[puffsgirl11]

I have a 9wk old who doesn't sleep during the day unless he is on my chest or sometimes in the swing. I don't really have a routine for him, so not really sure how long he should be awake and so on.

What is your daytime nap routine? How long should they stay awake after a feed. Do you have them take a nap where they sleep at night.

Thanks

[KRT]

Honestly, before 4 months, do whatever you need to do, whether that be naps in a carrier/sling/swing, or on you. The thing you want to do is avoid overtiredness and survive. You can't spoil a baby that age, and you can't develop sleep associations until around 4 months, so don't worry about doing it forever.

At nine weeks, I think the maximum awake time should be an hour - and that's after at least two sleep cycles. At 13 weeks, DS would still often only be awake for 45 mins before showing tired signs and going down for a sleep. That was barely enough time for a feed and a nappy change, with maybe a little cuddle.

DS was an appalling sleeper at that age, so I can't give you a routine that worked for us. But if I could go back in time, my daytime routine would be:
DS wakes
BF on one side, trying to keep him awake and sucking well the whole time
Nappy change to make sure he's awake
BF other side
Nappy change if dirty
Cuddle, a few minutes of tummy time, maybe some smiles
60 mins since waking or first tired sign, whichever comes first, wrap and put down in the cot/bassinet
Settle as necessary if he woke less than two hours since the last feed, but I wouldn't push it

Looking back at photos of DS before we went to sleep school, I am appalled at how exhausted he looked all the time. I still feel bad for letting him get into such a state I thought he was such an alert baby he didn't need much sleep - but he was so wired he couldn't relax. Turns out he needed a little more sleep than average! I was really bad at reading his cues, so more of a routine helped us. This has some really good suggestions on infant cues - http://www.qec.org.au/assets/pdf/clients/3...INFANT-CUES.pdf.

I suggest you try to move towards long term sleep habits - so recognising tired signs, putting baby down to sleep in their cot drowsy but awake, doing the minimum of settling - but there will be plenty of times where it doesn't work and that's okay and normal.

Good luck. It's hard, but it does get better.

[PurpleNess]

Don't worry about a routine at this age, seriously you have plenty of time to do that.
Firstly try and learn your babies tired cues, they can get sort of jerky, distracted etc.
Enjoy the cuddles and use any methods possible to get bub to sleep, my son used to always nap after a feed, he was on 3 hrly feeds at this age, most as would be an hr or so.

Don't worry about feeding to sleep at this age, sleep associations are not an issue until 6 months or so. Trust your gut, feed, rock, cuddle to sleep & then try transferring to a bassinet over the coming weeks, but don't force it, bub is still very very young & just want to be with you :-)

[puffsgirl11]

I too used to think he was a very alert baby and didn't need much sleep but I'm starting to think I'm wrong. He sleeps very well overnight and is easy to put down but day naps are a whole different story. He has currently been asleep for 2 hours in the swing but this is the first time in 3 days he has slept that long during the day.

My biggest issue is I don't know his tired signs. He is such a happy baby until you put him down. Will hk out he link for tired signs.

Thanks

[KRT]

For some reason, I found it much easier to spot the tired signs if I popped him down on his playmat, or looked at him in the mirror. I think that when I was holding him he was too close and I couldn't see the whole picture.

One thing that really confused me was that he nuzzled into me when he was tired. I thought it meant he was hungry and would feed him, but he was actually trying to rub his eyes against my chest. Once we had a loose routine in place I found it easier to tell the difference between hungry and tired nuzzling, because if I'd just fed him, chances were he was tired! Later it because clear that his hungry nuzzling involved pecking like a chicken, but the tired nuzzling was more rubbing his face against whatever part of me was closest.

[Jenflea]

I hardly saw any tired signs for my daughter till about 4 months or so. No red eyes, no yawning, she wasn't ever cranky or crotchety. It was really difficult to get her to sleep as well so I feel your pain.
I had the paed tell me at her 6 week check up to just wrap her up and put her in the cot. Even then I knew that wouldn't work! Rocking was the only way to get her to sleep, or the Hug a Bub.

