How to get my 11 week old to take longer naps

[Rachel1210]

Help! My 11 week old baby will only take short naps (less than 30 mins). I have tried everything from white noise, swaddling, dummy, dark room etc. I cuddle him to sleep - I know I shouldn't but at 11 weeks he cant put himself to sleep! I then find that within 30 mins of placing him in his crib he's wide awake - it's so frustrating. The only way he will nap longer is in the car or sling - if he falls asleep either of these ways he'll sleep for 1.5-2+ hours! My question is - at such a young age is it more important that he gets the sleep, i.e. sling/ car, or that I keep putting him down even though he's only catching quick naps that way. If the latter - how do I do that and get him to nap for longer? Otherwise I worry he'll get over tired. As I say he's still so young so when he wakes he can't put himself back to sleep. At tips?

Rachel no tips but just to say we are in exactly the same boat at 16 weeks. At the mo we are going for sleep at any price so on the sling he goes but I cant keep that up forever, my back is killing me.

Mine was the same - I ended up holding him for sleeps and watching Netflix with headphones in for 1-2 hours a time.
At 6 months he started having 2 long proper naps a day. He's now an excellent sleeper for 2-3 hour nap and 12+ hours overnight at 20m. You're not "making a rod for your own back" by helping them sleep when they're so little.

Sounds pretty standard for daytime. I did what I needed to to get him to nap at that age, largely it was the pram (or bouncer chair under supervision). Both meant he rested but didn't give me the chance to sleep! Same as you're finding movement naps were longer than static.
He's nearly 10 months now and his nap duration certainly got much longer, but fewer of them (2 a day)
I think around 5 months I started trying to settle him in his cot in his room for his naps. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't. I was trying to familiarise him before he moved out our room at 6 months. Now he will largely nap in his cot in the daytime.

I play the same song on Ewan every time and he has a blanket which he cuddles. Around 9 weeks silent reflux was identified and we put his cot on an incline and that made a big difference to his sleep. Have you got anything like that happening? We also started to put him down drowsy and gently pat his back. We still do it now if he won't settle. I pat lighter and lighter until I stop and he is normally nearly asleep and doses off. Might be worth trying over cuddling.

I wondered if it might be silent reflux - how did you identify that? He’s an ok-ish sleeper at night. He’ll usuallt slept 7pm-10pm, then after a feed at 10 he’ll wake around 12.30-1 but after that he does wake more often until he’s very restless around 5ish so i wondered if that might be reflux?

Rachel unfortunately what you're describing sounds very normal. My friend is a GP and she says she has seen one genuine case of silent reflux. Everything else was a mother hoping that there was an identifiable reason for their baby being a baby. I sympathise entirely!!

I whole heartedly believe Silent reflux is real. Symptoms were screaming half hour after his feed. Settling badly. And generally being sad. Within a matter of days he was a completely different little boy once we stared treating it. As a test we stopped and we were back where we started.

It was my HV who diagnosed it. Gp was useless. She came for a visit and he was crying. Anyway I said 'this is just normal for him' and she said 'this isn't normal my dear. Babies cry but not like this'.

Other symptoms included frequent feeding which was him trying to sooth the pain of the milk bubble. Again I thought it was cluster feeding but once he was being treated the frequent feeds stopped immediately.

Short naps are however quite normal when they're little. But try a small incline on the crib to see if it helps. X

lokelani sorry I wasn't implying your DC didnt suffer - and I'm really glad the HV spotted it, mine have been crap! My friend was just saying that lots of people go to her with the only symptom being waking up and her explaining that unfortunately that was just babies!
So glad its sorted for you, it's awful when they are crying and you cant fix it.

Sorry your HV hasn't been much help. I think I got lucky with 1 lovely lady.

Firstly, please, please don't think you shouldn't be cuddling your baby to sleep.

Secondly, I'd try to go with the flow a little more rather than trying to find a problem to solve. I don't meant to sound flippant- I've been there myself. My DD used to have three or four thirty minute naps a day at that age. Eventually she decided to start sleeping for an hour, but this wasn't down to anything I did, she just changed her sleep pattern.

Try to relax and go with it a bit more. I know it's hard not to think how lovely a nap of an hour or more would be, but your baby is so small. Enjoy those cuddles.

*lokelani" mine hit the roof when I said we had co-slept and suggested CIO when he was 3 weeks old. I no longer ask her for advice!

Have a look at the baby whisperer - it really helped with my lo’s naps. I was feeding my lo and they were nodding off but it promotes and eat, play, sleep pattern and by sticking to the awake time (which is based of age) my lo was taking much longer naps. The awake time changes as they grow so you’ve got to keep tweaking it but its the only thing I found that helped get more than 40 minutes out of my lo.

Thanks for all your replies! I wonder if he does have a form of reflux. I watched him closely last night and after each feed I would wind him and whilst he was dozy I would put him down in his crib on his back - but he would wake instantly and squirm and wriggle. It almost looked like he couldn’t get comfortable. He was also making grunting noises and pulling his knees up to his chest and then stretching them out....this went on for ages after each feed. What do we think? I tried inclining his cot slightly but it didn’t work x

My lo had reflux too and the only thing that worked was to hold him upright for about 15 - 20 mins after each feed and then lay him down. If I put him down too soon he'd wake soon after seemingly uncomfortable. It was tiring having to hold him after each feed but he did grow out of it by about 16 / 18 weeks.