Any tips for getting back our good day sleeps?

I'm sitting here remembering back to the 'good old days' when DD would have two 2-3 hour naps each day. The last time she did that would be about 4 weeks ago, and I miss it! Now she very rarely naps, and if she does it's on me.

It used to be that she'd feed to sleep, I'd put her in her pram basinette in the lounge room, or in her cot in her room, and she'd have a good nap there. Didn't seem to matter that there was bright light or noise, she'd sleep through it all. Her night sleeping was good too, either sleeping through up to 10 hours or only waking once.

Now though, I'm struggling to get things done during the day because of velcro baby. She shows very clear tired signs - yawning and rubbing her eyes, so I'll straight away pick her up, and feed her to sleep. Lately she's fussed a lot first but calms down when she's wrapped. So I wrap her and feed her, and she'll usually fall asleep while sucking. But she keeps on sucking for a long time. If I think she's finished I'll try to detach her and she'll suck back on really hard. If I do detach her she wakes up. So I let her go til she drops off.

When she drops off she'll either stay asleep on me for no longer than 10 minutes, or wake up immediately. Putting her down is a way to instantly wake her. The problem is that she hasn't had enough sleep, in another ten minutes she's tired and cranky again, so the whole routine starts again. It's getting draining!

I haven't changed anything, so I don't know why she's doing this? Should I start taking her to her room to feed her to sleep, and make it darker and quieter in there? I don't want to put her on a routine or anything, and I know young babies change so often that this may change on it's own, but if anyone does have any good ideas I'd love to hear them!

a dark room may help, but the biggest thing is just persistence and patience :) and maybe a dummy if you're that way inclined!

I thought that might be the answer :) I'm just gonna have to enjoy our couch time!

The other thing I was wondering is if teething could cause sleep disruptions? DD spends a lot of time chewing on everything. I had a feel of her gums and there's nothing there, but she then had a good 15 minute chew on my finger.

Also, I read somewhere that if a baby is feeding often for long periods and falling asleep there that maybe they're feeding inneficiently and not getting much but tiring out. Maybe I should be checking her latch a bit better?

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if she's having plenty of wet nappies and gaining weight i wouldnt stress too much, but could be worth getting your attatchment looked at.
Her teeth could be moving definetly, my kids started moving at around 3 months but didnt actually cut until 7 months. moving/ cutting teeth are very very disruptive to sleeping patterns.
good luck hun, hope she settles down quickly for you
xx

Thanks heaps Skybie :) She gained 600g last month and gets loads of wet nappies so I reckon that's all good. Feeding is just the one thing I really stress about with her.

Sounds like it could be teeth then! We have been wondering, she's so much more 'chewy' lately :lol: Hopefully her amber necklace will arrive tomorrow, I'll be interested to see if that makes a difference.

Time.
Honestly, I wouldn't try to do anything about it - in my experience nothing works and you just get yourself all wound up about it.

It sounds like exactly what my kids have done at three months. I started using a dummy with ds which means I can get half an hour sometimes...but dd I ended up breaking the feed to sleep association (then reintroduced it later when she was less sucky).

It's a normal developmental phase associated with teeth and brain development. This too shall pass hey? Do you have a good sling? Ds will feed to sleep and nap for around forty mins in the sling.

Hth

Hello my advice would be to take her into bed with you when she is ready to sleep and breastfeed lying down. I do that with my little boy and when he falls asleep (the success depends on what part of the sleep cycle he's in) I gently but really quickly detach him and quietly move away off the bed without having to move him and pop a few pillows around him and pop the monitor on so the second he wakes I'm in there. I don't know what your thoughts are but a baby hammock works really well for my son (and always did, especially in colic times) as the motion comforts him and puts him to sleep when feeding won't (or I can't).

Ahh the joys... Hehe i just try to think when it gets all too demanding sometimes that this too shall pass! My boy hardly sleeps more than 40 mins at a time during the day... And has been that way since 2 months old so long gone were those few hours at a time for me lol, they were heaven werent they ;-)

good luck!


Sent from my iPhone more than likely while I should be doing something else!

do you have a rocker/swing/glider thingie?

DS and I would do the feed, burp, change thing, and then he would sleep in the rocker for hours ... he loved it ... I still know the music by heart :heartbeat:

I love my glider :)

Thanks so much for everyone's advice.

Wouldn't you know it, after posting this thread she has decided today that she'll sleep in her cot in her room. She fell asleep in the car after shopping (usually she screams in the car if she's tired) and has now been in the cot for over half an hour.

Peanutter, we have one of those swing chair things, but it wakes her up more lol. She does like it, but doesn't sleep in there. And yep, the music is incredibly annoying!

A dummy doesn't work with her, she just spits it out. And then she wakes up more trying to get the hang of it lol.

One thing we did discover that works last night is her little seahorse night light toy. DH rocked her with it and she fell asleep really quickly. Then today after the car trip, she woke up when I got her out, so I wrapped her and played the seahorse and she zonked out!

I'm still wondering if it might be teeth related, she was pretty grizzly last night and had red cheeks, but I reckon this might just be one of those things to ride out.

Thanks again for all the tips everyone, I'm feeling reassured (as always with you guys!).