6 wks old won't sleep during the day - Infant Care (up to 18 months old) Message Board

carlon923 · 04-29-2008, 09:47 AM

any advice....my 6 weeks old will not sleep during the day unless i put her in her car seat and we drive around (that's when i tend to do all the errands !). She sleeps in her crib great at night and will put herself to sleep, but not during the day. i do all the so called techniques...the white noise, dark room, swaddling, full tummy, etc...just when i think she's asleep (about 15 minutes) she wakes up and stays awake. if i don't get her to sleep, she has been up 6 hrs before taking a nap and then gets so overtired that she won't go to sleep. She will sleep in her swing or bouncy chair at times, but the longest is definately in the car seat outside the house. has anyone else had this problem. my six yrs old had no problem with naps....i don't know any child that is like this. When she is awake she is pleasant for the most part...until it's longer than 5 hrs.....any advice.

JenW67 · 04-29-2008, 09:55 AM

I don't have any magic remedy for you. Sorry. I can say that this is really common. My 2 year old never napped for more than 20 minutes during the day ( and he was a bad sleeper at night too.) My 6 week old is a it better but it seems to change every day.

Some people who have baby that I call "car seat sleepers" put their babies in the car seats and set it on the washing machine during the spin cycle or on top of the dryer. ( Im not kidding). Obviously, you need to strap the baby in and make sure that the seat is secure on top of the machine.

I will add that this is a phase that will pass. I know, that doesn't help much now when all you want to do is maybe take a nap, fold that load of laundry, eat lunch at a healthy pace or even watch a little tv. Hang in there. It will get better.

-Jen

G8r4evr · 04-29-2008, 10:47 AM

My little one is almost 8 wks and we have had the same problem....at time. Some days she will nap for hours, but others days, nada. On Sunday, she was up from 8 am til 8 pm...when she finally went down for 8 hrs. It is definitely exhausting....Yesterday she took a 3 hr nap, but today seems to be another no nap day.

sem627 · 04-29-2008, 02:18 PM

I put my son to sleep on a blanket on the floor in the living room on his belly. That way I could watch him. He would wake in 10 minutes on his back, but on his belly he would sleep for hours. At night, for some reason, he was fine on his back. I guess he went into a deeper sleep, but for naps, he needed his belly.

mjbrandon · 04-29-2008, 10:16 PM

I would second tummy sleeping, as long as you can watch and if your LO has some decent head control. Also, I would suggest trying to put your baby down no longer than an hour and 15 min after baby wakes. Sometimes my DD was tired after just 45 min of awake time. I found if I didn't catch my DD in her nap window, forget it. She was so overtired and couldn't sleep.

When I started watching for her sleepy cues (at this age, yawns, turning away from toys/interaction) things got better. I needed to catch her before her second yawn in order for her to fall asleep.

I did the babywhisper techniques for helping her get to sleep. Basically, I would rock her a min, put her down awake, if she fussed when I put her down, I would lay her on her side, and pat her back while making a "shhhhhh" noise. Whatever I did, I would not pick her up. Unless of course she was really upset. It was super frustrating at first, but I am so glad that I stuck with it, because DD is a GREAT sleeper now. She is about to turn 1.

HTH, and I hope it made sense!