10wk old no daytime naps

[hermykne]

any body else had this at this stage, my ds wont or cant seem to nap, he nods and then is awake not 15mins later. today i lay with him to try and settle him at lunch and he woke not 30mins later. he is now crying crying (and only stops upon lifting)and i think its tiredness? do they cry when they are really tired. this is is 2nd day of no proper naps.

last night it took over an hour for him to settle and nod off to sleep.

young babies can have troubles with sleeping. It takes them awhile to learn to sleep longer periods. He will cry if tired. Do you have a sling - this will help him settle and he can sleep in it also. Your movement helps lull him to sleep. It is another option to bf to sleep at an early age. Taking him out for a sleep in the buggy once in the day will help encourage day time napping and make him used to not just napping in the cot if you want to go out.

my dd used to take round 3/4 hour to settle at nite.

thanks papillon, we went for a walk earlier and he napped for 30mins, the length of the brisk walk! and woke as we arrived home.
did b/f for the lunch nap, and he slept 30mins so i suppose he got more than i think.
i suppose its out of the question to leave him while trying to settle for the nite, to cry for a bit and go back in and lull and repeat? is that mean at this early stage?

Controlled crying is fine as long as you are comfortable with it. May not work this early but give it a shot.

DD1 did not nap. She's still very active so its obviously a thing with her. She took ages to settle then and still does now.

Sorry if I'm not too helpful.

My 3 month old tends to only catnap (less than 1/2 hour most times, too). Today he had a 1.5 hour nap, but had to be rocked in the middle to go back to sleep. Sleeps more solidly at night, but he can take a while to settle. I just reckoned it was normal.

the experts say cc over 6 months. there are plenty of other methods such as the sling, cot on wheels, shushing. With variety they learn different techniques to sleep.
It also imo depends on the personality of the baby and more sensitive babies will sleep better with reassurance.

my ds (23 weeks) was exactly the same. He would rarely sleep in between his feeds. We never knew what do with him. But hang in there, because it does get better. He started sleeping through the night at 12 weeks and now has 2 2hour naps in the day. Although he is waking in the night again, babbles and goes back to sleep.

H - do you swaddle him? I find mine sleep better swaddled as if they 'jerk' in their sleep they don't fling their arms up and wake themselves up.

Also, I wouldn't suggest controlled crying as such as he is still so little, but do you go and pick him up as soon as he starts to cry a bit? Just by coincidence I've found ds3 (6 weeks) sometimes starts to cry a bit but goes back off again after a few mins - I've not left him on purpose but I've been changing ds2 nappy or something and when I've got to him he's gone back off again.

Babies do come into a light sleep around 30-45 mins after going to sleep so it's fair to leave him a few mins and if he is swaddled up (if they like it) and in the dark, then maybe he'll go back to sleep.

hermykne - it was the biggest lesson I learnt with my first that they cry when they are tired! I had no idea! All the books go on about dirty nappies, hunger etc - never that they are plain tired!

Both mine were difficult during the day. Echo what others say - newborns have to learn how to fall asleep by themselves. Use slings, rocking, b/f, bottles, dummies, carseats, prams (!) - whatever to get you through those first few months - it's better to have a happy sleeping baby than a fretful baby and you!

I found pickup/put down a life saver for DD2 and more "kind" (to me!!) than CC and works even in the early weeks. It's tiring, but the jist is, you pick them up when they cry, settle, then put straight back down - the moment they are happy. If they cry, pick up again and repeat as necessary! You may have to do this umpteen times (and then some) but if they are yawning they eventually give in, and evey time you settle them, it takes less picking up and putting down. If this makes sense?

This worked for daytime naps, evening bedtime, and stopping that last 5am "wake for comfort feed" for me.

Hope things get better soon. But they will, rest assured.

BTW - I did CC with DD1 at night time, and it took preceisely 2 evenings before she was putting herself to sleep at 7pm evey night! It was just harder to do, cause of the crying!

my dd is 19 weeks and very rarely sleeps longer than 1/2 hr at a time. she will sleep half hr in the morning and then the rest of the day cat naps while in the car or pram. from speaking to my 4 friends who all have babies about the 10-20 week age they are all the same. ive got used to it and assumed that the babies who sleep for 2hrs are rare. im hoping that as she gets more active she will sleep longer.

my ds was almost like that at that age (I called him the amazing non-sleeping baby). With my ds2 I realised that most of the time ds1 was overtired and couldn't go to sleep. DS2 & DS3 usually got tired within 2 hours of waking, but sometimes less - I just worked out their tiredness signs.

Are you missing the signs and him getting overtired ?

sandi thanks for your support
yes skate, if hecries i go in after a few min actually seconds and try to settle him w/o lifting and then lift he gets more vocal. i dont swaddle, i did with my dd. i think the eather was warm when he was born and i just felt he'd be too hot, could i still do it. he does the jerky movement in his sleep.

catbert i like your strategy i 'll try the p/u p/d thing in the day i think. and i should start that for the 5am call as he dosent eat his brekkie, sorry drink!, at 7am.

but after all this today was fine, he napped with forty winks and we went for a walk arond 4, and feed him at 5 and 7 and he went off to sleep no problem in the cot with his eyes open!

It is reassuring to hear that it is not just me.

My 5wk baby tends to sleep reasonably well from 10 pm to 6 am with one feed but I am sure that she is too tired to do anything else. She does not well sleep during the day unless she is on me. As soon as she is placed in her moses basket she wakes up. I have tried putting her in before she is asleep and pu/pd and pat shh and a dummy which all works to settle her but as soon as she is in the basket within 10 mins she is crying again.

Any suggestions???? I am trying easy but it is not so easy when she doesn't sleep! I tried all morning to get her to nap (it between breastfeeds)with little success. Evetually, much later in the afteroon she slept for about 30mins in her basket but that was after sleeping on me first. I don't want her to use me as a prop.

jayne
my ds was probably the same i wouldnt be too wooried about her using you at 5wks its at 10wks if they still need you then start to be cocnerned. do you leave her by herself when she is content? i had to leave ds as dd was looking for attention and then when he wailed i lifted him to console.
it will change and she will nap for longer at a later stage, i have just forgotten this from the 1st time.

Jayneemiliysmum,
My DD was exactly the same and still is to some extent. She is now 20 weeks. During the day she would only sleep if being held the minute I put her down she would wake and scream until picked back up. Ive also tried pu/pd, dummy, swaddling etc. In the end I got so worked up about it and thought that I had to put her down to sleep encase I created sleep ass problems, it spolit my first few weeks with her. To get around it I bought a swing and I put her to sleep in there if I have to do something. ie ring bank etc. But the majority of the time we go out. Its strange but when your out at a mum and baby group or with friends in a pub holding DD while she sleeps doesnt seem so much of a chore. She will now go in her cot to sleep but has to be asleep first. She also settled herself if she woke at night(doesnt now but thats a diff story) so all that holding didnt do her too much harm. She is now a very contented baby and when awake will happily sit on her own with toys for a hour at a time. My frineds are astounded by this. This gives me the time to clean, mow the lawn etc.
My advice is to just go with it and if she needs holding just hold her. But find ever mum and baby group you can.
cat me if you want to talk further.