14 week old won't nap - any thoughts

[Flumpity]

the title says it all. sometimes she will, but sometimes she just gets more and more red eyed, furiously rubbing eyes, grizzling and getting fractious but just won't nod off. any ideas or is it just a phase?

My DD sometimes gets overstimulated and I try the 5 "S" as per Dr Harvey Karp - the Happiest Baby on the Block.

Swaddling - has to be tight
Shhusing - loud
Side/stomach postion (side to sleep stomach to settle on me)
Swinging
and Soother/dummy.

If you do them in that order at first she might fight it because she doesn't know whats going on but once you get into as soon as you put her into the sheet/blanket to swaddle she will relax took about a week to get her to stop fighting the swaddling....Sometimes she still fights it and is grisly but if you work through the S's after 5mins max she is settled and then will usually drop off if tired. If she isn't tired it will calm her.

HTH

ah, that sounds good. we do shusshing and soother, rocking or swaying and side position already but without knowing about that!! will see if adding a swaddle helps. certainly one of the big problems is her flailing arms and little hands which can't resist grabbing the soother and throwing it about hence it doesn't stay in her mouth.

Kiskidee posted this link which has more info

vwww.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1359117/posts

you have to do it in the right order but it defo works for us!

Hi,

I had this with my son, he's always been really reluctant to nod off. When he was about 4 months we used to put him down in a dark room and put the hairdryer on. Not great for the environment but I swear it worked! THen he got used to the idea that being on his own in a quiet room meant sleep time and he gradually stopped needign the hairdryer.

HTH!

The Baby Whisperer books are what you need, or visit website

thanks. will try those. i have the baby whisperer book already - great at somethings but hasn't helped me with this problem sadly. might try naps being in her room in her cot rather than downstairs as she usually goes to bed fairly easily, so perhaps it'll trigger the thought in her that when she's in the cot in the dark she's supposed to sleep even if its not nighttime.
hairdryer a good idea too. ta.

I'm afraid the only thing that worked for ds2 was for me to lie down with him to feed him and then sneak out once he's conked out. It did work though (but I'm still doing it at 7mo).

oh thats a good idea. i feed her lying down for her early morning feed (usually 3 or 4am) and she always nods off during the feed and we either leave her in bed with us or sometimes move her back to her cot.

bummer to still be doing it at 7 months though...

today she napped for an hour in the morning 9-10am, then 20 minutes at 3pm and that was it. can't be enough for a 14 week old surely!

DS3 (almost 14 weeks) hardly naps during the day too - some days he can have only 60-90 miinutes (total) from 8am until 8pm! But somehow sleeps quite well at night - only wakes one/two (if you include early morning) times