Non-existant nap times

[LKirk]

My 6 week old daughter is gorgeous and for the past few nights has slept right through the night. While this is brilliant it comes at the price of hardly any sleep during the day. I generally get 3 naps of 15 minutes...for some reason she can't get past 15 minutes! She is shattered and grizzly all day, by 7pm she's inconsolable, then she screams until about 10pm when she paases out with exhaustion and then sleeps till about 6.30! She's been like this since birth...so much for newborns sleeping all the time! I have tried everything I can think of to help her nap properly - moses basket, pram, sling, bouncy chair, cradle swing, dark room, light room, music, no music, motion, no motion, swaddle, no swaddle. I've even tried tough love which is awful at 6 weeks but everything I try she can't get past 15 mins. She's always well fed, winded and dry. I know it's probably just a phase but I feel so sorry for her and desperately want to help her. Can anyone suggest a magic solution?

You poor thing. No magic solution I'm afraid but just wanted to sympathise! Also I was going to post and give you a cheery tale about my beautiful daughter (6mo) who was a terrible sleeper until 12 weeks old and now loves her cot....however she is currently yelling and fighting her catnap so we shall just have to lay my smugness to one side.....

6 weeks is a tough time. Is she your first? Are you bf? At that age I think just do whatever works and don't worry about routine, she will settle down. With mine I just had to carry her in a sling all day and then park my ass on the couch from 6pm til midnight with her latching on and off the boob and dozing on and off. I watched a lot of bad tv. And cried a lot. And ate a lot of Dairymilk. She never napped more than 15-30mins at a time. Then she just kind of got it at about 12 weeks and now she is a sleep addict. Don't get me wrong she has her bad days. They kind of get into this awful overtired cycle and I don't honestly think there is much you can do at 6 weeks to break that, they kind of have to develop and grow a bit more and break the cycle themselves.

Now I know I said I had no magic solution but have you tried white noise? We had a detuned radio in Moses basket with her then bought one of those slumber bear things and I do think that helped.

Hang in there, it does get better, until then have this

My daughter was exactly the same- we would pray for 10 o'clock to come every night when she would take her last bottle and flake out for the night. I used to console myself with the fact that my house was a tip but at least I was getting a good night's sleep! She is now six months, and about six weeks ago it just clicked, so napped for two hours at lunchtime yesterday!

I used to walk round patting her bum singing 'twinkle twinkle' and she would doze off and nap on me for a while. I still got nothing done, but at least she got a rest. Will your DD nap on you? From that it was a gradual progression to sliding her onto the couch (white noise apps were also useful) and escaping, to where we are at now. I see her rubbing her eyes, put her into her sleeping bag and put her down. I normally spend five minutes patting her tummy till she drops off. I have learnt that after two hours awake she needs to go down. If I miss the 'window' she doesn't sleep so well.

I suppose I just want to reassure you that it will pass, and that you aren't alone. The day I first got my DD down for a proper nap in her cot, I made a cup of tea and thought 'now what?'!

Thank you for the sympathy! And actually white noise is something I haven't tried yet so that's something new for tomorrow! She's my second baby - I have a 3yo son too. And yes I am bf.

I do remember my son going through a tricky phase very early on too where he would fight sleep during the day, but he would never fail to fall asleep in the pram so I could always get a reasonable amount of sleep out of him by walking for miles around the park! My daughter just seems to resist EVERYTHING! I know deep down it will get better, but these early days drag on forever when you're having a rough time. And I feel sorry for my son as well as he has to listen to it too and he's really lacking attention from me when she's being so difficult as I'm constantly just trying to keep her as calm as possible.

So I guess the magic solution is wine!

She does nap on me sometimes but in the recent hot weather we just end up making each other really hot and bothered so that never lasts longer than 15mins either.

I have a 3 yr old boy too, it's so hard feeling like you're depriving them of attention isn't it . My hubby worked away a lot in the beginning with this baby and evenings were hellish- I learnt to do everything with her in the sling and would do his whole bedtime routine with her on the boob! Agree with other poster about 'the window' and i was really surprised at the short awake window she had compared to her brother. Until a couple of weeks ago she had an absolute limit of 90mins and its only just now stretched to 2 hrs at 6mo.

While you're in the midst of it you really don't think it gets easier do you? Its like a thick fog of grumpy baby! But it does and your 3 yr old, like mine, won't remember any of it. Wait until he gets all the smiles (he is her absolute favourite person now and she saves all her cheesiest grins for him)

Thank you. That is good to hear that the older child doesn't remember. He's being amazing with her at the moment...even when she's screaming he just wants to cuddle her and make her feel better. We actually had a much better day yesterday and she did have some proper naps. She was full of smiles when DH came home from work which made a refreshing change. Back to "normal" today however, but at least it's given me faith that she can do it and will do it in time. Thanks for reminding me that this isn't unusual and just a phase most babies go through. I appreciate it!