tips on day time naps

[houmousandcarrotsandwich]

I have a 11week old DS who sleeps really well at night (10-6), which is lovely and I appreciate how lucky I am!
Day time sleep is abit hit and miss and I'm doing a 'baby-led' routine! Some days he naps with no issues, others he doesn't nap at all and is over tired and moody by 3pm. I think I'm reading his sleep cues fairly well (rubbing eyes, yawns) and start to encourage sleep once I notice them. What works one day to encourage sleep, won't neccesarly work the next, so we try different things (pram, sling, cot, although cot rarely works!)
Some days I can get him off, he seems to be sleeping well for 10 mins, then is wide awake again (and often moody, still showing signs of tired).
I guess I'm just asking for any tips to improve day time sleep. Do you think I should start a proper routine? (I have the BW book, but didn't really get on with it!)

I'd ask whether you're always reading / responding to his tired signs early enough?

I find that DS's 'tired window' during the a
day is about 2 milliseconds long and if I don't catch it right at the outset, it will be impossible to get him off to sleep by any means other than the sling. Wait till the third yawn and we've had it.

Even if you do see his tired signs early, does it take you a few minutes to swing into action (eg to get the pram out)? Could you try having things ready before he starts yawning etc?

I find that if he's really overtired he will only sleep for 10 mins. If he's generally overtired, he'll sleep for 30. If he's not overtired (or is in the sling), he'll sleep for 45 mins - 2 hours.

Do keep trying different methods as long as they sometimes work - it's a good idea not to get stuck with one method, which is the situation I'm in. If he's continuing to
sleep well at night even when overtired, you can probably afford to mess about with his daytime sleeps a bit (although I don't speak from experience, as messing with DS's daytime naps seems to have a knock-on effect on his nights.)

Thanks, hadn't occured to me that short sleeps are more common when over tired, which is true of my DS.
Probably why I'm suprised/confused when he sleeps well some afternoons even though he slept in the morning!

Bumping this because my DS is exactly the same, sleeps well at night but doesn't nap much during the day. I'm sure his howling fits between 5 and 7pm are because he is overtired. So any tips on encouraging some decent daytime naps are welcome!

Zebedee, DS gets good daytime naps by putting him in the sling - but it is the only way he'll sleep until he zonks out with overtiredness (which only lasts a few minutes anyway). You could try something like that for perhaps one nap a day? I keep on with the sling all day because his night time sleep is definitely affected by his daytime naps.

My DS is 10wks old and generally resists going to sleep. He will sleep in the pram or car seat if we're out and about. When we're at home I put him to bed in his cot with a quick sleeping routine (tell him it's time to go to sleep and and sing a lullaby). It usually works for him after a very little bit of tired crying, so if your DS goes to sleep well a night try doing a mini bedtime routine during the day to encourage her to go to sleep.

Good luck

Houmous, I was going to post this on my sling thread, but thought I should put it somewhere more sensible. When I've managed to get DS to sleep without the sling and without too much crying in the last couple of days, it seems to have worked because I've started getting him to sleep before the first yawn. He starts to slow down a bit before that yawn, which is my cue. I thought I'd mention it in case your DS was at all similar.

Mind you, it still needs me to rock / pat back / play white noise / hold finger in his mouth for ages before he'll get properly drowsy (and putting him in the cot before he's in deep sleep is a disaster), but starting it all earlier does seem to help.