9 week old sleep

[Firsttimemummy124]

Hi all,

Looking for some tips or advice my 9 week old sleeps very well in the night but struggles to nap during the day! And has done since about 7 weeks
We don't know whether he has colic, reflux or CMPA but we've just started him on gaviscon.
No matter what I do I cannot seem to get him to nap, or if he does nap I'm lucky if he gets 30-40 mins (sometimes 10mins!) I try everything, cuddling and staying, putting him down drowsy, a dark room with white noise but he just doesn't seem to stay asleep, when I cuddle him to go to sleep he starts crying like he's in pain ( I'm not sure whether it's wind and his legs go up and down and he arches back in my arms) and I prop him back up and then he stops, he'll be smiling etc and then I'll cuddle him back in my arms and then the tears come again!
I'm honestly stumped and don't know what else to do!

I will also add he can be awake for 2-3 hours at a time!

I've no advice but he sounds a lot like my DD. She is 3 months and naps are all over the place and generally rubbish, she's been like this since she was around 7 weeks. We had a week or so when she'd have a 2 hour contact nap mid-morning but that seems to have gone out the window too and she's regularly awake for 4 hours without a nap, or longer with a couple of 15 min naps to keep her going.

To be honest, she's sleeping ok at night and is happy enough when she's awake so I'm just going with it!

Try lulling to sleep in something that moves, then leave him in it. Bouncy chair for example.

Reduce down his awake time significantly.

He's awake too long and is overtired. Have a read about wake windows - at his age he shouldn't be awake more than 60-90 mins between naps. When it's getting near to 60 mins you need to actively start getting him to sleep eg using dummy, rocking, dark room, white noise - whatever works. Or go out with him in buggy/carrier. He should settle better and sleep longer if you get him off to sleep before he is too tired. You might have to persevere though - a bit of crying is normal and it might take 5-10 mins to get him to sleep. Don't take the crying as a sign he isn't tired, he will be!

Just to counter the argument for monitoring his wake windows, this doesn't work at all for my DD, I can try for ages to get her off to sleep when she shows cues but it very rarely works, and if it does she only sleeps for 20 mins max. Follow Lindsay Hookway on Instagram and look at her stuff on sleep pressure and low sleep need children.