daytime sleeping

[amyce]

I'm new to this so not sure of all the abbreviations ...
My 10 week old often refuses to sleep during the day, even though he is obviously knackered and needs the rest. He settles easily and sleeps well at 6.30-7pm after his bath, but is so tired by the afternoon that he's really irritable and cries a lot. Why is he so different during the day? Any ideas for helping him to nap?

amyce
perhaps he is saving it for a really good nights sleep! during the day when my dd was that age, shes 18wks now, she refused to sleep/nap too but i carried on with my house work/ whatever! , her close by and engaged with her every few minutes just to let her know i was there and she eventually nodded off, she would cry but i didn't lift just chatted. i didn't try to make her sleep in her cot. she wasn't fond of moving. her sleeps were short but enough to keep her in ok form.

Hi Also new to this site, I have twin dauthers who are 9 wks tommorrow, and i have the opposite problem, they seem to sleep during the day ( well one of them) and then not sleep when it's "bedtime".
Although today i got them and feed them at 9 and out them in there cot for a sleep at 11.20 and they both slept for 1 hour, got them up and gave them bottle at 12.30 and went out letting them sleep for about 1 or 2 hours, but when we got home i kept them awake till thier 6.15 feed by giving them a bath, and they have both been in bed since 7pm!
It's a miracle, But will they go back down after thier next feed? this is the question.
Good luck with your little one.
Sorry i could'nt give you any usful tips.

thanks for the tips - I shouldn't complain too much because he sleeps so well at night. Good luck with the nocturnal twins!

amyce, my daughter (now 7 mo old) was the same at that age, not much sleep during the day and a good sleeper at night (woke for quick feeds every 3-4 hr but generally sleeping well in between from 8 to 8). When she woke up during the night, she cried just a little, whereas during the day she screamed a lot. I used to say she has dual personalities, grumpy one during the day and angelic one at night.

What I did was try to get her to nap as soon as there were any signs of tiredness - eye rubbing, yawning, blank staring, fussiness eventhough she was just fed. It's important not to miss the first signs. It's harder and harder for them to sleep once they get more and more tired. With my daughterm, it generally worked out to be about 1.5 - 2 hr after she last woke up. Later, I read Weissbluth's book and he said 2 hr is really the maximum time a young baby (not sure about the age range he talked about) can be awake before needing another nap/sleep. So keep a close watch after your son has been awake for an hour. My daughter never nap longer than 30 minutes so it worked out to be 4-5 naps during the day for a couple months. It made all the difference after I got her to nap whenever she got tired. She turned much more angelic during the day.

On the other hand, she has had so many night wakings since she was about 4 mo old. Sometimes (esp. in the middle of the night) I wonder if she would sleep better w/o naps. But then I also remember how cranky she was and that was no fun either, esp. towards the end of the day before she conked out. I'm not saying that if you can get him to nap more during the day he won't sleep well at night. All the books say the opposite is true. I'm just saying this is what happened with my daughter. Maybe it's just a coincidence.

Hi, Amyce, my dd - now 9 mths - was so cranky all day until she was about 6 mths old (when it dawned on me she was tired all the time - doh!) So, I thought I'd try the Gina Ford routine (reluctantly, as I am not a routine-type creature by nature.) The first day I tried the routine it worked - my dh & I were amazed! No tears, crankiness - she was a different baby. It really worked for us.

Thanks again for the advice. I've been trying a 'modified Gina Ford' but watching for signs of tiredness. He can only manage about 90 mins before tiring so the GF routine has gone out of the window by lunchtime, but until then we seem to be doing better. Yuyee, did your daughter manage to stay awake without becoming cranky for longer as she got older? Does she still need as many naps? What is Weissbluth's book - is it worth reading?

My 11 month old ds has been the same ever since he was born....relatively good sleeper at night, but would fight daytime sleep. Tried everything! I recognised some time ago that he needed a mid morning & mid afternoon sleep but it's still a battle getting him to sleep in the house. The routine I've now got is to go out in the car to walk the dog - ds falls asleep in the car & stays asleep in his pushchair.....although I've noticed as he's got older he's not falling asleep in the car so easily!! The other thing I've tried which has worked occasionally is to hold him with his head on my shoulder & sit on a swivel chair whilst browsing the internet & eventually he's fallen asleep & I can then put him in his cot. Hope something works for you - it's tiring isn't it??! At least we have decent nights to compensate!

Amyce, she still seems to need a nap within 1.5 - 2 hrs. But that could be because she doesn't sleep well at night and doesn't take real long naps. I sometimes manage to get her to go back to sleep within a few min of waking up from her 30 min nap. In that case it's a 1- or 2-hour nap in total for that nap. After that she may be able to stay awake longer without being so tired. Now I'm trying to keep her to at most 3 naps a day, with at least one long nap (with my help).

It's been a while since I read Weissbluth's book. I think the title is "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". He emphasizes the importance of getting a baby to sleep as soon as you see signs of tiredness, and that 2 hours is a maximum. Again, I don't remember if he said anything about up to what age. In fact, I remember that I couldn't find that info and got confused because he also said that at 6 months a baby needs only 2 naps. If a baby needs 2 naps, stays awake 2 hours each time, a baby who wakes up at 7 will nap from 9 to 11 and 1 to 3, then go to sleep at 5!! Maybe some other mums who have read it got some better ideas about this. Anyway, that's pretty much what I gathered from his book.

As for getting your son to nap, are you asking about how to get him to nap without your help? I don't have much trouble getting my daughter to nap by nursing her or bouncing/patting/singing to her as soon as I notice that she's tired. But those as essentially "bad habits" that you may not want to start. She was so miserable I'd do anything to get her to nap though. Now I wish I'd tried to let her settle on her own once in a while or at least find a routine that's easier on me, like cuddling or patting her to sleep.