Single mum with 6 wk old who wont nap! help!

[charlandjoseph]

Hi im a single mum and my 6wk old wont  nap  for  more  than 15 minutes if he will go down atall!
he falls asleep on the breast and is really hard to wake so he only ends up tsking a ten minute feed. he will be fast askeep on me then I put him down and he cries. if I put him down awake he fusses until he cries and shh pat only works once in a while he seems to kept awake by bowel movements recently. I have just started giving him a bottle of formula for his last feed befire bed and ive recently started taking iron tablets so I wonder if either of  these  things  are affecting  him.
as a  single  mum  to a  new born  I'm  exhausted  and  would  love  to  be  able  to  nap  in  the  day  with  baby.  he  sleeps ok  at  night  so Atleast  we  have  that! :-)
 any  help or, advice  would  be  much  appreciated xx

[KookyK]

I'm quite new here and I don't have it all pinned down yet but I have experience of a sleepy feeder perhaps start with that to see if your LO will take anymore and stop them falling asleep at the end. My DD was v sleepy feeding. We wd change her nappy halfway, take off a layer, walk/tickle fingers up and down her back or her feet, stroke under her chin, cool damp cotton wool on her skin etc. we did this initially as she was jaundiced so needed to feed longer. Now BFing is established wd yr lO take a dummy/paci as they obv like to suck to soothe? This might help with napping a bit longer once they fall off the breast? With DD is tried quite a few dummies to get the right one she liked. I found the one with the smallest teat the most favourable.

Good luck!

[charlandjoseph]

 thankyou I  will  try  some  of  those  tricks  to  try  to  keep  him  awake  longer  and  see  how  we  go!  he  has a  dummie  which  he  seems  to  love... until  it  falls  out lol! xx

[Layla]

Hi there and welcome

What your baby is doing is quiet normal... at that age, my LO would fall asleep on the boob all the time! I agree with pp and try tickling toes, taking clothes off and I used to shake the boob all the time to remind her it was eat time. Honestly though, as he gets older and is able to stay up a little more, he will be less sleepy by the breast. With regards to napping, at that age, I used to carry mine around in the sling/baby carrier a lot and held mine to sleep or let her have a nap after a feed. Sometime around 8 weeks, I started shh/pat in the cot for 1-2 naps and slowly over time, she learned how to self soothe and most of the naps were in the cot. He's still very little though so if he's not responding to shh/pat, it is ok to give it a break and try again later.
 
Formula may be causing him some pain but all my girls went through a fussy period around this age (6-8 weeks) and what you try doing is massaging his tummy, cycling his legs or holding him face down position (across your hand) to help relieve some of those nasty gasses.

Big (((hugs))) to you... take care of yourself and post back with any more questions