11 Week old grizzly baby boy.

[Bollydee💙]

Hi Mommys & Daddy's
New to this forum & a 1st time mom. My problem is my 11 week old baby boy is golden at night, normally goes down at 8.30 until 6.30 & is in a real good mood until the afternoon when he becomes very grizzly. I have read that he should sleep approx 16hours within 24hours. My question is now long should be be napping in the day? Is he over tired? I find he will fall asleep in my arms with ease & sleep for 20/30mins but I don't want to get into that routine so try to put him in his Pram and rock him, allowing me to do the housework or just grab 5mins to myself.
Any tips greatly received.

[becj86]

Hi, welcome to BW and the world of being a mum! Its an exciting and challenging role.

At this age, we would typically see a baby wake in the morning, have a feed and then play for a bit before having a nap, usually 1hr20-30min after he woke. That nap would then typically be about 1.5hr in length and you just then repeat that performance all day until bedtime, so your day might look a little like this:
6:30 - WU, feed
8 - nap
9:30 - WU, feed
11 - nap
12:30 - WU, feed
2 - nap
3:30 - WU, feed
5 - nap
6:30 - WU, feed
8 - asleep in bed for the night
OR
5 - nap
5:45 - WU, feed
7 - in bed asleep for the night

Ideally a baby of this age should have a night that is 11-12hr in length from BT to when they wake for the day.

The length of your little boy's naps suggest to me that he's either overtired, overstimulated or both - this can then lead to the grizzliness in the afternoon. It could also be what's commonly called "witching hour", in which for 1-3hr in the afternoon/evening, baby is unsettled. This can be perfectly normal (whilst irritating and upsetting).

I think the key early on is to get a routine that suits baby, then you can work on him settling himself to sleep once his body is used to sleeping.

Where does he sleep at night? Can he sleep there safely in the day? It might help to have him sleep somewhere he already associates with sleep.

[michaeljacknnugg]

I have a 12 week old and from what I can see from him and other babies, short naps are very common. Some naps are starting to lengthen, but we still get those horrible short ones at least once a day.

If you can get the routine posted above then I will be impressed! I can generally only manage to get one nap of 1.5hrs, maybe two if I'm lucky/the stars have aligned. For me it's about doing whatever it takes to get him to nap right now, since naps affect whether he settles at night or not.

[Bollydee💙]

Thank you for the advice 💖. Archie-Lee sleeps in a crib in our room. He has a monitor so going upstairs for a nap would be safe, only problem I have is when I put him down he wakes. Should I just leave him or stay with him until he settles?
He sleep a max of 8hours at night but will have a bottle about 6.30 and go back off until 10.30/11.
Also concerned about his eating, he is demolishing 7oz bottles every 3/3 half hours, & that's hungry baby milk. 😱

[becj86]

Sorry, your last post and your first post don't quite add up for me - what does your day look like, in EAS format, like the idealised routine I posted above?

MJ&N is right, its quite tricky to actually get that to happen, especially if LO is not a textbook or angel type baby.

You might find that settling him in the cot helps, so getting him drowsy in your arms the shush/pat or singing, then continuing that assistance once he's lying in the cot. You may also find something like white noise helps with the naps. I'm of the opinion that you might as well put him in a carrier/wrap/sling type thing and let him nap in that so his body gets used to sleeping rather than worrying too much at this stage about getting every nap in the crib. One nap per day and a full night's sleep in the crib is very good progress at this age.

[Bollydee💙]

Hi, I can put him down about 8.30pn and he will wake at 6.30am, have a bottle then go back down. My problems are the afternoon naps.
I will defiantly try your plan. Today he woke at 4am, feed, sleep at 4.30am, woke at 8.30am and then got over tired & fell asleep at 10.30am. He is now asleep in the bedroom. I will let you know how it goes. 😝

[Bollydee💙]

He had 20mins, bottle at 11.30, cried from 12 and has finally fell asleep.

[becj86]

Ok, so 10:30 was a bit late for a nap, hence the the nap was very short. Really he may have done better if he'd gone for a nap about 10, 1.5hr after he woke for the day at 8:30.