Day sleep problems - 50 mins in 8 hours!

[GummyBear]

Hi all,I'm a May mummy, but I didn't want to interrupt your thread, so I thought I'd start a new one.My son, who was in a good routine up until a month ago is no longer sleeping well during the day.He usually has a decent sleep in the morning, but from 10:30am until his bedtime at 7pm he will only have a couple of catnaps. He wakes from his afternoon sleep after 40 mins every time without fail. If we've been out, and he's fallen asleep before I've put him down, he'll only sleep for 10 mins and think that's his sleep for the afternoon. If I try to put him down again it can take up to an hour and a half and he'll only sleep for 40 mins!Is anyone else having this problem? Have you overcome it? I'm desperate for advice, as I have a very unsettled baby by the end of the day.Thanks for listening!

[ZooKeeper]

no advice here, just sympathy. :hugs: my may baby starfish is similar to your bubs. i find we are both less stressed if i only try to put her to sleep (via BF naughty me) when she really, really looks like she'll catnap. if she drops off by herself like in the car, that's a bonus. she won't sleep in sling, she no longer sleeps in bouncer, she wakes up even more if we go out for a walk. instead i focus on keeping her amused in ever less active ways until blessed bedtime ritual time arrives.

she's even stopped sleeping in her pram when we go to town, because she is finding life so interesting and exciting.

on a really really outstanding day she does a morning nap of an hour or hour and a half and a afternoon nap of an hour tops, with a few catnaps of anything from ten minutes to half an hour between 6am and 7pm. on a bad day it's just catnaps, no bigger naps.

I find fresh air as often as possible and plenty of excercise for her does increase the odds of a longer nap at least once a day after 6am.

just have to tell myself "this too shall pass....":banghead:
I'll watch this thread tho in case I can learn something myself that might help :fingerscrossed:

[purplefairy]

I had the same problem with my first baby. She wouldnt sleep during the day.
I went to see a Child health Nurse and she told me some ways to get her in a better sleep routine during the day.
First of all she said that babies that age get tired ever hour to hour and a half, so look for signs of tiredness in them, which are not being able to hold eye contact, getting to fidgety, and clenching hands into a fist.
She said when you star to see the signs start to do things to let them know its time for sleep because babies forget how to fall asleep when they feel tired.
So things like giving them a big feed than wraping them up and rocking them and repeating that routine over again and again helps them learn that when they feel tired that this is how to fall alseep.
Another thing that I did wrong was let to many different people hold my baby when she was young which over stimulates their brain and when they get over stimulated it makes it hard for them to fall alseep.
Also a little bit of Lavender in an oil burner in their room helps relax them too.
Or a nice massage with a bit of lavender oil in the mix.

[Lipsmacker01]

My DD1 who is 4 1/2 months old is going through a similar thing at the moment. Up until she was about 3 months she would have 2-3 sleeps during the day, with each averaging about an hour or so.
Since then her sleeping pattern during the day has been erratic. She went for a while with no sleep at all during the day!:eek: I was sooooo exhausted. This week shes had a couple of cat naps here and there. Each being no longer than an hour.
I would put it down to teething as she has all the classic symptoms and seing your bubs is a May baby, then it wouldnt suprise me if yours is going through the same thing. I breast feed and she can be very fussy sometimes. Her nurse says to not feed her so frequently as she says bubs is snacking and not getting that good fatty hind milk. Im trying to hold off to an hour and a half between feeds and so far its going well.
She wakes once a night but can be very difficult to settle once shes awake. Again she has her good days and bad days!
It can be so stressful. 1 thing that worked well in the recent week is wrapping bubs really tightly. I try to feed her a bit extra if shes still complaining as I know she has a big appetite. She wakes once a night now. Ive also switched from panadol to another braur (spelling?). This did the trick last night when she was very unsettled due to teething problems.

When bubs is having a bad day and Im stressing out, I try and look on the bright side as they all grow up and it does get easier.