[MKTWINS]

I stuck to routine from day dot. Day sleeps are always a little hit and miss esp as they get older and take in the world a little more. But routine works for me and my 16 week old.

My opinion is they shouldn't be awake more than 1 hr to an hour an a half during the day. Tired signs could be rubbing eyes, jerking erradic movements or in my case a screaming baby.

Work out what works for you and baby then stick to it x

Good luck!

[NicolinaO]

my 3month old is having the same problem. he seems to have gotten worse over the last week too. He was never a good day sleeper and an average night sleeper (our maximum sleep-length record is 6 hours). He catnaps while breastfeeding and I am having a constant battle with my own head if I let him or not, put him down when he is asleep on my or not... trying to weigh him getting some rest against me getting any rest whatsoever..
he is looking very tired after a week and some of this.
I had him on a decent routine from the very start but it seems to get thrown out the window every week or two as he changes. it is very frustrating to feel you just got that routine you been working for to work.. and then they decide to change on you haha *sigh*

[Missmarymack]

My 12 week old is often awake for 2 hr periods during the day. She tends to do 3x 45min sleeps plus one longer sleep each day. She does the 45 min sleeps in her cot (sometimes my arms) and starts the longer sleep in her bed before I have to hold her for the rest of it. I'm not worried about her sleep at all as she is a very happy and very alert baby. Plus she sleeps 11 hrs straight overnight (I'm sure I've just jinxed myself) which I figure would be more broken if she was overtired.
I settle her by feeding or rocking. Once or twice she's put herself to sleep when I've had to put her down (swaddled) to deal with my toddler, but to be honest I haven't really tried to get her to self settle yet. I really do just go with the flow and wrap her when she is obviously tired. I spent too long trying to settle my first when I thought I saw tired signs and it would take me 45 mins to get her to sleep, to then have her wake only 45mins later - not fun!!

ETS - I do use this as a rough guide for awake times though however I found my first was always on the lower end of the suggested sleep times and higher end of the awake times. I suspect DD2 will be similar

http://www.ngala.com.au/files/files/125_Se...od_Sleepers.pdf

This post has been edited by Missmarymack: 29/01/2013, 06:49 PM

[Lokum]

My 10 week old does not give tired signs until it's too late. I have to clock watch and get him down BEFORE he looks tired.

I know I've missed the mark with him when he's impossible to get to sleep.

I know I've caught him in time if he falls asleep easily, as he's relaxed and calm and not wired.

First feed is 5am, and he falls asleep at the boob - straight back to bed, no nappy change. Stays asleep until 9am (actually, 5-9am is still part of 'night time' for him.)

9am wake up, nappy, two minute chat to him, then feed, dress him, feed other side, short play with his big brother. By now we're at 50 or 60 minute mark, and he MUST be wrapped and held upright against my shoulder with no talking, and should drop off within 5-10 minutes and sleep for around 2 hours. During this 5-10 mins, he will nuzzle my shoulder and lick me, and drool a lot, but it's tired not hungry.

If we get to 70 or 80 minutes awake time - the whole day is stuffed. He will wriggle, scream, fight sleep, fight me, and when I eventually get him to sleep, it will be for 20-45 mins max. It's downhill from there.

Approx 11:30am wakeup - repeat above, but can maybe stretch to 60-70 minutes.

As the day goes on, it naturally gets harder to put him to sleep, and his sleeps get shorter. By 5pm on a good day, he might only sleep 40 mins, and between 7-9pm it's constant feeding and dozing until he drops off for the night.

I learned with crap day sleeps with DS1 that sometimes it's better to clock-watch than wait for tired signs. It's not a 'routine' as such, like baby must sleep from 9;45-11:37 and then do XYZ - it's more about how much your baby can realistically cope with at this young age.

GL