Discovery Home & Health

Hello everyone..
i could do with some advice if poss!
My daughter is nearly 4 months..we have established a good bedtime routine and she seems to self settle herself in her cot most nights...after bath, massage, and feed..with music on low and dim lights! We have been thrilled with how well it has worked!
However...since having her latest jabs (about 4 weeks ago) her daytime naps have gone totally up the shoot!! She is obviously tired and needing sleep but will not settle at all...especially in her cot! She screams and screams until i give up on the leaving her idea and go and get her! I did wonder whether it was because there was no routine so started winding down from play half hour before i thought she would be sleepy..so she wasnt over stimulated and being quiet but it hasnt made a difference. i really dont want her to be 'anti-cot' or to it affect night sleeps!

I did wonder whether it was because i dont feed her before putting her down in the day?? We are kinda loosely following Baby Whisperer EASY routine and have really liked it but with that you dont feed before sleep apart from at bedtime?So....i just dont know what to do to get her to settle in the day..any ideas would be greatfully recieved!

I observed her for 3 days letting her sleep whenerver and wherever so i could see just how tired she actually was and she seemed to need a short nap twice in the am and twice in the pm...ideally i would like her to take a short nap in the morning, and a good 2 hour kip after lunch and then a short snooze later in the afternoon if she needs it...???


Help!!! Am fed up of sitting on landing listening to her cry!!!

thanks ladies..xxxx

hey hun, sorry to hear your haviung a few probs, well i dunno if this will help but when bailey was younger from 11 weeks he was sleeping through, he had bath bottle bed 7-7 every night no problems there at all but he woule never and i mean never sleep in hos cot during the day, it was just too bright and he knew it wasnt bedtime, but it never once effected his bedtime routine,

so during the day we either went for a walk straight after lunch and he would fall straight to sleep and sleep for around 2 hours but we never let him sleep after 4pm as it made going to bed harder he would have tea at 4 then we would have to keep him awake and its still the same now and hes almost 2

if u try and do the same thing everyday it makes things easier as she will get use to it maybe just rock her in her pram till she goes over, then take her upstairs or get her use to sleeping at them times then try the cot?? the only thing about them only sleeping in a cot for naps is if ur out and about makes it harder to get them to sleep if ur at a friends or something i even rocked bailey in my arms to get him to sleep and i still do it now at times

as for the morning naps bailey use to wake around 7 and have bottle and breakfast and he would want to sleep around 1 1/2 to 2 hours after working and he would sleep for around a hour to 2 then nothing till after his lunch, this worked really well for us as he was very happy as he was getting the blocks of sleep during the day and he was still going to bed great on anight

hope this helps think ive just babbled lol

good luck

hi sarah

it's tough to give advice because every baby is different, some just need more sleep than others. at least you've got the night time sleeping sorted that must be a relief!

thought i'd share me experience. when DS was about your DD's age he wouldn't sleep in the cot for daytime naps either. we have blackout blinds and curtains so it wasn't an issue of light and i could tell he was tired but he just wouldn't settle in there. sounds mad but for a while i let him sleep on our double bed.. he wasn't rolling or anything and most afternoons i lay down and had a snooze with him, or watched my lost boxsets!

when he grew out of that, we started going for afternoon walks and he'd fall asleep in his pram and sleep in there for a good 2 hours. then eventually he was happy to sleep in his cot, i dont know what changed it's just i kept trying every now and again and eventually he took to it. he's always slept in his sleeping bag and i think once he was that little bit older he understood the sleeping bag/sleep connection.

as for the feeding before you put her down thing, well i used to feed him when he woke up most days just as long as you dont put her down hungry this shouldn't affect her sleeping.

sorry if i've confused you and i hope you crack it soon.

love

Karly x

SarahW like everyone else has said, they're all different, but if it's any help I also struggled with daytime naps for my DD. She didn't really settle into any kind of routine til she was on solids at 6/7 months and then she started having more regular times as her feeding times were more regular (she was demand breastfed up til that point).
But, I never worried too much about it as she slept really well at night which is the main thing It's only recently that she's started sleeping for 2 hours solid in the day so you might just have to accept her little short naps as being the way she wants it just now

Loocy xx

thanks so much for responses ladies...think i defo need to chill about it and remember that she is till so little...
thanks gaian xxx