8 Week Old Sleep All Night, but Won't Nap

[rcurtis76]

My 8 week old doesn't nap in her bed during the day, but she sleeps GREAT at night. She has a dreamfeed between 9:30 and 10:30pm and then sleeps until 7am. She is awake for Feeding and Activity time for 1hr 15min to 1hr 20min early in the day but that time seems to decrease as the days go on and she gets more tired. We are breastfeeding and formula feeding since I go back to work in January. She goes anywhere from 2.5 to 3 hours between feedings during the day.

I have tried shush/pat and boy does it make her mad. If I stay in her room once she's down it just makes her cry even harder.
I have tried soft music and white noise. Both have worked but not consistently.
I have tried different sleep positions, but that doesn't seem to help either.
A couple of weeks ago I started letting her take catnaps in her swing, but now that seems to be the only place she will nap without crying AND without waking up after only 40-60 minutes. My mother says not to worry about since I always slept in my swing during the day and bed at night, but I know it is a terrible habit to get into, so I am using it only as a last resort when she is completely inconsolable and exhausted.

Couple of notes ...
She won't take a paci. We do keep trying hoping that she will eventually take it, but so far we've had no luck. If we try to give it to her she won't take it and it usually makes her more upset if we keep trying.

We stopped swaddling her arms pretty quickly after she home from the hospital since it seemed to make her more frantic and upset, but I have started trying again recently. It doesn't seem to help consistently since she still gets really frantic when you wrap her arms up.

Also, we aren't using a lovey right now, but I have read a lot about it on the boards. I am wondering if we should try that. Any recommendations on what to use? I am concerned about putting anything in the crib with her at this age. Plus, she can't grasp onto anything so do we just lay it near hear so she can feel it against her skin?

Any advice would be great. In just a couple of weeks she will be with my mom during the day and I know my mom will get frustrated if she is still struggling with her daytime sleep.

[marensmama]

Hi and welcome to the BW community!  This is still pretty early in the game, and babies figure out their daytime sleep usually during months 3-6.  It's great that she's having such wonderful nights... sometimes naps take a bit of work but once you get it sorted you won't look back.  The trouble with the swing is that as she gets older she'll be too stimulated to fall or stay asleep, or it'll become a prop.

The best thing that you can do as she learns to sleep during the day is the 4S routine, here's a link: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64277.0

Babies crave consistency, so whatever you choose to do, do it consistently so she knows what to expect.  Here's a few other links that are helpful:

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85500.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64745.msg482410#msg482410
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64274.0
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64402.0

If you wanted to post your routine, we could certainly take a look and see what the day looks like for you.  If she has a short nap, it's important to remember to decrease the following A time to compensate for it, and the first A time of the day is typically the shortest... so look for tired signs at 60 minutes and put her down at the first cue.

HTH!