[doctorseuss]

OP we're rocking to sleep here, generally under 5 minutes no crying. An trying to put her down drowsy rather than asleep some days, doesn't always work. She does 40 minute sleeps during the day, rarely longer, but sleeps 10 hours each night so we are happy.

I say just do a gradual transition and don't change what's working.

[jimbobmel]

We rock here until very drowsy. I can put DS down when he is drowsy most times through the day & he will drift off but like pp, 40 mins is about the max we get out of day sleeps. At night I feed him to sleep which suits us fine at this stage

[ajb2205]

Wow ladies, thanks so much for your responses. I am heartened in the knowledge that daysleeps of 40min are common amongst these bubs!! Of course I have MIL in my ear telling me DP and his sister slept for 3-4hrs every day, and so should DS2. So hard to not question yourself.
Luckily the relatively crappy daysleeps are balanced out by good nights with usually only 1 wake up. And as we all know, it might all change tomorrow anyway. Atleast he is a smiling happy little boy, so that's the main thing!!

[Flutters]

OP I could have written your post! My DD is 10 days older than your DS and her day sleeps are terrible! She will happily sleep in my arms for hours, but as soon as I try and put her in her cot or basinete her eyes will fly open and then come the tears. She sleeps well at night thoug, generally only waking once between 10pm and 8am, if that. Occasionally she will sleep for 9 hours, but it's normally a 6 hour block, then maybe another 3-4.

I am trying to get her to sleep in her basinete during they day, and have figured out the difference between her winding down, sooky cry, and her wailing cry that she can't settle herself from. She keeps waking up crying though after about half an hour. Weird that what works at night with these buns doesn't work during the day, but I'll take a fussy day over a bad night anytime

Good luck, but im really glad to know we aren't alone!

[Mrs JayKay]

For the past 4 weeks we have been timing Dd3 (3 months) for 1.5 hours of awake time and then put her down. I'll let her grizzle or cry for about 3 min, pick her up, rewrap her, give her a cuddle & put her back down. To start off, I was repeating this 5-9 times, and then it just started to get less. She's never been allowed to just cry it out to sleep. She only has 40imin naps during the day but sleeps pretty well at night - between 1 - 3 wake ups which good for a b/f baby. She's having a growth spurt atm so sleeping great! I thought we were doing well, until my SIL told me today how rundown I look but I blame that on the 2.5 year old. Every day with her is 12 hours of herding cats. As long as you're feeling ok and feel on top of things then you're doing well x

[AryaStar]

I am heartened in the knowledge that daysleeps of 40min are common amongst these bubs!! Of course I have MIL in my ear telling me DP and his sister slept for 3-4hrs every day, and so should DS2.

Your baby doesn't have a sleeping problem. You have a MIL problem. Try earplugs

DS was always a catnapper during the day who would be rocked or fed to sleep. He has always slept really well overnight so even though I was envious of the mothers of babies who all slept for long stretches during the day I was never up pacing the hallways or spending lots of time trying to resettle him, so I always had that thought to console me.

No matter what we tried he only stopped catnapping once he dropped down to one day sleep at around the 12 month mark and it was bliss. Babies are all different so your MILs experience with her children is fairly irrelevant. Don't let her or anyone else make you feel as though you are doing something "wrong".

[chocolatecrackle]

My MIL has memories of her babies being perfect sleepers and perfect children. I live with one of her children now, and I can tell you he's certainly not perfect! I think her memory is probably flawed. It's nice to know that in the future we'll be remembering the good stuff and forgetting the bad stuff, too

[ausmumof2]

I'm on bubs no 3 now and all of mine have gone through a really bad catnapping stage from around 3 to 4 months, then settled into a couple of longer sleeps.

Try a sling to help you through if you have one. Your bub can get rocked while you get something done.

[Ehill]

Yes, DS was a terrible day catnapper for the 1st 4mths. You could rock for 20 minutes to be rewarded with a 10min nap! Ahhhh so much work for little reward.

He is 5mths now and the rocking has lessened a lot and his day sleeps are much better. 1-2 hrs every arvo.

But whatever works at this stage. We are rock, feed, pat, jiggle, pram etc ......whatever gets you through the day!