if night-time works, why doesn't naptime...

[Scarlett175]

my DD is 9 weeks old, we have bath-time routine starts 7.30ish and she is usually in moses basket by 9pm at the latest. For the last 5 nights she then sleeps through til 3.30-4am, has a feed and back til 6, quicker feed and back til 7.30am ish.........

I do BF her to sleep and put her in basket asleep in a swaddle wrap, but she also spends plenty of time in there awake, coo-ing, snuffling so isn't traumatised by being moved awake.

So I know I should be happy for this amount of sleep at night, and I am!

But daytime sleep is a nightmare. If I replicate any part of night routine and put her in moses basket, she is awake within 2-3 mins and can't be settled with shooshing etc. I have tried her dreami cot downstairs, same thing, rocker chair, same. The only way she sleeps in the day is in sling, where she has easy nipple access, or in car seat/pram while we are out and about. Should I just accept this and be happy?? I am just concerned about the regularity of her naps as she does get grouchy. I tried a dummy to help her settling after she initially wakes, cue yucky face and spit out numerous times. Any ideas please..

Just a quick note to say mine was like this, but I think good nighttime sleeping is a Very Good Sign, because he eventually got the hang of naps and now he's the best sleeper ever, self-settles, takes long naps in cot, 6.30pm - 7am at night solid.

I think different bits of brain are responsible for day and night sleep?

Someone once said that for naps, the key is to get them used to sleeping for a good chunk, anywhere, and then work on transferring this to the cot/basket. Maybe try the pram but in the living room, while you walk/rock it?

thanks mistressploppy (love the name)

what age was your ds when he started napping, maybe I am expecting too much as she is still very young.

DD1 was like that. Just roll her too sleep and sometime if you are lucky she you can stop and she won't wake up. I was however able to put her in a cot around 4 months. Just do what is working now, and adapt every few weeks till she settles in a routine at 4/6 months.

He was always ok in the basket but it would take rocking to sleep and he's only have 30mins. I started putting him down before he was completely asleep and did shush pat sometimes.

He was quite good at going to sleep in the basket (still took about 10-15mins cuddling) by 3mo, but wouldn't stay asleep for longer than 45min. He took short naps until about 5.5mo.

I kept reducing the amount of cuddling I did before putting him in the cot. Now I can just put him in the grobag, quick cuddle, thumb goes in, I plop him in the cot and leg it pronto! He usually goes straight to sleep but sometimes will coo for 5 mins or so.

I remember he was an arse to get to sleep if overtired, and for ages could only cope with 45mins-1hr awake in the morning before needing a nap!!!! Could last longer later in the day though.

He is napping now and has been asleep for 2.5hrs so far!!!

I should wake him but I haven't the heart!

my day sleeps seem to turn a corner with a) bit of training to stop rocking to sleep b) LO got older and self settled alot easier.

corner turning.. ( so consistent sleeping of 2 hours in middle of day and hour in the morning, without me going in and 'helping') - 4/5 months.

At your stage was like you and did whatever i could, and started to work on getting my LO to self settle and nap in day on own ( see millions of threads on this, with lot of us familiar faces on it!!) The routine i started took a very long time to work, but it has done in the end. so i would recommend, keep working on getting baby to self settle, but don't get too hung up.It seems to come good around 5 months.

good luck

Scarlett I could have almost written your post word-for-word! My DD has been sleeping really well at nigt since 8.5weeks and she too can be a nightmare in the daytime.

I have driven myself mad trying to get her into some sort of napping routine (see my post last week about it driving me to distraction!) but now I have turned a corner and decided to just go with it for the moment and not get so het up about it...

She is now happily napping in her pram in the kitchen and if i put the washing machine on she might sleep for a bit longer!!

I figured that she is so good at night (9pm - 5am ish), that maybe, just maybe she is one of those babies wo can get by on a little less sleep in the day...

I'm looking forward to the 5 month mark where most people say this all falls into place

yep part of me thinks relax and it will improve with time, as the night time bit has done, its just frustrating trying to plan have a nice day (like today), put her in sling this morning managed 50 mins nap tops,fed her, did nappy etc, went to town to meet a friend for lunch, she slept 5-10 mins sporadically in pram, yawning and grizzling the rest of time if I wasn't feeding her....now we home have fed her and just moved her to dreami carrycot and am holding my breath... been there 10 mins so fingers crossed for me.

I guess I just feel even in sling she is constantly interrupted/waking up so its not a good nap, IFSWIM, I wouldn't even mind being housebound with routine if it got her well rested!!!!!!!

Good luck to everyone, Curly I will look at your posts... enjoy the rest of the day x

had the same here today. DD slept for about 50 mins in her pram in the kitchen this morning, but I took her out to Sainsbury's after lunch and she grizzled and yawned and cried the whole time we were there! She fell asleep on the way home (although journey on 5-10 mins) but thankfully I managed to carry her in and place in pram still asleep, for another half-hour.

It is frustrating, especially when they are miserable with over-tiredness and just wont sleep, especially when you want to relax over lunch or something, but I am hoping this will just gradually improve over time.

For now, I have just got used to eating with one hand whilst DD balanced on other knee

Think I read in the Ask Moxie blog that small babies are hard-wired to nap for 20, 30 or 40 mins and there isn't much you can do to change that until they start growing into longer stints of daytime sleep.

Day sleep is different - apparently it's lighter than night sleep.

Anyway, after weeks beating myself up about naps and masses of pram shuggling and other nap-prolonging efforts, DD has, within the last couple of weeks (aged 20 weeks, 16 weeks corrected), started to sleep for longer than her previous 45 mins max during the day. In fact, she will do up to 2.5 hours with minimal interference from me. Only thing I can do is try and hit her tiredness windows just right, do the naptime routine (swaddle, cuddle, feed, dummy) and get her down in a place where her environment won't change during the sleep (naps out and about are still shorter than the ones she takes at home, although they are all in the pram, pretty much).

So, yes, I would suggest you work on getting a mini routine in place for nap-settling, pick a place that works for your LO (and you) - be it cot, pram or whatever, watch out for the tiredness windows and sooner or later those naps WILL get longer.

Good luck!!

well just to update you she actually managed 30 mins in the dreami, which is the first time ever!! and then later on dozed on me for another 30 mins...

I think I am going to try to go with it and be thankful for her good sleep at night. Hopefully as you all hint at, it should improve around 5 months or so.... she can live in the sling til then....

night all x

thats great news

Just to secondimmaculada - it is a good idea to try get a bit of a routine going, as babies do respond to the naptime rituals and know then its time to sleep. i always applied the 2 hours up 2 hours down too, which worked well.Just don't get too hung up on it - i did, and was then tied to the house, where she naps best or only naps now!! For me i found having an overtired baby too stressful for her and me, so getting the sleep sorted was important in the day. i then fitted my stuff around the naps in the cot. ( so i do most stuff post 2pm out and about) easy with just 1 little person obviously!

and just to add- she slept for 8 HOURS LAST NIGHT!!!!

i woke up in a panic, and a puddle of milk!!

so she is doing really well at night...

at the 8 hours overnight!

DD naps pretty well, but overnight sleep??