14 week old and day time naps

[queribus]

My 14 week old DS won't sleep for any longer than 20 minutes during the day. Is there anything I can do to encourage him to sleep for an hour or so?

I'm knackered, and my DD (3 years) is not getting too much of my attention as a consequence.

Any help really appreciated. Thanks!

Is he sleeping in a darkened room?

He needs way more sleep than that as I'm sure you realise. Once he is up in the morning start looking for signs that he is getting sleepy after an hour and half. At the first yawn take him into a dark quiet bedroom. Then take as long as it takes to get him to sleep. When he wakes up repeat looking for when he starts to get tired. You will find the interval he can happily stay awake for this way. Once you know it never let him stay awake for more than that time and before you know it assume 2 hours as a maximum. If he yawns when you are feeding him get him straight back to bed to continue sleeping. Come evening once he is asleep after 6pm treat any more awakenings as if it was night time and feed him in the dark then put him back to bed. Don't worry about lots of day time sleep impacting on night time sleep - they need it. They also tell us how much they need but they can be bloody subtle about it. If you keep him awake beyond his window he will go wide eyed and look like he's "taking it all in". He isn't he is overwhelmed and will have trouble falling asleep.

Good luck.

At the moment he's sleeping in the pram downstairs in the dining room - not really dark -

I definitely know when he's tired, and he drops off relatively easily (only in the pram, though), but it's proving impossible to get him to sleep for longer than 20 minutes. I think he becomes overtired and gets really grumpy.

He has a strong bedtime 'routine', starting at about 6pm with bath, feed and then bed - he sleeps until 11.30pm usually, sometimes longer, so I know he can sleep for longer periods.

I guess I need to grit my teeth and keeping trying to get him to sleep upstairs.

Thanks.

Try putting him somewhere darker and see if that helps. It really worked for my LO when she was about 13 weeks old

my 12 week old sleeps much better and longer in her moses basket upstairs.
Think as its slightly quieter she gets into a deeper sleep.
She too would only sleep 30 mins tops before starting to do this.

If he will only sleep in the pram have you tried taking it upstairs and sleeping it up there?

I dont make the room dark as she associates darkness with night/bedtime.

Also sometimes my DD will grumble in her sleep, so I usually give it a few minutes before going into her as quite often she will go back off.

i agree with becky. the only time my dd (15 wks) sleeps longer than 35 min at home as opposed to in her pram is when it is quite dark. i also put on white noise to mask the sirens and honking from the A1.