Was napping in swing now can't get him to nap

[Chloevalentine]

5 week old lo was napping in his swing and bassinet at bedtime. Now I can't get him to nap in the swing or anywhere for that matter. Any suggestions? He's now been up for 2.5 hours no nap. Ugh

[Chloevalentine]

I have another bassinet that I keep in the dining room too that I would put him in to nap or on his boppy pillow.  I guess as he gets older he won't just nod off anywhere? But I've tried to just put him upstairs in his bassinet where he sleeps in at night and he doesn't fall or stay asleep. I had such troubles with naps with my older son that I'm getting anxious just thinking about it.

[Scottishmummy]

Hi there!

Around 5 weeks there is a developmental leap & babies are often starting to be more alert at this time and aware of their surroundings..and less likely to want to sleep!

Could you try for the nap somewhere dark, maybe with some white noise as part of a WD?

At this age my DD still napped in the sling but I did a wind down as I would for a cot nap.  I think this made it easier to start cot naps when I needed to as she was used to the sleep associations.

Try not to get too anxious, it's impossible to tell what kind of sleeper you'll have at this age. My DD is a much better napper than my DS ever was but at this age I do remember having a lot of trouble winding her down for naps and getting sleep as she was so nosey! It is a phase and it will pass. Big hugs xxx


Xxx

[ireneasheard]

Agree with above - my boys both needed a good wind down routine, background music (I use a gurgle that sounds like a womb with heartbeat my boy likes) and darkened room. I put my boy straight into his cot in his room from day 1 at home as I found sleeping him nearby woke us both up a lot but others use bassinet etc. Whichever you choose just be consistent and I made my observations of what worked and if it didn't i tweaked my routine. I found my son enjoyed me singing him a song quietly as part of our wind down, he'd settle listening to me singing.

[Chloevalentine]

Today instead of putting him in his swing awake he was falling asleep already so I put him right into the bassinet on furst floor not his nighttime one in my room and he fell asleep but he wakes crying about 45 mins later. He's not due to eat until 1 which is two hours away and that becomes the problem he can't stay awake that long and we are all messed up now.

[Scottishmummy]

Short naps are completely normal at this stage, especially if he is going through a developmental leap. It's just good that he took a nap!
It's OK to feed a bit early and do an EAS AEAS routine if you need to...or even EAS ASE if another nap is due before the next feed.  It's ok & usually necessary to be flexible with sleeps and eat times at this stage. 

I strived and strived for a predictable routine with DS and nearly drove myself crazy with it and wasted a lot of his early months stressing about routines he wasn't ready for.  With DD I expected unpredictability at first and was pleasantly surprised on the odd occasion she did something "textbook".

At this stage, try to keep A times and WD time in mind and you're providing the opportunities for naps, that's all you can do.  The length of nap is a bit of trial and error and luck at this stage.

[ireneasheard]

I agree. Persistence is also needed to change habits too. Your son will eventually be too big for the swing so it would be harder then to change his need for swing to sleep. The fact he slept at all is positive. I would start working on resettling him during the day if you can, this will help implement shhh pat as a resettling technique rather than use of a prop. I also found at 6 weeks my son started catnapping - i started working on shhh pat and it was good that i did as after 8 weeks he started catnapping terribly during the day and i was able to use shhh pat to send him back to sleep. This also helped when resettling at night when he regressed a bit and we had a bit of accidental parenting happen!

[Chloevalentine]

 I also had luck with Shh pat with my first lo but not so much yet with this guy.  Today when he woke early and tried it didn't work so I transferred him from bassinet to Swing and he was happy in the swing but after 15 minutes did not fall back to sleep so I took them out I had some a time.   Tomorrow I will try naps and his nighttime bassinet up in my room and see if I have any luck.  That's just hard sometimes with my three-year-old having to keep going upstairs to resettle  Baby.  I'm also find it at night when I put him in his bassinet for bed about 10 minutes later I would need to go back up to resettle when he used to just fall right to sleep   

[Chloevalentine]

This guy won't nap in his bassinet where he sleeps well all night?! I can only get him to nap in swing or baby sling. Hopefully as he gets bigger I can get him down for a nap in bassinet. This morning he napped for almost 3 hours in the swing!! When I get a few days of bad naps he will have a day of constant napping.

[Scottishmummy]

That's great that he took a really good catch up nap...my DS was very similar as a baby  - would cat nap for a few days in a row then crash out for a mega long nap after a few days of really short ones.  It all evened out as he got older so maybe that is your LO's pattern too.

At this stage I would take the naps where you can get them, especially if sh-pat isn't working and you also have an older one to look after.

I read somewhere that with swing naps you can wean off them when the baby gets older by reducing the speed of the swing so try not to worry too much about AP-ing now as it won't be forever.
Maybe also set up some other sleep associations with the swing e.g. Wind down, Dark room, white noise etc that can stay when you and he are ready to move on from the swing

Xxx

[ireneasheard]

Ugh my boy catnapped like mad after 8 weeks for 1.5 months. Hope you have better luck with that than I did! It was definitely developmental so agree setting up some associations with sleep would be helpful when ready to move on from the swing. I used to sing a certain song at bedtime, now I sign sleep time so my son understands it is bedtime.

[Chloevalentine]

We do the white noise in A dark room swaddle at night but if nap will be in swing you can't swaddle. Tiday I tried the bassinet for first nap since this tends to be his good long one and be slept for about 30 mins and woke couldn't resettle put him in swing and he slept 1.5 more hours. So we do have sleep cues but maybe he's just too young. Hope this swing doesn't bite me in the future

[Shiv52]

I'm on my third baby so honestly at this stage I'm winging it but I always have BW principles in mind. But I do not stress myself. At 4 nearly 5 months I'm just starting putting her down for naps properly instead of snuggling her or her sleeping on the settee or out in the car. With my first DD I was frantic about a short nap, now I just go ah well. Easier said than done I know but seriously you'll get there. My big girls go back to school next week so I am going to work on naps a bit more then. My Dd3 has when through so many changes 3 week GS, injections, 3 and 4 month GS that I know sleep was disrupted. My point being use the swing and it may cause issues but it may not. Just keep plugging away and it will come together.

And make sure you get a nap where you just snuggle that lovely baby xx

[Chloevalentine]

Thank you