In need of help with my 11 week old! Wont sleep in the day and is very overtired

[RhianMillar]

Hi

I am in need of some desperate need of some help!! My 11.5 week old is not sleeping well in the day. At night he have bath/feed and the goes down asleep by himself by 7 and usually sleeps through till 6 (although his very noisy throughout the night). In the day however he won't sleep by himself and then needs to be rocked as he's overtired (he's asleep on me while I'm writing this). Also he often waked up after 45 mins even while sleeping on me and I have to rock him back to sleep! I think the problem is over tiredness but I have no clue how to solve it and get into any kind of routine in the day. Most days are spent trying to soothe an overtired crying baby... not much fun for me or him! I'm starting to feel really down about the situation and am worried I'm getting depressed. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Rhian (mum to gorgeous Joe)

[amayzie]

Oh hon! the day time naps can do your head in! Just use my trick- hold your silly little man who doesn't know yet that mummy knows best and sniff his head.. it will make you feel calmer for a bit!! Don't worry- we have all been there and there are things you can do to try to get on top of it...

BUT- so i can offer you some more constructive thoughts can you pop up your EASY down the page with the eating, activity and sleeping times for the day? Sometimes the short naps and poor settling can mean that something needs a tweak!

[RhianMillar]

Thanks for your reply!! As I said his routines all overthrow place (he's never really had one), I know I'm feeding him too often but I am worried that as he's tired he's not getting enough from him feeds. Not sure if I posted in the right board actually... think I need help getting everything back on track not just the naps cause it's all having a knock on effect! Here's a rough example of our day...


E. 6.15
S. 7ish-8 but sometimes not... Fed in bed with me so no A)
E. 8 .15
A 8.40 till show tired signs
S . 9 on me as tired and needs rocking to sleep... I have no idea how to get him to sleep otherwise
E. 11.45
A. 12.00
S. 13.00... On car or pram or on me again ( this nap is supper short...20 mins. Try to extend by rocking/ driving which sometimes works

Afternoon a bit of a blur of feeding/soothing because his so tired, he may have one more 1 nap at some point if I can get him to sleep.

Bed by 7

It's all a complete mess and I have no idea where to start x

[amayzie]

Ok- So to make a fresh start.. don't panic- you don't need EVERYTHING working at once...

I would start by when he wakes up in the morning giving him a feed for as long as he wants. He should then be nice and freshly rested and full of food. Then the A time is the next thing to consider- I think you might want to try aiming for just over an hour- something like 1 hour 10.. Then do the 4S settling routine and your wind down (make sure this is all included in the 1.10 A time). How are you currently settling? If you are serious about shh-pat here are my tips:

- Get a chair- you NEED to be comfortable- the first times you are doing it (and for a while) it can take a little while
- If you have a smart phone down load a white noise app. THis is GREAT for doing the shh-ing without you going insane
- Set a time limit- For settling at the start of a nap i would shh-pat for 40 mins only (i know ages.. ) then look at another settling method. For a resettle i limit it to 15 or 20 mins. Any more will send you insane.

Focus on getting one nap settled independantly and the first half of the day's EASY going a little to plan. It often starts to go to pot as the day goes along- this is just how things sometimes go! Also i would try getting bed time settled independently.

Does that help?