No naps!

[SR mummy]

My little boy is 10 weeks old and he find it so hard letting himself sleep during the day resulting in him being very grumpy most of the day, he will fight it until by lunch time i end up going for a drive in the car because he is crying so much, needless to say he is asleep before we even leave the street!  Then he will sleep for 3 hours!  Im thinking if he slept in the morning and in the afternoon he would be much happier than one big sleep in the middle of the day because by 5-6pm he is very grumpy again, he is very good at night and will sleep from 8-6 its just daytimes im having trouble with, my little girl would have 2 naps a day morning and afternoon and be much happier for this

[Sarahboosmom]

Hi there!

Congrats on your DS!  First things, please be sure to read the EASY routines for 0-3 months.  What I would recommend is that you start a 3 hour routine with your LO.

The most important part is that you always start your day at the same time.  It is important that you pick a starting time, wake him up and feed him (E), give him awake time like in the bouncer seat, or under a baby gym, then after about 1.5 hours put him down for his nap.  You should repeat that every 3 hours.

I will wark you, you will have to train him to sleep.  That means long periods of pat/shh over the crib if he cries.  However I garauntee you that it will pay off!  If you are consistent in the routine it will work and luckily at his age only a few days and he should be right in the routine.

It should look something like:

E  7 am Wake up and feed (breastfeed or bottle)
A  7:30-8:30 - activity, change diaper
S  8:30 - put him down for nap (follow sleepy cues if he shows them earlier)
E  10 am Wake him up and feed
A  10:30 - 11:30 activity and diaper change
S  11:30 - put him down for nap
E  1 pm Wake up and feed
A  1:30-2:30 activity and diaper change
S  2:30 - put him down for nap
E  4 pm wake up and feed
A  4:30-5:30 activity
S  5:30 or 6 45 min cat nap
E  7 pm feed him  (9 pm if cluster feeding)
A  7 pm activity, bedtime routine, bath etc
S  7:30 pm bedtime
E  10:30 or 11 pm dreamfeed

I will say that usually if a baby is resisting naps hard then they are actually overtired.  It is important that you learn your baby's sleep cues and that you do the 4 S routine as soon as you see the first sign of sleepyness.  Swaddle, sit, shhhhh him (if needed) and put him down. 

I wish you luck!

[SR mummy]

Thanks very much for your reply, I have been reading Tracy's book the baby whisperer solves all your problems and have found my little boy's crying has reduced by half since i started the 3 hr routine, the thing im still having difficulty with is that he wont take longer naps, when it comes to the sleep time he will have half an hour and be grumpy afterwards and i cant get him back to sleep