to much to see and do

[amy densley]

my little boy is 13wks old and is so alert it's very hard to settle him he sleeps pretty good at night but through the day i struggle to get him to sleep for more than half an hour at a time and to get him to even sleep he fights me.i will think he is asleep and go check on him and he is laying in his cot talking or just looking around ,does anyone have any solutions : :

[Megansmum]

Hi!! :) Just wanted to say that I may not have a solution but I understand the problem. My DD is a horrible day sleeper but will normally go to bed at night sometime between 8 and 11pm and then sleep right through to about 6am.

I have come to the conclusion that it is easier to live with it instead of trying to fight it. I just get her involved with what I am doing as she loves to be entertained even if it is only the housework. As long as she is moving around all the time.

My DD is basically the same not upset or anything just awake. At least while they are not crying at you all the time it makes it that much easier to deal with. And then when she is having an off day I just put her in the pram and take the dog for a walk. She loves the dog running around the pram as it keeps her distracted. I think the name of the game when you have a baby that is just awake is distraction, but hey someone else might have a better idea.

Hope all gets sorted out soon and you get the solution you are after. I do however understand the strain of seemingly being constantly awake

[mariafresnel]

Hi Amy

I wanted to offer you some thoughts....first of all congratulations on your new baby!

A couple of thoughts - not sure if you'r already considering them or using them....but ..
- wrapping your baby will make a big difference to helping them sleep.

- you could use the tresillian wrap technique so that your baby feels secure(let me know if you need these instructions and i'll email you).

-ensure that the room is dark as possible during the day - it wont confuse them, it just limits the amount of looking around - because everything is interesting in their room. We even had to take down pictures from Sophia's walls, as she would spend more time looking everywhere rather than getting onto sleep.

- a dummy is useful, until they start to drop it, and cry to put it back in. We weaned her off it (took 5 days of crying) but it's been worth her learning how to self settle (still wrapped and she's almost 1). (I understand that it takes a baby (through our help of course!) 5 days to create a habit, and then we need to help them break it, it'll take 5 days of hard, persistent work with a lot of resistance and crying.

- the only other thing that worked, was feeding her and going for a long walk, an hour, so that by half way (half hour of bumpy walking) she fell asleep, and I could walk back in the house, and leave her in the pram until she would wake up, an hour or two later....it still works, but have to make sure pram is reclined, and you have a bit of sun shining on your baby.....it's a sure thing....

Amy, don't give up....your baby is too young to be a non sleeper during the day....she probably sleeps druing the night because she's exhausted....keep trying diff things, and you'll find some good combinations that work for you both during the day.....I've only learned that now, a year down the track, taht I take the infor and advice and I see what works, and then either implement it or drop it....let us know how you get on.

Maria

-

[Sonja]

I understand exactly what you're going through. My now six week old daughter decided about 2 weeks ago to give up day sleeps. However, she wasn't happy to be awake either. At first she wanted to be held and rocked to sleep, then that didn't work. Next, pram walking got her to sleep, then that also didn't work. Out of desperation we purchased the "It's Time to Sleep" DVD and now use the pat and shush method to get her to sleep. And it works. It's a very gentle technique which never leaves the child alone (hence why it can be used for newborns). The technique is described on the Huggies.com website, but I found the DVD extremely useful as I need to see the method before I can do it. The website www.itstimetosleep.com.au tells you where you can buy it.

Good luck!