7 week old refuses to nap during the day. Is this normal?

[xxxcarinnaxxx]

I'm a first time mum and my 7 week old has been fussy in many ways right from the start. Sleep has also been an issue. At last, I feel I have nighttime nailed with bedtime starting at 7pm and he then wakes up for his feeds every 3 hours. He now sleeps at night! He refuses to nap during the day though. I don't know whether I have to accept that he just doesn't want to sleep during the day? I did find that he gets very unsettled mid to late afternoon and eventually understood that he could be overtired so I resorted to using a carrier once a day in which he'd sleep 2 to 3 hours. I'm trying to get away from that though and would like to try and see how to help him nap during the day. I'm trying to do sleep, some form of activity/play, feed kinda routine but thinking perhaps I need to rethink.

If you have any advice it'd be much appreciated.

Only advice is to stick with it - my daughter didn't really nap in the day until nearly 3 months (unless in sling) and then started to... Not that it was easy then - she didn't have a reliable long nap until 15 months... So my advice would be to avoid driving yourself mad, go with what works for the 2 of you and I promise you this all gets easier!

My only advice is that babies that age can't really stay awake for more than 2 hrs at a time, so I used the 2 hr mark as needing a nap as he never gave me any signals! But it stopped him getting overtired and at that age he was unsettled in the afternoon turned out to be severe colic, unsettled late afternoon is often a sign

Thank you! He has reflux which before he was on medication made him very uncomfortable and he wouldn't sleep day or night - part of the reason why he's now better at night. I don't think he has colic though as I find that as long as he's had a sleep (in the carrier), he's fairly settled so maybe I should keep to that instead of trying to enforce some 'proper' naps. From what you say, perhaps it'll just take time and I ought to switch it up from time to time to see whether he's now ready for a new routine to nap during the day.

If he has reflux he probably likes the carrier because he's upright. Try holding him upright for 20 mins or so after a feed before you put him down for a naps. Swings and baby rockers are good for reflux babies. I have the mamas and papas wave rocker and he naps in it so well with the angle not totally flat. I also introduced a comforter at about this stage and that really helped.

Thanks, I'll try introducing a comforter and see if that makes a difference. I've tried the various things you can do to help reflux and I really think that's why his nighttime sleep has improved. Fingers crossed for daytime - sounds like it'll just happen eventually