10 week old, naps and laps

[rhetorician]

dd2 - she is a good sleeper (certainly compared to dd1) and sleeps well (in a co-sleeper) at night - does about 7-11, 11.30-4.30, 5-7.30 which I know is super fabulous for a ebf baby of her age. She is not much of a one for daytime naps - usually these last 30-45 mini8utes, with the occasional (once or twice a week) 2 hour+ afternoon nap. She goes off easily in buggy, but will wake after a max of 45 minutes; at home in cot often it's less. She just wants to be near someone, I think, but it would be helpful (rather than a matter of life and death, as most of the sleep issues on here are) if we could consolidate her naps a bit. Any tips? and before you suggest a sling - we would, but can't, because she is in a pavlik harness for hip dysplasia (her naps were much better before it went on, but that might just have been the newborn sleepy phase - it went on at 6 weeks).

thanks for reading

It'a a very common 'problem' as 45 minutes is one complete sleep cycle. A lot of babies do it. You could try feeding her after the 45 minutes (top up rather than a full feed to see if that helps). With my daughter, I found that once it became more habitual to sleep for 2 hours (I would feed her back to sleep after 45 mins) she did it herself.

I guess the harness can't help and you say that her naps have got worse since then so perhaps it will take some time for her to get used to it. The nighttime sleeping is brilliant!!

yes, she is pretty good - it would just be helpful if we could get her to have longer naps - but I guess this will have to a longer term project! dd1 never did really and dropped all daytime naps at about 18 months

If she's like her sister, then she may well just not need the sleep and is already regulating her daytime sleep so that her nighttime sleep isn't affected!

I guess all you can do is try to get her back to sleep; if she won't, then keep an eye out for overtiredness which can affect the quality of her nighttime sleep.

HTH!

really think it's the harness - at night she gets into a deep enough sleep for her to ignore the slight discomfort - its a dratted nuisance, but has to be done - the alternatives (surgery, lifelong disability) are infinitely worse that some inconvenient napping!