20 week old doesnt sleep in day..........

[milkmummy1]

What does everyone do about putting their babies down for naps during the day? my baby occasionally will have a small brief nap in his bouncy chair in the morning but won?t sleep all afternoon. Sometimes he goes all day without a nap and I am amazed. After 4pm he is so grumpy and I can?t seem to settle him. Have tried this week putting him down in cot in day but he?s not having any of it. He will sleep in the car but I refuse to drive round every day just to get him to sleep. Does anyone have any ideas to try so I can get him into a better routine? I guess im lucky that he will go down at 8pm at night and sleep for about 10 hours but surely he needs sleep in the day as well?

Not sure really, seems very young to go all day with no sleep.

bumping for you

I carried mine in a sling until she was really deeply asleep, then carefully slipped baby, sling and all into the cot. Tbh, none of mine have been much for sleeping in the day, but made up for it by sleeping well at night.

put them back to bed after 2 hours awake at most - even if they are not showing signs of tiredness. I found if mine got to the eye rubbing yawning stage then they really struggled to get to sleep.

I didn't learn this til child 2 - ds1 would be awake for 10hours at that age - and we both really struggled with that.

The 2 hour thing really worked for my DS too - as TH says, once they get past this window it can make life really difficult.

My daughter is eighteen months and is not the best napper either. At first I would walk the hallway. But now that she is older, I put music on and rock her in a rocking chair. It usually only takes about 15 minutes for her to fall asleep. After that I wait atleast ten more minutes before I lay her down.

My baby did exactly the same as yours. I found the 2 hour window good advice too. Unfortunatly I got a bit stressed about the sleep thing (who wouldn't with a baby who never napped in the day and was up every 1 to 2 hours at night....). I used to spend my days walking with her in the pram - desperatly wishing she would go to sleep. H

I feel I'd want to kill anyone who said - Try GF - it worked sooooo well for me. Yes, how the bloody hell can I do a routine when I can't get her to sleep at ALL??????

I'm usually a very mellow person - and in the end I thought - that's it!! I'm not going to get stressed anymore. I'll give her plenty of opportunity to sleep but I can't make her do it. She's 28 weeks now and still only naps 1/2 hour at a time. She does this 3 - 4 times a day. I've started putting her to sleep in her cot in the day which is working well. Thankfully she only wakes up once in the night now!!!!!

Have you tried putting her in the pram/buggy and rocking it for a few mins? Worked for me when dd was that age.

My DD is 28 weeks and has one nap of about 40 minutes in the morning and a longer nap of anything between 1 hour to 2 hours in the afternoon.

In the morning, if we're at home I put her in her pram about 2 and a half hours from when she woke up first thing and take her into the kitchen, rocking her all the time, put the cooker hood fan on, make some tea for myself and by the time the tea has brewed, she is usually asleep .

In the afternoon, we go out for a walk for a hour or so and she sleeps then, if she's still asleep when we come home, I put the pram in the garden, so that she doesn't over-heat. On wet days I have started to put her down in her cot and she didn't like it at first, but she seems to sleep longer there...fewer disturbances I suppose. If I've no time to go for a walk, I put her in the pram in the garden and rock her till she's asleep (usually just a few minutes ), and then I can carry on with the chores in the kitchen and still keep an eye on her.