Having a few dramas with day sleeps..

[Ginger]

hello, just after a little bit of advice. i'm having a few dramas with ds2's day sleeps atm. he is sleeping quite well at night, it's more his day naps that are a problem.
He seems to be finding it really hard to wind down with a crazy toddler running around. usually i sit and rock him in the rocking chair or breastfeed him to sleep and then pop him in his cot, (which was working well up until this week) but he's just not wanting to go to sleep at all.
i've tried relaxing him to a very sleepy point and then puting him in the cot, but he just ends up crying 5 mins later.
has anyone got any tips on how to gently help your baby to sleep whilst still entertaining a toddler?
has anyone read 'no cry nap solution'? and can recommend it?
i have got 'no cry sleep solution' but have found it hasn't really helped me much with either of my boys, so am put off buying the nap one if it's just more of the same iykwim?
thanks for any suggestions

[Shanti]

Rainforest I'm having the same issues here with my nearly 6mth old DD. She has never been the best day sleeper and quite often will only sleep 1.5hrs (total) during the day.... some days hardly 1hr!! It's tiring and hard to get any stuff done. She sleeps well at night thankgoodness!!

I'm interested in this thread and hopefully someone can help me too with some tips.

I have a night time routine that is great for getting DD into bed by 630pm every night but during the day we don't have any 'nap time routines' and i feel maybe we need one so she can associate something with when she should be going to sleep....

We BF to sleep too and that works some times but like your little one, she wakes again 10mins later in her cot! We follow gentle parenting techniques like those of Pinky McKay.

[Ginger]

thanks for your response shanti
it's very frustrating isn't it? he just doesn't seem to want to sleep in the day.
hopefully someone has some ideas for us!

[Artechim]

Rainy, as you know I am the last person who can offer any helpful sleep advice lol, but I hope someone comes along soon and suggests something good for you.

Will he sleep in the sling? Or swing? I remember the early days when W only had 2-3 20 minute naps during the day, it is next to impossible to get anything done. I can't even imagine it with a toddler too (although I am probably about to find out).

[Snacks]

Hmmm, I was going to suggest patting/settling in the cot. BUT don't know how it'd go with a toddler tagging along, LOL!
Natty got to the point where she didn't want to be rocked to sleep by 4 months, so I put her in her cot and patted her bottom til she fell asleep. She would sometimes take a good 15mins though, so not sure that this would work with a toddler in tow.
I'll keep an eye on this thread too cause no doubt I'll be right where you are in a couple of months!

[Fig]

Did you end up finding something that worked?

My DS is 3.5 months and he is only having cat naps during the day (about 20 mins if I am lucky). I feed to sleep, but if i put him in his cot he will just wake up within a short while. If I hold him he can sleep for longer but with a toddler running around its just not possible.

Would love to hear what you tried and if it worked.

[Ginger]

i basically just ended up wrapping him up in his blanket, feeding him to sleep in my rocking chair while my toddler played on the ground in front of me/watched a dvd, then placing ds2 in his cot. the first few months he would only sleep for about 40 mins, but now that he has grown up a little, he'll do much longer sleeps- yesterday he slept for 3.5 hours in the day. i didn't do anything different to make this happen, i think it just happens with maturity tbh.
part of your battle is teaching your toddler to be quiet whilst you're settling the baby. i did this by putting his fav dvd on for 10mins or so whilst i was settling ds2. he then knew he had to sit and watch it quietly and it was a bit of a treat for him iykwim? then once the baby was in the cot we would spend one-on-one time together so it was win/win for ds1.
good luck and hang in there, it does all get a lot easier once they hit 4 months, i promise!

eta- have you got a sling? i nearly wore a hole in my hab i used it sooooo much when ds2 was a baby.

[Fig]

Thanks Ginger. I certainly hope it gets easier. So far today DS has only had 2 x 20 min sleeps. He is very tired but just can't seem to stay asleep. Don't really understand why, at night goes down easily and stays alseep for most of the night.

I do have a sling (moby same sort of thing as HAB). He lived in it for the first 2 months of his life, but now doesn't like it. What position did you have your bub in when he got past 3 months?