[bebe12]

hi,

my 5 week old Ds will not sleep during the day unless he is in the sling or sleeping in someones arms.

He sleeps well in his cot at night with no issues. last feed 9pm sleep until 6am with 2/3 night feeds included on average.

During the day he will not let us put him down. He can be feed off to sleep or rocked but during the day he will wake after ten mins once put in cot. He will not be patted off to sleep whilst lying down. We have block out curtain to make room dark.
Also he does not like car or pram? He wake up crying so is fully awake.

At the moment i have MIL down so not as big an issue as housework is being done, and someone sharing the rocking/settling and someone to drop dd to and from school?

But from next week it will be up to me.

Has anyone encounted this before? or have advise on what to do?


Thanks in advance

[klr70]

Sorry, no advice I can relate, though I only have the one child.

My DS slept through the night from around 6 weeks old (similar to your son - a very big sleep of between 9 & 12 hours). The tradeoff was NO daytime sleep - not even a catnap! (occasionally he'd have a catnap, but not very often). If he was going through a growth spurt, he'd have one nap of between 1 & 3 hours, but that would be it... & then he'd be wide awake late at night, often not going to sleep until 11.30pm.

I'd sometimes get him going to sleep in his pram, if we went for a walk. He'd sleep in the car, but wake up when we stopped, so that didn't help all that much.

He's 13 months now & his sleep habits have changed a little bit - still has a big sleep overnight, has one or two naps in the day (depending on the weather, teething, growth spurt). The main difference is that he's now happy to play with his toys & can amuse himself while I get housework done. When he was little, I couldn't do that - he had to be with me - so the housework got left & I caught up when my husband was home & could watch DS (or I just lowered my standards & didn't do as much. I remember being exhausted when DS was little & tried to sleep when he slept).

Would getting a cleaner in once a week be an option? Then you can focus on your DS (& DD), & not worry about the housework.

My cousin used to carry her daughter in a sling, leaving both hands free to do housework. I never tried this, but it worked for her. I used an Ergo baby carrier a little bit, but found DS got hot & sweaty in the warmer weather - would have been perfect for a Winter baby!

[bebe12]

Hi,

thanks for the response Klr70.

I agree that a summer baby might get to hot in the sling.
I do like the suggestion of a cleaner- hadn't thought about that option.

Thanks

[Mum2JFH]

Hi ladies, how did you get on? Im having the same issue, decent sleep at night but all of a sudden has to b with me to sleep during day and wakes as soon as i put her down.

[CharliMarley]

The most contented newborns I know have been carried around in a sling during the day, as they like hearing mums heartbeat and would sleep in the sling between feeds. Can you get a soft, woven fabric that is not too hot for the Summer, because I think this is the only way you will get your newborn to sleep during the day. You have your arms free to do some housework and the mums I see with these babies are wonderful with what they achieve. Babies love to be near their mums.

[Lorem ipsum]

DS was like this too. Only slept in the ergo during the day when he was a bit smaller.

Do you wrap op? I initially didn't because I didn't want to mess up his night sleep. I have just started recently and it seems to help. DS is 10 weeks.

I also started the pantley dance to transfer from arms to the cradle. Worked really well and I can put him down with just patting and a dummy now.

I second getting a cleaner if you can.

Good luck

[axiomae]

My LO was exactly the same. I had to settle her in the cot for her to sleep during the day. Rocked the bassinet until she was asleep when she was younger and shhhhed (she cried, but I was there with her) until she was asleep. Took a long time initially, but she got better and better and it and would soon be asleep within 5 minutes. I could then get 3 45min sleeps out of her each day, until now, at 6 months she's just started having 2hr naps! But the self setting was key to having her sleep.

[Natttmumm]

DD1 started out like that. It was tough. By about 8 weeks she got better.
Have you tired a dummy. Once DD got used to the dummy it sorted out.

[tiggy2]

My first two were like that. I used an ergo and a swing - I have the fisher price rainforest swing and all my babies have happily slept in there- might be worth looking at? You can get cheaply on eBay and resell if your bub doesn't like it.

They do grow out of it eventually!
A cleaner is a great idea too.

[KRT]

Waiting until DS was 12 weeks and we went to sleep school was what worked for us. However, he wouldn't sleep in the car, the pram, or in a sling, and feeding to sleep stopped working around 6 weeks, so we really had very few options!

I would recommend wrapping, putting the baby down to sleep as soon as they've finished feeding and just do whatever works to avoid getting into a cycle of overtiredness. We eventually went with a comfort settling approach, but our DS was much older and even then was right at the youngest age that the sleep school was willing to even try.

Good luck. I have to say that at 12 months, DS is a pretty good sleeper - making up for a rough beginning.