Not enough sleep/hard to put down

[Ellefb]

Hi, LO is 8wks, she sleeps anywhere from 11-14 hours a day, she sleeps a good 7-9 hours at night which is great, but during the day she just won't go down for naps, I'm lucky if I manage to get her down for one nap.
And so she gets overtired and irritable, come 10-11pm she is red eyed and balling her eyes out until she just conks out.
We've tried reading to her, singing, walks, out in the car, swaying and a load more.
We try to do a routine of bath, nappy, feed, nappy then bed but it's not working. Or if I do get her into her cot she wakes within 10mins.
She DOESN'T like to be swaddled, is a tummy sleeper, and likes to nurse to sleep-I know I'm not doing myself any favours but I'm trying to stop that!
Please no mum bashing, I'm a FTM.
Practical advice and experience wanted please!!!

What works for me is:

Being aware of when they woke up, at this age they can only be awake for two hours before getting a bit crazy.

Trying to spot the first sign of tiredness.

Then when I spot the sign or 15 minutes before the two hours are up I will move them to somewhere for a nap. During the day this is mainly the bouncy chair for us.

Then it's lights low, noise low, blanket or muslin over them, dummy in. In the bouncies I also put them on rock mode and turn on vibrate. In their bedroom I turn on white noise. Going out in the pushchair or car seat can work too.

They are so little though, that if they're getting to the two hour mark and not getting sleepy I'll cuddle them to sleep. I don't see any problem in you feeding to sleep at this stage until they start to understand what cues mean it's time to sleep.

Almost 9 weeks here and despite good 1-2 hr naps in the early days he now only does a decent nap in the sling or on me/ in my arms (or willing arms) or in pram/ car seat if moving.

I also notice how long he can roughly stay awake - this little man can only really do an hour (bit more late afternoon)

They go through a leap in development from 7.5-9 weeks where they are more aware and so more worried of historical sabre tooth lions etc.

Iirc from my first I think pram walks started to be a factor at some stage soon. It does matter where baby naps imo as long as there are naps; I keep it flexible but promote the pram and sling as I found the pram / pushchair helpful when my first was older.

My first stopped feeding to sleep at some point in the day(possibly 4 mo) but it returned around 2 ish and I'd have a lovely nap with him in bed. So it's not all bad.

Ps night sleep is amazing, well done! I got a 5 hour stretch last night but it's usually 3s and 2s.

I'm not bothering with bath book routine till older. It can be over stimulating.

He tends to cluster feed with short naps in the eve; I go to bed with him around 7:30/8 and aim for him to go to proper sleep around 8:30/9.

I did find the easy routine helpful with ds when a bit older; feed when wake up, activity, sleep. (You time - lol) but most babies want it to be easey at this age. I mainly did it as he was terrible to burp and had silent reflux so wouldn't nap well but I'm being a bit more relaxed this time.

@Ellefb

This is a really useful read. I don't tend to like sleep training sites but it's always worth learning about the basic science behind sleep and then observing your baby.

It might help you work out a bit of an order to how you do things plus timings. This baby is certainly on the 45 min side of things still at 9 weeks so I'm offering nap opportunities just before 45 mins is up.

It makes for a rather relentless day - he sleeps longer on me or in the sling - but I know in a few weeks the awake stage will lengthen which is when things start to feel easier.

Thank you Ekphrasis! I’ll read that now.😊

We tried the bath feed bed routine...😬 bath at 7, feed at 7.30-8.00, she was sleepy but then got second wind, fed some more but showed no signs of being able to put her down. Finally went to sleep at 10pm after on off nursing in bed. I didn't put her in her cot as I envisioned her waking and having to do it all again. Really feel like I'm failing!

Sorry I realise I didn't post the link!

www.preciouslittlesleep.com/are-you-keeping-baby-awake-too-long/

You're not failing at all! The whole bath book bed routine doesn't necessarily 'work' till older - you can try it so they get used to it but baby may not be ready to actually sleep till later - mine has sometimes needed it to be 10; he's fed and napped from 8 after cluster feeding from 5. If your baby can only cope with being awake for 45 mins bath and book and a feed is too long to be awake for.

I always felt bath was pointless for my son as it got him over excited. It's supposed to help as when we get a drop in body temp we tend to feel sleepy, so we get cold after a warming bath. Books worked though; he bf to sleep but my mum read and read and read a stack of books to him at about 11 months and he finally cooled out.

Bath, bottle and bed routine didn't work well for us at first either and at 11 weeks it still only works for both twins 6 days a week. We gave up on book for now as they really couldn't give a shit at this age. But they enjoy a bath.