My 6 week old has all of a sudden stopped sleeping during the day, but you can see she is fighting her sleep.

[RAE1979]

This last few days we have found she won't sleep at all during the day, even after feeds she fights it. We have tried everything..... She looks as if she has bags under her eyes to match mine we could both get parts in a zombie film. Please any advice for this new mum would be appreciated.

Its been a while since mine were that young, but that is the age both of mine started to fight sleep definitely! I remember with DD particularly (now 9) that I had to watch her really closely for a few days and put her down for a nap at the FIRST sign of tiredness... if I left it to the 3rd she was overtired and would be awake unable to settle for hours!

Honestly it was exhausting - but give it a go as it definitely helped her, and once I knew the rough times / cues it was a lot easier!

Agree with putting Down before really tired. Maybe with white noise.?

When you say you have tried everything can you tell is what you tried? Means we won't suggest same things ☺

Mine needed jiggling/rocking/bf to sleep for ages. Something like a year IIRC.

Even now at 21mo I've still got to feed her to sleep.

My 5mo can't fall asleep during the day without help. When he was newborn the problem was keeping him awake to feed so we didn't get into habits. Any kind of movement helps, so one nap a day is in th pram or car, the rest through rocking, shushing and patting with white noise. Also I second the advice not to leave it too long as it's much more difficult to get an overtired baby to sleep.

Hi all thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post I really do appreciate it alot. Our child has had alot of problems with wind so we are now using comfort aptamil and gripe water, that has hugely reduced the problem..... We have also tried the following white noise mit, bathing, car seat, walking with pram....I even tried the electric starlight swing..... She hated that.

I remember it well. It does get better though. My dd had a lot of trapped wind as well, they are so tiny at that age but your baby will learn how to burp themselves in time to come.

Couple of things which helped me - the wonder weeks app on my phone. Download it. Helps to see how your baby is developing and when you might be having more of a tough time if they are very unsettled. For example as their brain and awareness increases, or when they start to roll crawl etc they might be harder to get to sleep as they are thinking about that. And also practicing it in their sleep!

Have you tried a dummy and cuddling to sleep? A sling really helped me as well. My dd wouldn't have a dummy but needed me to get her to sleep.

If you think about it, babies are inside us being rocked about for 9 months and I found mine needed the boob and movement to go to sleep.

Not sure if that's helpful or not. Is she your first?

Oh my, sorry that's very garbled. Dd woke me up at 4.30 am as she fell off the mattress this morning. I managed 20 mins sleep at 6.15 after a lot of pratting about! Sigh

Seconding a sling - an ergo/Manduca or even a Moby wrap. She probably just wants to be close to you and cosy.

That's a huge help thank-you Yes this our first child and can I be honest probably like most new parents you find you get so much conflicting information from the professionals.... So think a practiced mothers knowledge is invaluable.

You're completely right. I remember telling people my baby wouldn't sleep, where was this well known 12 hour sleep they were meant to do.

My df told me to put her in her cot and leave her. Hv told me to do gradual retreat. I couldn't do either so just went with what I felt she needed. Eventually she didn't need rocking and I bf and cuddle her to sleep now.

To me it's so precious though as they honestly do grow up so quick! Trust your instinct, you're her Mum and you'll know best. Everyone does it differently and all babies are different as well. My friend has a really easy going lad and I've got a tasmanian devil!!

You'll be fine

Again thank you, it's a wonderful thing to know that there's such a wonderful network of people to share advice on this site. Its reassurance for this new mum