Good night sleeper, bad day sleeper

[ma912]

I'm a new mom with a 10 week old baby girl who has been sleeping through the night since around 3 weeks. Often times we'll put her down for the night while she's awake and she'll put herself to sleep. I've even heard her wake up completely in the middle of the night and put herself back to sleep. She regularly sleeps 8-10 hours. I love it!

The daytime is another story. She has a very hard time relaxing and can't seem to soothe herself to sleep at all. She clearly needs the naps, though, as she gets extremely fussing when she's overtired. I usually spend 30 min or more helping her relax while patting her bottom, listening to music, swaddling her, shushing her, and, as a last resort, rocking her. She will always fall asleep if I'm wearing her, but I'm trying to avoid doing that too often -- I don't want to develop a bad habit there. If she is absolutely inconsolable or hasn't napped at all, then I'll do it. That's usually once/ week or less.

What do I do?? How do I sleep train for naps? Have others had this problem?

[BabyBearsMom]

At 10 weeks old, she isn't going to develop bad habits. Babies that age need sleep. DD was a terrible napper at that age too. She just didn't know how to take a nap. I rocked her and nursed to sleep for naps at that age because it is more important that she rests. We sleep trained her at 6 months with no problems, so no worries about setting up "bad habits" that can't be fixed later.

[ma912]

That's such a relief to hear! I read in a few places that 2 months was when bad habits could start to be formed. I'm glad to hear that isn't necessarily the case. Thanks!

[waitingforgrace]

My DD was a terrible day sleeper until probably 6 months. She slept through the night (6+ hrs) at 6 weeks but naps were a nightmare and we just rode it out. I did what I could to get her a few naps, but keep in mind that some babies just don't need as much sleep as others. I got endlessly annoyed when people would tell me how nice it is to have a newborn who sleeps all day - uh, not my newborn people.

[hoodlims]

I had a terrible daytime infant sleeper too! I think it does help to try and put them down earlier as opposed to later, when they are overtired. Is the room dark? Once we made the room really dark, it was better for our DD. My daughter also became a better sleeper once we started scheduling her naps. Of course, we didn't do this until she was past 5 or 6 months, and at that point she was on 3 naps a day. She went to two naps around 8 or 9 months, and then one nap around 16 months.

And you can always change and break habits later in life.

[ma912]

I keep reading that I should put her down at the first sign of tiredness. The problem I'm having with that is the first sign usually comes while she's eating and I don't want to put her down immediately after she eats otherwise gas and/or hiccups just wake her up.

The past couple days I've let her sleep in the swing or while I'm wearing her. She sleeps great on me so I might let her do that for one long nap each day. Otherwise I can get her to nap for maybe 30 min in her crib or the swing. Poor thing is still so sleepy, though!

[Accountant]

Have you tried the nap version of the No Cry Sleep Solution? Other than that my only advice is to *try* not to let it frustrate you too much since it is completely normal. My DD would only nap by herself for 30 minutes at a time until she was about 9-10 months. She would nap for hours with me. It wasn't until later that I began reading how common this is. I also completely agree with previous posters about not worrying about creating habits. Wear baby in a sling for naps or sleep with her if it makes both you and baby feel better. You can either create a new habit later on or she will eventually outgrow this one. One thing you can definitly see from reading this board is that sleep habits/phases change constantly!