Seeking Help with day sleeps

[kellmay]

If he is self settling with little or no fuss at 6 weeks that is fantastic. I have been told that babies that can self settle and are younger than 13weeks generally cat nap for two reasons - hunger and coldness. You may need to increase your feeding, every three hours and if you are breast feeding make sure you have lots of protein in your diet. My nurse who is 70 and been doing this for a long time says BF women need 5-6 serves of proteina day, starting as soon as you wake in the morning ( meat, yogurt, milk,tuna, cheese. (bubs do have a growth peak at 6 weeks too)
Try to put one more layer on him too .
Also you maybe going in to soon, lots of babies makes some noise in between sleep cycles.
If you keep your sleep rituals the same it will get better.
Both my bubs catnapped one from 6weeks and the other from 3. and now they are both good sleepers.
(PS my nurse also says the dummy is ok till about 16weeks so i say use it if it helps.
GOOD LUCK i know how upsetting catnapping can be

[~Trish~]

It sounds like he is waking after one sleep cycle and can't go back to sleep. This is very normal! Both my boys did it and I had to work hard to teach them how to go back to sleep.

What I used to do was try and get bub back to sleep when he woke up, with DS1 I could just give him his dummy and he would go back to sleep. DS2 was a bit harder! I would try patting him back to sleep, if that didn't work I would pick him up and rock him off to sleep. After a while this didn't work anymore so I would sneak into his room just before his sleep cycle ended (for him it was at 40 minutes) and start patting him as soon as he slightly stirred (he would sigh and wriggle when he stirred). This helped him go back to sleep and get through that sleep cycle. Over time I could stop going in at 40 minutes because he had finally worked out how to go back to sleep. Now he is a great napper!

So my advice is to try and find a way to get your bub to go back to sleep after his first sleep cycle. If you stick with it consistently he will learn how to go back to sleep all by himself.

HTH

[nagromeyk]

thanks for that Kellmay. Yeah he is pretty good at self settling, doesnt make much fuss at all. He puts himself to sleep ok but I just would like to figure out what it is that makes him wake up. Last night he had pants on, a shirt, his mittens and socks as it was quite cool.

I persevered with BF for the first 4 weeks - milk supply wasnt good. He is a big eater and my body couldnt keep up with his demands so now he is FF. At the moment he does feed every 3 hours - 150ml usually or close to LOL ..... did I say hes a little piggie hehe I always wrap him when I put him down.

I asked the nurse yesterday about a formula that would sustain him a little longer and she suggested the Lactose Free Karicare as it apparently has more protein in it. I started that last night and I am thinking thats probably why he slept from 9pm till 2am LOL

Trish - I have briefly read information on 'sleep cycles'. I think that is his problem too. How do I know how long the first cycle is? At the moment it seems to only be like 30 minutes tops that he will be 'napping'.

I am not one to rush into his room the very first noise I hear. Have become accustomed to his stirring cry compared to his "i need attention" cry hehe
I usually leave him a few minutes - no more than 5 minutes before I'll go in and yeah I do what you said you did with your DS and usually rub him on the chest and sometimes I even massage his head in a circular motion - he loves it!!

For now I have to persevere with it dont I - I guess I was just expecting it would of just all happened by itself but realise now it's not always that straight forward LOL

[Tan2705]

Sasha,

I think their first sleep cycle is about 45min give or take! DS had dramas with resettling during the day also! He slept through from 3 weeks (a good 10 hours a night) but only cat napped during the day (30 minutes if that)! And yes persistance is the key as it's taken till now (3 months) to get him to the stage where he resettles by himself, i used similar techniques to Trish! Found Pinky McKay's "Sleep (ing?) like a Baby" to be super helpful!

Goodluck!

[nagromeyk]

so 40mins from when he first goes down I should be going in to comfort him so he doesnt fully wake again?

[~Trish~]

Maybe just clock watch a couple of his naps and work it out from there. My DS2 would wake up exactly 40 minutes (how did he always wake on the dot?) after I put him down. I would look at the time when I put him down and then a few minutes before the 40 minutes was up I would creep into his room and stand close by. As soon as he went from being completely still to slightly stirring I would start patting him rhythmically on his tummy. This seemed to help him make it to the next cycle. I won't lie and say it worked every time, but the hard work did pay off!

I hope it works for you too if you decide to give it a go

[thepixie]

Sash if he sleeps well at night ask yourself what is the difference between night and day sleeps.... can you make the day sleeps as much like the night as possible - maybe light in his room is waking him after one sleep cycle? just a thought and hope you work it out soon....

[~Trish~]

Both my boys are great night sleepers, day sleeps seem to fall into a different category with them!

[nagromeyk]

ask yourself what is the difference between night and day sleeps....

Pixie - dont worry hun I have asked myself that question about 12 million times today LOL
I basically spent most of the afternoon beside his cot apart from when I fed him

I knew he was tired as his eyes were sooo puffy and he kept clenching his fists and rubbing his eyes. Funny thing is I put him in his Fisher Price Swing about an hour ago and he is dead sleep... grrrrr

Trish - I might give your suggestion a go tonight. I just cant work out why I dont need to go to him in the night. I pretty much walk out of the room about 10 minutes after I put him down and go to bed myself and he will sleep through till 2am!!