Naps for an 8 week old

[grace11]

My dd2 is 8 weeks and after an hour of being awake needs a sleep. Now getting her to sleep is quite an art - fine if I'm outside with her in a sling - but if I'm at home it's quite a ritual. I'm fine with this but the issue for me is that her naps are short - generally 30-45 mins - and with this short wake time (and terrible weather so sling and buggy often aren't an option at the moment) - I'm having to spend a lot of time on this. If she could do just one longer nap it would make a massive difference. I know with older babies you creep in as the sleep cycle comes to an end and try to shush them over to the next cycle, but I'm not sure whether this is a viable option with such a young baby. Any suggestions? I have tried a bouncy chair and swing chair, but she doesn't sleep and I also wear her in a sling at home sometimes but she never sleeps for long in it and I have to stand and jiggle the whole time. I have tried a dummy but she just sucks it and doesn't sleep - I think she sucked a dummy for about two hours once (and crying every 10 minutes as it slipped from her mouth so decided it wasn't for her). For naps she is swaddled and in a sleepyhead xx

I wonder if some rose-tinted glasses are affecting your memory a little

Longer naps are developmental and baby will develop the ability to link daytime nap sleep cycles from about 5-7 months old. This is when longer naps develop.

30-45 minute naps are fine and normal. The key to avoiding over tiredness is watching and limiting time awake. At 8 weeks old an hour awake between naps is on the high-side. I would expect an awake time of 30-60 minutes or so between naps, extending to about 60-80 minutes awake by 3 or 4 months old.

It sounds like when you are at home, baby is getting over tired through too long awake between naps. If it is taking a long time to get baby to sleep then it is not unreasonable that baby might wake, be fed, nappy check, quick cuddle and then straight back into trying to get her back to sleep.

What you're describing is completely normal behaviour for an 8 week old.

Go with the flow and she'll adjust her naps and waking as she grows.

Thanks both - yes I have forgotten quite a lot as my dd1 is 4!! I'm quite vigilant with the tiredness cues but you're right, I probably should act faster. She's very alert and it takes a while to wind down from simply being awake - and she isn't a baby that falls asleep with a feed although I do use this to calm her and get her ready for sleep. I'll see if putting her down earlier helps - thank you x