Hope your bubby settles soon and feel free to PM me if you need someone to chat to:wave:

[Mrs Little]

Hi Jane,

How long is your bub staying away for after his morning nap? Could he be overstimulated? Bubs of this age shouldn't be up more than an hr and 30mins and then back down to bed. Overstimulation can make it hard for them to resettle into the next sleep cycle.

I assume there are no medical issues like reflux- as he's been doing fine until now?

How regularly are you feeding?

Does he sleep in the same room or cot?

Mrs Little & Sons.

[Hokey Pokey]

Ebony is not sleeping much during the day either... but she isn't fussing about it so I am not concerned.

[twitch]

Annalise has days where she doesn't sleep that much either, but she always makes up for it the next day. I'm like Zookeeper, I breastfeed to sleep to and I gotta say it does make it easier for me to get her to go to sleep.

Is he grumpy when he's awake? If not he may just be switching his routine around and might settle down later on.

BTW feel free to jump into our thread!

[GummyBear]

Thank you for all your replies!My DS is usually up for an hour and a half to two hours between sleeps. I have tinkered with the gap, making it shorter or longer, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.When he wakes up after that first sleep cycle during his afternoon nap, I now give him a quick feed (this is mainly a comfort thing) and put him back down. If he doesn't settle within about 10 mins, I get him back up again and go for a walk or a drive a bit later to see if he'll drop off again.So much trial and error!Thanks again for your replies.

[purplefairy]

Thank you for all your replies!My DS is usually up for an hour and a half to two hours between sleeps. I have tinkered with the gap, making it shorter or longer, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.When he wakes up after that first sleep cycle during his afternoon nap, I now give him a quick feed (this is mainly a comfort thing) and put him back down. If he doesn't settle within about 10 mins, I get him back up again and go for a walk or a drive a bit later to see if he'll drop off again.So much trial and error!Thanks again for your replies.
No worries I know its hard and it drives you nuts during the day because just when they go to sleep they are up again. Maybe just keep repeating the sleep rotine over and over again and he will get into a nice pattern. Good luck many hugs :hugs:

[mumzdaword]

i am having the same problem with DD.. she is only 10wks and should be sleeping quite well during the day but ah ah not so...

sometimes though she will have a 10 min snooze during the day and thats it.....and half the time she is awake she is screaming for attention...

Its so annoying cause i can never get n e thing done....my house is a pig sty

[miss ani]

i think it's probably a more common problem than you think. bubs at this age have so much happening to them - teething, becomming more interested in the world (and distracted by it!), startings of seperation anxiety... no wonder they have trouble trying to sleep around it all!!

my DD had an ok routine going where she took naps (albeit 40 min ones) every 1.5-2 hrs. her 4 month immunisations really put her out of whack last week though, and i'm lucky if i get 2 naps out of her day. this morning i battled with her to get her down for a 30 min nap - which makes me wonder if she's already trying to drop a nap as she was wide awake and chatting/wanting to play. i sometimes BF her to sleep if it's the only way to calm her, and that's all good as she won't do that forever.

as the others have said, just repeat the 'it will get better' mantra... because everyone assures me it will!!!

[Lilyloo]

I'm having the same problem with DD.. she's 14 weeks and I've been worried as, like your bub, only has a few cat naps during the day. She sleeps well in the morning, but all up, will only have an hour or two during the day..

Seems its quite common, so hopefully nothing to worry about. :)

[Mrs Little]

Just wanted to encourage everyone.

You could try implementing a routine. Look for tired signs- bubs should be doing about 1- 1 1/2 hrs wake time and then sleep should be 1 1/2-2hrs long each time. It can take 3 days to a week to get them into the routine. If there is no regluarity, then their little bodies will be confused and not know if they are coming or going.

DS2 was 4 months yesterday. He's in a routine of feeding every 3.5hrs in the day. Feed-wake-sleep. If he wakes early, then we have a play..but we keep feed time 3.5hrs apart. He sleeps no shorter then 1.5hrs for each nap...no longer then 2 hrs. He has 3 or 4 a day.

Hope this helps.

Hang in their mummies.

Mrs Little & Sons.