9 weeks old..

[MummytoGeorgie]

I can't complain, night times are really good and we have a good routine but day times are just not going in to a routine as I had hoped.

George decides he doesn't want to sleep. If he does he'll fall asleep at my boob but as soon as I put him down he wakes up within 5 minutes.

Then he will get overtired and still will try fighting it.

Anyone had similar experiences or can advise on how to get him into a day time routine?

TIA

Mummy to Georgie :-)

It’s hard to have much of a routine when they’re still so little, I just followed babies cues at that age but tried to loosely follow the EASY routine just to give my day a bit of structure. So Eat, Followed by nappy change and then a little play (Activity), then a nap (Sleep) and the Y is meant to be for You time but my baby would only nap when held so didn’t get too much of that!

Do you know much about wake windows? At that age I think it’s around 60 minutes tops they can be awake before needing a nap otherwise they end up overtired and start fighting sleep or cat napping on the boob etc which sounds like your little one. That 60 minutes includes feeding time etc so try and watch out for that and get him to sleep before he gets overtired. Hope that helps

Hi

Thanks for the message, yes I know the awake window for his age is 1-1.5 hours but he just won't sleep. I play with him and we do music and sing songs then I feed him but he can breastfeed for 20-45 mins and then he'll fall asleep sometimes but only if I hold him or sometimes he just won't sleep.

The other day he had a 10 min nap between 8am when he woke up to 9pm when he went to bed!! He didn't cry or get over tired and I kept trying to rock him bounce him walk around in his lay down pram and nothing.

Most babies need you to work really hard to get them to sleep. Some well established things that help:

• Dummy (recreates breastfeeding suck but in a way that lets it carry on)
• Movement. Try naps in a bouncy chair or pram (with a dummy)
• swaddle. Recreates womb like conditions and the sensory deprivation helps when putting baby down.

@FATEdestiny hey thanks for the message. So I've tried every shape dummy and he won't take any of them he just spits them out (I wish he didn't aha) but I breastfeed and my health visitor said that is the likely cause. She also told me not to swaddle over 8 weeks.. I do have a mamaroo and try in the pram and bouncing and I also have a bouncer that vibrates. It's like he thinks he's going to miss out on something going to sleep🙈

If he falls asleep don't put him down would be my advice! I had to hold both of mine for all day time naps until they were at least 6 months.

Have you tried a sling? Both of mine would almost always fall asleep in the sling!

@Sunshinegirl82 I know I do hold him sometimes but sometimes I need to clean or shower when he's sleeping or put a load of washing on lol he doesn't like me leaving him when he's awake either so it's difficult to do all that when he's awake.

I do have a material sling but he didn't like it when he was younger I'll try it again actually now he's getting a bit more robust he might like it. He didn't when he was newborn but I haven't tried it for a few weeks. I'll try it again tomorrow :-)

I understand (honestly) but if you have a clingy baby you have to lower your standards really and let a lot of stuff slide. I really fought it with DS1 but embraced it with DS2 and it was better all round!

Do you have a DH/DP? I used to shower when DH got home so he could hold him, we would take it in turns to eat, we blitzed the housework on weekends and just did the minimum in the week, we kept dinners really easy and quick.

It seems like it's impossible but it's only pretty short term, in 12 weeks things will have probably changed a fair bit and you've got more chance he'll be happy to play on the floor for 5 minutes so you can get a few bits done.

If he takes to the sling it will help massively as you'll have your hands free to do a few bits whilst he sleeps. Take it easy on yourself, it's still really early days.

I’m probably a terrible example but my baby (also called George - maybe it’s a George thing!) is 8 months old and I still hold him for all his naps or he will nap in the pushchair or sling. I would try the sling, I know it’s really hard in those early days when you feel you’re just trapped under a baby all the time but it will get easier. For showers - bouncy chair in the bathroom, the water often distracts them from being grumpy at put down. Your DP needs to help by prepping you some lunch in the morning/night before or like others have said a sling might help you get some hands free time! Apart from that, find some good series to watch and put your feet up. I found it really hard but like others have said soon enough he will be happy on his playmat or something for a little while. Now he’s older and only has 2 naps a day I secretly quite like that I have to hold him so I get to sit and rest while he sleeps and catch up on some rubbish TV!