Baby doesn't sleep during the day

Alia - posted on 04/26/2009

Hi, I am new to this forum but find it very very helpful (Thanks). I to am facing the challenge of daytime and nite time sleep. There are days when my little one has only slept a few hours a day, he usually falls asleep while I nurse him and when I put him down he wakes up in that he gets about a 20 mins snooze here and there while he is in my lap. I see that he is tired, yawns, rubs his eyes and all but won't sleep...

any word of advise if welcome.

Danielle - posted on 04/23/2009

My daughter will take a 30 minute nap mid morning and then a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. I think every babies needs are different. I just look for her cues when she is telling me that she is sleepy like fussiness and yawning and then I will put her to bed. Half the time she fights it though because she is just so darn busy and thinks she needs to see everything.

Tee - posted on 04/23/2009

I need the same help for my husband. He works the night shift and he keeps our son during the day while I work. He may sleep for a few minutes and then he is wide awake like he was never sleep. My husband complains about it because he has never seen a baby that doesn't sleep during the day. So any suggestions from other parents would definitely help.

Clare - posted on 04/23/2009

Thanks for the idea will definately give the Mozart a try.

Abbey - posted on 04/21/2009

OH MY! What sort of pattern do you do for him? We sleep/feed/wake-play. We did go through a period of time where she would fight sleep too. First I realized a few things. To begin with, she was used to falling asleep where-ever, whenever, but on her own. So, when I was trying to put her down for a nap I was doing it too late. I was missing the window of opportunity. So what I did was watch her closely for about a few days to a week. Tried to notice her sleepy cues, and work on putting her down then. Her biggest one was she would decide that she wasn't interested in her play mat any longer and was just laying there. Within about 10 minutes I would see the first yawn. It was in that time (during that 10 minutes) that I would put her down. If I missed that window, she would cry so much she would work herself up too much to sleep. Eventually making her so overtired, it was impossible for her to fall asleep. You want to try to get them down for a nap when they're a little sleepy, before they're TIRED. I also had to accept the fact that she was going to cry. It took about 2 weeks for her to start napping well. I knew that if I wanted her to be asleep by/at a certain time, I had to have her in the crib for 30 before hand. I never let her cry longer than 15 minutes. Anything passed that, she was too worked up, so I would just wait until the next nap and try again. We went a couple times where she skipped naps either on her own, or just from crying so much. Now, as soon as she yawns that first yawn, we head to the bedroom, I put her in the crib and walk away. Some times she whimpers, some times she doesn't. All in all, she's asleep within 2 minutes (if that long) of me putting her in her crib. You just have to stay focused, flexible, and diligent.
The other thing you may want to think about is that he might be sleeping well at night because he's so tired from not sleeping during the day. If he's fine with 10-20 min naps throughout the day, sleeps well at night, and isn't cranky/fussy, that may be all he needs and that's just how he is. With ours, she was fussy and cranky and just a crabapple from not sleeping during the day, but she slept relatively well at night. Only woke to eat. Now, after getting her nap routine down, she's just a fun, happy baby!!

Fyonna - posted on 04/21/2009

I really feel for you!! I too have a nearly-2-year-old and a 4 month old baby. She (my 4 month old) used to avoid sleeping during the day and it really did my head in! I tried breast feeding her to sleep and it would work great but only for about 20 minutes or so. I've tried taking her for a walk in the pram with her older brother, but as soon as we stopped walking, she'd wake up.

I'll tell you what has worked wonders for me... Mozart!! I put her in her cot with a Mozart CD playing softly and she cries for a couple of minutes but stops really quickly! Hope this is of some help cause it's really tough having to look after two kids!!!!!!