Any tips on how to get baby to sleep on own in day?

Thank you

pdf's sent :)

Hi ladies please send me a copy too wouldnt mind more info. thanks <em>edited by SA_Babe on 05/07/2012</em>

Kiwispires could you send me the PDF too please? My little guy is only 6 weeks old and goes down great at night but will not sleep during the day unless we are out or I am holding him and he just gets sooooo over tired. Mrs Gardiner at yahoo dot com Thank you xx same as me. daytime naps are difficult. he thinks if he sleeps he might miss something. he is so alert during whole day!! :) i'll send you the pdf. if you want you can remove your id.

Kiwispires could you send me the PDF too please? My little guy is only 6 weeks old and goes down great at night but will not sleep during the day unless we are out or I am holding him and he just gets sooooo Thank you xx <em>edited by cakes on 05/07/2012</em>

Hi duddym It might be a bit late but in answer to your Q, we put her down when fast asleep at first and then progressively more awake each week. Great news on the sleep last night though, fantastic to hear such a massive change has taken place already.

Thanks Kiwispiers, i'd written a response but it seems to have disappeared?! Anyway, it said that my LO has no real problems at night, after her last feed at 8.30 we put her down and takes about 15 minutes of rocking to get her to sleep, I then put her down in cot. Is your advice still relevant for day napping? She feeds then has about 30 mins of playing happily even in cot but then cries after that point, I presume she is either over tired or bored so I have found putting her in the sling the easiest thing to do, she'll sleep quite happily in it for hours but its obviously not ideal all the time. I just can't imagine her being able to sleep in the day in the cot but i'm hoping I can be proved wrong! Any advice is much appreciated.. yep all the stuff I said was meant for naps, I think you'll find the PDF really helpful too, to gradually transition her from the sling for sleeps. Do give swaddling a go, it will give her the same sort of feeling she gets when in the sling. You'll get there!

Hi! -- I'll offer my and my little one's experiences in case it might help anyone. His sleep or lack there-of has honestly brought me to tears several times a day a few times-- especially since until a few weeks ago I honestly felt as if I was fighting him to sleep constantly! I have a bit over a 4 month old, who up until about 3 months cluster fed all evening long went to bed at around midnight and would nap on us (in the rocking chair or the front carrier) but would occasionally tolerate being transferred to the play mat or car seat for naps. At around 3 months he stopped cluster feeding, and we decided to get a bedtime routine. It did not work at first when we tried to rock him to sleep then place him in his crib. Finally, one night after trying to get him to sleep and having rocked, bounced and fought him for several hours (both my husband and I) I was so frustrated I just lay him in his crib -- turned on his mobile and gave him his pacifier. Honestly, I was so frustrated I just walked away for a breather! -- But then, I noticed he was actually calming down (it was a complete shock and I would never have thought that would happen!). So I just stroked his head, kept replacing the pacifier and he actually went to sleep. That was the beginning of doing that every night at bedtime (around 7 or 7:30) and he has never really been upset with going to bed -- cried once when he was still hungry but that's about it! I then decided to tackle naps as my guy needs a lot of sleep and having him sleep on me for 4-6 hours a day was getting pretty frustrating, plus he fights sleep so much it's awful trying to get him to sleep and I was so frustrated with the process (4 times a day!). We have been working on naps for about 2 weeks and they are a work in progress. He now manages about 2 of 3 or 4 naps a day in his crib; one of the others at least is usually while we are out in the carrier (have to walk about a mile or so to get him to sleep)-as he will NOT sleep in his stroller. His naps are improving: this morning he managed a long nap (which I define to be more than 1 45 min sleep cycle) in his crib for the first time! He does not go down as easily for naps as he does for nighttime. We do a mini-nighttime routine including singing, white noise and the sleep sac and then we lay him down and turn on the mobile. He kind of whines/yells at us for awhile - the same that he does when we are trying to rock or bounce him! (I think he just HATES going to sleep in the day), as soon as he starts to actually cry we pick him up and sush him until he's very calm and almost asleep then we lay him back down put in his pacifier and he usually just goes to sleep then without getting upset again. He may be an anomaly but this is what is working for us, but as you can tell its an evolving process and we are working on it! I think we still sometimes have trouble telling when exactly to put him down for naps but a couple yawns and eye-rubbing seem to be some of his key signs (but he doesn't always show those! - so we also look at the clock and know he can't be up longer than about 1 1/2 hours (still!)). Basically, all I can say is good-luck and try find something that works for you and your little one as they and we are all so different! <em>edited by coffeebuz on 03/07/2012</em>

