12 day old 'fighting' sleep

[MrsHD]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone had any ideas or a magic cure?! Max is getting horribly overtired in the mornings as although he's sleepy (yawning, cranky etc) he refuses to settle to nap. He will go sometimes, but it's quite unpredictable and he won't go when he needs to. We've tried rocking him, feeding to sleep, soothing etc and on the couple of occasions we happen to have gone out in the car late morning he has of course zapped out, but we're not going to go out in the car just for that purpose!

In theory we'd love him to nap in his cot, but car seat or bouncy chair is fine if it means he goes. We don't want to be rigid but we know he gets into a 'too tired to feed, too hungry to sleep' cycle and that's when we top him up with formula just to solve the hunger bit - have done that three or four times in his 12 days so not a regular thing but there as backup (I don't have a supply problem, but my milk at times seems not to fill him up and he is a big lad, 10lb 5oz).

We have the problem to a lesser extent in the night - just have to wait quite a while after night feeds for him to doze off. Any tips gratefully received!

Thanks.

Congratulations on the birth of your son

Have you tried taking him out for a walk in the pushchair

Swaddling the baby can work for some

ALternativley what about popping him in a sling and carrying him like that

Good luck

Congratulations on baby Max, great name too!!

My Max fought sleep initially, best thing I can suggest for daytime naps is waking in the pram - this always used to send Max off, and still does now at 6 months if he's having a 'diffcult' day!

Your Max is still so young it will take a while for him to be able to sleep on his own, for the first 8 weeks all of Max's naps were either on me or in his pushchair, nightime he was ok as the crib was right up next to me and I would put my hand on him.

From about 8 weeks I started putting him down in his cot asleep, then gradually moved it to sleepy then awake but ready for a nap and now we have no problems with him going off to sleep on his own for naps (staying asleep at nightime is another matter though at the moment )

Hi,

I had a c-sec and we live on a very steep hill, so as yet walks aren't allowed - I dearly wish I could get out, being stuck at home is driving me mad! For the same reason a sling isn't really on atm, esp as he's a big baby. I've tried swaddling but he doesn't seem to like it.

After a totally cr*p night he's now been awake four hours and is horrendously overtired. DH and I have spent the whole day so far trying to soothe him, feeding him (I've had my boobs out almost constantly bar the brief time it took him to neck 35ml of formula), trying to settle him but nothing and DS is now screaming himself purple if he's not held, so of course we're holding him. He's an unhappy overtired little boy and I'd like to prevent this becoming the norm as it's now the third day of this sort of pattern. Just so happens the last two days we've been out in the car around now which has sent him off, and DH is off to collect SD in a min so may well plonk DS in the car just for the purpose of getting him off to sleep.

Help! Feels like this will be the case every day for the rest of my life!

Thanks JoandMax - crossposted! I'm clinging onto the hope that when I'm more mobile in 2-3 weeks life will feel different.

Right now Max is dozing on DH, oh no, he's grizzling

Oh you poor thing, the first 2 weeks after a c-section are horrible! I really suffered then all of sudden it wasn't so bad and I could start going out for walks, it was heaven.

I remembered another thing which works for us when he's in a grump is putting him in his bouncy chair and rocking it with a foot to quite a firm rock, for some reason he loves it although it can look like we're about to launch him off into the air.......

It will get better I promise, the first 3 weeks are so so hard but gradually you start to see their personalities and what works for them xx

HI Mrs HD- another voice of solidarity for post CS-ers here. It's reeeeeaaaaaaaaaaally hard intially but Joandmax is right- suddenly you start to feel better, just when you think you never will.

IMO until you feel better you could just go for drives to get him some sleep and you some rest. When you're feeling better I'm sure walking will help- I walked my DS to sleep first thing for the first 6 or so months of his life. For some reason, later in the day he was easier to settle but the first nap was crucial. It was like he needed fresh air to feel sleepy. At 15mo, he's still an outdoor boy but luckily he's usually happy to wait til 10ish to get out of the house!

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that it will pass, the first few weeks are tough but don't be scared that it will last forever- it just won't. Good luck, take care.