40 min sleep at a time only

[netochka]

DD 13 weeks old sleeps 40 min at a time during all day naps. She has been doing it since she was 6-7 weeks old. She sleeps ok in the night, goes to bed by 8, and then can wake at 12, 2, 4, 5, 6 for feeds, or at 1, 3, 4, 6; in exceptionally good nights at 2, 4, 6. She feeds and go straight back to sleep. EBF

I didn't mind the nights too much - at least she keeps sleeping, but the days are exhausting. It is impossible to get anything done, by 5pm she is exhausted as she hasn't slept enough and cries her guts out. If I manage to make her sleep at 5, she can sleep to 9-10pm disrupting everything else.

I have an older DS, 13 yo. He had established a schedule, slept 2-3 in the afternoon, and though of course there were difficulties, they were different.

I just don't know what to do. Maybe I am missing something? Maybe I forgot something important?

If I take her out in the afternoon, she will fall asleep in the pram and then wake up, but if I keep walking, will fall asleep again. Or if she is sleeping on me while I am sitting on a sofa. She doesn't quite like to sling.

I have to go back to work soon and I just need some time and predictability. Does anyone have any advice?

Sorry not very clear about DS. I meant that when he was a baby, things were completely different, I understood how to manage him and it went well. I feel that I just can't get to understand how to be a good mother to my daughter. It feels like she is non-transparent to me.

I don’t think you’re doing anything wrong - my son only slept in 40-45 minute chunks (one sleep cycle for a baby) unless I immediately fed him back to sleep (not always possible) until he was 7.5mo. Some babies just don’t manage to nap for longer chunks of time. He would have 4 or sometimes even 5 naps per day depending on when he woke up. I can’t remember how long he would manage to stay awake for at 13 weeks - perhaps 1.5 hours? So I would anticipate him needing a nap X amount of time after he last woke up, rather than trying to get him to nap at the same times every day. It made things more flexible but less predictable so you may not like this approach. But either way I think you sound like you are doing a great job and you aren’t doing anything wrong - she’s just a different baby to your first

Thank you for your answer! That sounds like a good approach. The problem is she is getting progressively more and more tired and by 4-5 in the afternoon can't fall asleep at all so then it's an hour of crying and then bath time...