Nap help!

[SendHelpAndGin]

Hi all

After some advice on naps for my 10 week old, as what we're doing currently doesn't seem to be working!

He's always fought sleep, and at around 5 weeks we had some awful screamy days where he was awake for hours on end. Things have improved since then but naps still aren't great.

He's a very alert baby but does show some tired signals, but it doesn't seem to matter when I time it, he always screams and cries when I try and get him off to sleep. I've tried set amounts of awake time, first yawn, third yawn, first time he rubs his eyes - always ends up crying to sleep which is heartbreaking. If I don't try to get him off and just go with the flow, he ends up in a screamy, overtired state anyway.

To get him off to sleep, I have to use any or all of sshing, patting, rocking, white noise, a swaddle or a dummy. Sleeps are then on me. He'll normally do one nap a day in the pushchair or sling if I walk for at least half an hour to get him off - but he doesn't always go.

Naps rarely last longer than 40 mins, and then he wakes up happy for a short while but yawning almost straight away, so we're going through this cycle several times a day.

Bedtime is around 9pm, fed to sleep, goes down in his sleepyhead. Has gone through to 3/4 before but more recently seems to go through to somewhere around 2, and then can be up every 2 hours.

We've had a particularly bad few days because after trialling a dairy free diet for 2 weeks to see if it affected reflux and a rash he had, we thought it hadn't made that much difference - clearly it had as the last few days have been awful, but the sleep issue seems to be separate from that as has been a consistent problem.

So. Sorry for the essay! Any tips on how I can get from where we are now - short naps that are always a battle and on me, to a better place, or am I expecting to much at 10 weeks and just need to wait it out?!

Thanks!

I know it’s exhausting OP but your baby is totally normal. Short naps are developmentally normal for such little babies. They should extend as he gets older. It’s also very normal for them to sleep on you at this stage. Tbh, you’re already doing everything I’d suggest in terms of the dummy, white noise, swaddle, sleepyhead etc. If even on you the naps are short it may just be a phase you have to accept. My DS was similar at this age. Only slept on me after a lot of rocking/feeding to sleep. Sometimes I could extend them by giving him a jiggle at when he stirred after 45 mins at the end of the sleep cycle. Sometimes worked and sometimes not. He has only ever slept max 45 mins in the pram. If the naps are short you just need more of them to prevent overtiredness. What sort of awake times are you trying? At that age with only short naps is maybe be thinking about an hour/hour and a half absolute max and the aim to be asleep by then. The night sleep doesn’t sound too bad. Make sure you go to bed when he does so you get a good solid hours!

It’s hard but it will get easier! Keep doing what you are doing, sleep when you can, take breaks when you can. Sleepy baby cuddles are also. The. Best. DS now sleeps soundly in his cot and I tell you I miss then cuddles 😂

Also, just a side note in terms of the dairy free. It can take up to 6 weeks before all traces leave both your systems, so may be worth trying that again. You’d then reintroduce it to test at that point.

Thanks @FortheloveofJames - great to get reassurance from someone who's been there!

Today hasn't been too bad actually - this morning I managed to get him down for 2 40 min naps without any screaming, by having a bit more of a wind down period when he'd been awake for an hour. This afternoon didn't work quite as well and I ended up with half an hour of overtired crying while I tried to soothe him until he eventually fed to sleep and has now been sleeping for an hour and 15 mins! Hoping the long late nap won't interfere with overnight sleep...

In terms of the dairy - I started reintroducing after two weeks and it definitely had an impact, so I've cut it out again for now

Well that’s progress. They honestly change so much at that tiny age, do what you need to day by day to make it easiest for both of you.

DS has CMPA so I’ve done a lot of research about it as generally healthcare professionals are clueless! To find out if milk protein is an issue you need to be dairy free for 6 weeks- and then you would have something high up the milk ladder such a yoghurt or icecream and then wait 48hours for a reaction. Watch hidden dairy, it’s in bloody everything 😪

Good luck OP!