she is associating the crib with food since at bedtime when she goes to bed she gets, bath, massage, milk, story, bed. In the evenings she wants to cluster feed so maybe she thinks it?s night time and won?t go to sleep without getting her cluster feed?
One very worn out an unwell mummy.