6 week not sleeping in the day

Hi to all your mums,

I have a friend who has a six week old baby and is having so much trouble getting her to sleep during the day. She has tried many things, rocking her, dummy etc etc but still no luck.

Anyone who has some great advice would be most appreciated for my friends sanity. I had no trouble with my baby so I had absolutely no advice to give her.

Cherie

Hi,

I've noticed that since i have changed from breastfeeding to alternating between breast and formuls, my daughter will not go to sleep after a feed unless i offer her the breast, i think it is a comfort thing. Also during the day i try to feed her in the bedroom as she is most familiar with this room so therefore gets less distracted and will go to sleep easier.

Hope this helps!

I know what u mean, our nine week old only sleeps in 3 hr slots.
Have u tried wrapping him? it makes them feel like they are still in the womb.
We are now trying music for Dreaming that we brought.This might work.

Hi Cherie,

Mu daughter was exactly the same - see my message "can't put her down".

I received some great advice from other Mum's, but what worked was sleeping Ella on her tummy.

I know how frustrating it can be and sympathise with your friend.


Therese

Hey cherie
Thats exactly the same as what happened to me , she could maybe try her local clinic they might put her into a daystay program or in my case a week it really helped us they teach you lots of settling techniques and most of all the technique that your baby responds to.
Hope that helps it was the best thing that we did and most of all it makes you realise when u meet all the other people there that you are not alone.
Good luck

A few ideas that might help (hopefully!)

1) When I started bottle-feeding, even though it was express milk, Hannah refused to fall asleep on the bottle - only on the breast! I perservered, gave her a bottle a day and she finally got used to it.

2) I was told wrapping is good for the babies, to avoid the "startle reflex". (I only did it for about 2 weeks, though.)

3) Hannah settles best when I walk her and sing to her. I don't know why, maybe its comforting, I didn't sing to her when I was pregnant with her wink

4) Lying Hannah down on my arm and walking works "when all else fails". I don't know why she likes this. At first, I thought it was because she could have a cuddle without thinking it was feeding time (she likes the smell but doesn't always want it, even though she cries for it). However, she likes it on my hubby, too.

All the best smile

I also have bub, 6 wks, who is so curious will fight of sleep , but loves to fall asleep on the breast. I have a sling which she loves to sleep in but I would really like to be able to put her down to sleep.
Night time is no ploblem which is great .I have tried comforting her but have waited 30 Mins with no luck and a screaming bub. I find this non productive. I don't want her to start bad habits or rather my bad habits. I quess the baby bjorn is a substitute for rocking her of in my case while i go about my day.

Hi,

Olivia is 7 weeks and I have the same problem. Getting her to settle to sleep takes forever. I don't mind it too much at night because once she's settled she'll sleep all night. During the day is a different story. She'll be settled but 5 minutes later she'll be screaming. Occasionally she'll suprise me and go down for a couple of hours.

I just don't think I'm quite reading her tired signs very well and getting her down too late.

This post has been edited by the moderator.

Hi tonipie,

Thanks for the suggestions. We thought about it being a wind problem too but don't think it is because we always make sure to stop her feeding about every 50mls and making sure she has a good burp each time.

I don't think I'm reading her tired signs quickly enough and getting her to bed. So she's gets really cranky and hard to settle.

She's actually doing pretty well today. She's swapped over, now she wants to play when she wakes up (lots of smiles) and then gets grizzly when she's hungry. After drinking she's tired and ready to go down. I know they don't recommend doing it this way but it seems to be working for her. I also make sure that she's still sort of awake when I put her down so that she'll learn to settle herself. This is already working because she wakes in the night and cries but then puts herself back to sleep.

We give Olivia tummy time at least once a day because it's good for her to strengthen her neck and shoulder muscles. Sometimes she will quite happily stay there for a while moving and trying to lift her head and turn over. We never leave her alone on her tummy though, one of us plays with her and then turns her back over.

hey cherie,
we have a 5 month old girl but is correst to be aprox 8 weeks and she too doesnt sleep much during the day, she thinks she is a big girl and can be awake for up to 11 hrs in a row, and i know myself been awake for 11 hrs makes me tired.
come to night she would only sleep every 4 hrs or even up to 3 hrs before i have to give her a bottle which has up to 150 mls off milk....
we still havent got any ideas on to help u but when u do get some let me know....
we even tried adding rice cerial in her milk to fill her up - doesnt work.

my 5 week old does the same thing. during the day he is awake more, but that is due to the fact that he can see things more and is really nosey. he has his bottle and brings up wind ok, but when it comes to going to sleep, he's a real fighter. it usually takes me 30mins to an hour sometimes to settle him, i have found that putting him in his pram and rocking works sometimes, but if all else fails we take him for a ride in the car..puts him to sleep in no time.
thomas only sleeps on his tummy though, he hates sleeping on his back and only on the odd occasion does he sleep on his side. my midwife has told me off many times for sleeping him on his tummy, but he is really strong and could hold his own head up right after birth, plus if it is the only way he will sleep, i will do it.
i find that putting him somewhere warm comforts him, usually after a really long bath he sleeps for 5-6 hours sometimes, but i can't do that all the time because he has to have plaster casts on his feet every week, so i do this once a week.
but also he can sense when im getting frustrated cos he's not sleeping and this makes it worse, so i put him down for a minute or two, pull myself together and try again, or i give him to someone else to settle, he loves his nana settling him, so she does most the time.