Daytime v. nightime wind-down routines?

My DD (3 months) is a very poor sleeper during the day - rarely shows tired signs (I swear it's true!) and only catnaps for 45 minutes maybe 3-4 times per day despite being very tired. In the mornings I can get her down with a small fuss but during the afternoons she REALLY FIGHTS sleep. However at night she sleeps quite well, 6-7 hours for the first stretch of the night.

I have tried everything for the day sleeps to try and resettle. I can accept the catnap length, but getting her down in the afternoon is so upsetting for everyone. She screams (in the cot, in my arms, anywhere) unless I give her a boobie, even if she has just fed. Yesterday I held her to see how long it would take for her to stop crying without a boob - half an hour! I am never doing that again :( she cried in her sleep after that :( awful, awful...

My question is: if I were to do the nightime routine - Ocean music CD and feed to sleep with nightlight on - during the day, would that stuff up the good night's sleep? Has anyone tried this?

hi there

Dd was the same. She probably didnt break out of the 40 minute sleep until she was about 6 months?
The problem is babues have 40 minute sleep cycles.. at around this length of time they start to wake and you need to ensure you can resettle them


Do you wrap bub? To make her feel more secure when sleeping - and so she doesnt wake herself with arm jerk movements?

Do you use a dummy to settle? I found although i was very anti dummy at birth that this swapped my nipple as a comforter and she settles much better.

Otherwise. Stick to a routine... feed, play sleep, so bub doesnt get used to be fed to sleep.
There i

And this might just be bubs sleep times during the day
- DD was still waking every 2 hrs for feeds overnight until 4 months.. so 6 hrs is great!

I use the same routine (music, dim room, dummy, grobag) day & night. My DS started out doing about 6 hours overnight (like your DD) and this was never affected by what I did during the day.

At 3 months, it might help to wrap her (DS has only just stopped being wrapped this week!!). If she likes to be fed to sleep, you could try putting a dummy in her mouth once she drops off (this is what DS likes). Also, try to be consistent every time you put her to bed (this is why I keep the same sleep routine, day & night - although the room is slightly brighter during the day, it is still dim).

shalsy... WOW i was reading this and thought i had posted it myself... My DD was exactly the same (still is to a degree... The cat naps still the same but at night we had to start early with the quiet time. At about 4 i do baths, massage, put her in the high chair and she watches me cook. While dinner is cooking i feed her. If she starts to nod off i take her off burp etc. while she has play time dinner is ready to eat and after dinner we sit down for quiet time again. turn the telly down, lights off. by this time its about 6.30-7 so we watch the news while she sits on tne lounge and sucks on her toys or just lays watching telly. 7.30 i put DS to bed and then feed DD once more. again i dont let her go to sleep. I feed burp and top up then i put her in the basinette and walk out. It took a few days of her crying herself to sleep for her to get used to knowing that that was bed time.

Before that we had a very unsettle afternoon/night time... Arsenic hours. We found out it was colic... Her wind pain would build up over the day and we'd be in for hell all night. not sure if your dd has colic or reflux but i found these to be a mojor part of our night time screaming. Night feeds i also just pop her on and dont look at her, no talking, no distractions. day time feeds i talk to her interact while feeding so she knows when its night its quiet resting time.
My DD feeds every 2 hours in the day and has slept through from 7.30-8-6.30-7 since 3 weeks... (we had a few weeks of waking 2-3 times a night but are finally back to full nights) i found the more day sleep she had the less she wanted at night,. personally i can handle the little sleep in the day but waking 2-3 times a night killed me. i played around with times but everything went out of wack so we have finally gone back to normal after 3-4 weeks of hell.
Good luck... i know how you feel and what your going through... Good luck

Thanks Ladies.

I did try a dummy for a couple of weeks, it worked like magic initially but then she started waking at night for it.

I always wrap - makes a huge difference!

It doesn't help that she has reflux (now mainly under control with meds and my diet) and that she is in a horrid Pavlik brace 24/7 for hip dysplasia - which also means no baths for several months :( and I can't really get to her body for a massage either...

She hasn't had a good run. She just cries so much until she gets her boobie. I am going to try putting her down after a feed when she's awake and full. She is always tired, she just never gets "sleepy", IYKWIM. Why do they fight sleep so much when they so obviously need it?!

I will try my ocean music CD during the day and see.

Yor may find that her tired signs are not obvious - I used to find it hard to pick them when DS was that age. She may get jerkier movements, red eyebrows, be grizzly, look away from you, stare into space, lose interest in toys?

You may have to teach her how to sleep - use your sleep cues (music, wrapping, dim room) & stand by her cot patting/stroking her until she falls asleep (so she gets used to falling asleep in her cot rather than on the boob). Once she will start to sleep like this, you can gradually withdraw the amount of patting (eg. let her lie there for a while, but if she cries go straight in and pat until she is calm, then go out again until she cries, then straight in & pat).