My 9 Week Old wont sleep During the Day - Please Help!

[alana555]

My 9 week old baby is sleeping quite well during the night, she will go to bed about 10.30 abd wake at 2.30 for a feed and then sleep another 4 hours.

However during the day she will not sleep, she will only have a few 15-20 minute cat naps. I have tried everything:
- Darken Room
- Wrap her like I wrap her at night
- Soft Music
- Resettle her after she wakes after 20 minutes (some times she will go back for another 15 minutes but usually not)
- etc etc

I am a big believer in not rocking her to sleep and she does fall asleep herself, so getting her to sleep is not usually the issue.
I want her to sleep in her own bed during the day and dont want to resort to having her sleep or fall asleep in rockers etc during the day.

Any advice as I am at my witts end as she gets so overtired that she becomes a mess at about 4pm every night and doesnt eat well and fights sleep cause she is so tired. It will then usually take me until 10.30-12.30 at night to get her down for the night.

Need some advice????

[Olive]

hun the first few months are tough.
how long in general is she up before you try and pop her back down??

she only needs to be up for around 60-90 mins before needing to go back down, that time includes feeding, changing etc...

[Mummato2]

Can you give me some idea of her routine?

Time she:
- Wakes
- Has her feeds
- Plays
- Naps

Also her cues for sleep

[mbear]

My DD#1 was like this...never slept in the day, was an ok night sleeper, but the witching hr (4-7pm) was dreadful.
Have you tried bathing her then putting her down ?
Pop her in the pram, go for a walk around the block....??
Do you have a sling??? can you pop her in there when she seems tired and try and do something around the house ?
After 6 wks i found my babies all became a bit more knowing....and i really had to teach them how to self settle....and a lot of times i came up against a cranky baby that just didnt want to go to sleep on their own, they wanted mummys help. Thats ok you know, rocking and patting isnt going to create a bad habit. Your lil one has been on this planet for 9 weeks, and sometimes i guess she needs a little bit of prodding to get some zzzzzz's.
Dont take it as all bad - next week it maybe all different.....she maybe having her sleeps reguallary throughout the day. I always found the first 3 months the most challenging...hang in there...

[koru]

Oh this sounds JUST like my DD at that age! I definately second the wrap/sling/baby wearing - the only time she ever slept more than about 20 mins at a stretch. Even now she has a series of 30-40 min naps during the day and sometimes a longer 90 min afternoon sleep. But on the upside you'll probably end up with a 'good' night sleeper
Lots of babies suddenly "click" into better sleeping around the 3 month mark too - DD magically started going to sleep for the night at 9pm at 11 weeks and now sleeps from 8pm to 6am (usually!)

[widdly]

i had the exact same problem with DS at the exact same age. We ended up hiring a baby hammock for 2 months and he slept really well in that til he learnt to flip himself over in it...then we put him back in the cot.

GL

[Taurean]

We had the same issue with DD from about 5 weeks. She was diagnosed with silent reflux by her paediatrician at 10 weeks - something to think about.

Try not to worry too much about creating bad habit at such a young age. I think that causes more stress than anything! Do anything you can to help her sleep and anything to help you stay sane.

We bought a hammock for DD as soon as she was diagnosed with silent reflux and her day sleeps improved dramatically. Within 48 hours she was having a 3 hour morning nap and catnaps of a couple of hours (while we were out) in the afternoon. It was amazing! Hammocks are expensive but you can hire them for a very reasonable rate.

We also have a Bubba Moe sling which has been an absolute must have for us. Our DD loves it and has had so many day sleeps in it when she just wouldn't settle in her bassinet or cot. Her record is 4 hours! It has been our saviour so many times. I highly recommend a sling as it give you free hands to at least get some things done and babies generally love them. It's only natural for them to want to be close to mum.

Try working on a 90 minutes 'awake time' schedule. So she is up for 90 minutes then put back to bed and that 90 minutes includes a feed, nappy change and play time. We did a day stay at sleep school at 10 weeks and that bit of info was invaluable. It really helped us so much and worked so well with DD.

Above all, remember that babies are constantly changing so what worked one day may not work the next. Always be willing to try something new, or something old that you haven't tried for a while. And try your best to go with the flow - it's so much easier if you can do that. Our DD self settled to sleep at night up until 15 weeks and then she took a liking to being rocked to sleep. I'm not fighting it, there is no point and it only causes us unnecessary stress so we are just going with the flow and rocking her. It's much easier, isn't stressful at all and we both love it.

I hope some of that helps. Hang in there, you're not alone. Plenty of babies struggle to sleep during the day despite what our mums/MILs say