Was actually thinking that as I was typing re feeding at 11pm but he even stirs directly after the 2.30am feed so I'm not sure what it is. Maybe I'll try it tonight though :) Thank you for your comment of the breastfeeding! Makes me feel a whole lot better!!! x

TBH Pingu, IMHO the moaning even sounds louder through the monitor and if you turn it down you'll lie awake all night wondering if you heard something ;) Are you sure he isn't hungry at 11pm? I usually found if my guy needed resettling every 10 minutes or so that he really needed a feed. Try feeding him the second time he stirs and see if you get a longer stretch after that, if you do you'll know he still needs that feed. (you could try a dream-feed, feeding him without him fully waking, at around 10:30 just before he is due to stir) Don't feel bad about the BFing at all. I could never had EBF if I was working as I just can't pump, happy baby = happy mummy and the way you parent is far more important than the way you feed!

Hi kiwispiers :) Sorry for hijacking your thread duddym .... Lol . He is doing so well night feeding wise now! ( unfortunately I have stopped breast feeding :( such a hard decision and I have been beating myself up about it - back to work the pumping was so hard and not enough and his reflux was worse with breastmilk than AR formula so took the decision that he was more settled and much happier on formula and still feel sooooo guilty!!!) Anyway he usually stirs at about 11pm from being in his cot from 7pm so I put him in with me and he settles till about 1am or 2am then I feed him and he goes through till 6am or 7am. When he is with me I do exactly what you said, put a hand on him or pat him and he does settle only to start wriggling again 10 min later. I know what I need to do and that is to leave him in his cot and sleepmin my own room so I don't hear the wriggling and moaning but I just don't want him to wake fully and start crying lol! Also I am petrified of his blanket that he is so attached to now that he will smother himself with it! I have cut a small square of it so that's all he has now and let him lie on the other part but when I check on him in the day the small square is totally over his face and he sometimes hold it down with his hand!!!! Freaking me out :((( its not muslin either but polyester :(

was going to offer the PDF but Pingu passed it on already, great! In short, try and settle her to sleep without picking her up (but obviously pick her up if she is crying) Are you swaddling, swaddling can make a huge difference. Are you trying to settle her early enough, too long a period of awake time can make it hard for them to go to sleep (once they are overtired they get a bit hyper) at 2 months, 90 minutes from when they wake up until when they go to sleep is about average (and that includes the time it takes to feed them and the time it takes to settle them off to sleep.) At the first sign of a yawn, or an eye rub etc wrap up your baby and head to the bedroom, int he beginning allow up to 30 minutes for settling (so start 30 min before the time you want her to be asleep) until you figure out how long she takes to settle. Settling might involve a feed, a cuddle, swaddling rocking etc, but not to the point that she is already asleep, just long enough tat she relaxes and recognizes that playtime is over and now she can go to sleep. Try white noise, something that works like magic with many young babies is the sound of the hairdryer or the sound of the vaccum cleaner, so basically, wrap her up, lay her in her bed and switch it on, you will probably be sitting next to her patting her on the tummy or with a hand firmly on her so she knows you are there. This used to work like magic with my guy, sometimes we turned it off as soon as he was asleep, other times we left it on for 20 minutes or more. There are white noise apps for an eyephone and you can buy white noise tracks off itunes etc, but it needs to be turned up quite loud to be effective. White noise is a good sleep cue to introduce because unlike a dummy/toy/boob if they wake in the night it will still be there. Pingu, are you sleeping next to your baby? if so you might find it it take is to reach and arm out and gently lay your hand on top of your baby, or give a soft pat and see if he goes back to sleep. Or put the dummy back in, put his blanket by her face, all without talking or turning on a light. You can also wait a minute or so, if he is just wriggling and groaning rather than crying (they can make a lot of funny noises in their sleep and dreams and sometimes you can inadvertently wake them by responding too quickly). (NB even if you were the cio type, cio is not recommended for such a young baby, even by the Dr's who came up with the concept, its a method to be used from around the 6 month mark, if you decide to use it at all) One final thing duddym, it could be she has a bit of mild reflux and is more comfortable upright or on you rather than flat on her back. You could try elevating the end of her cot and not feeding her too close to nap time (or at least not a huge feed) and making sure she is well burped before you lay her down.

Sure, just sent it :)

My DS was the same! But he too like Sparkly said is now going down on his own and he just over 3 months. I would rock him till he was asleep first then put him in and he would wake up completely the minute I put him in, so tried what I know is suppposed to be done and that is to put him in when he is drowsy and not asleep completely. The thing that has worked for us is that he has taken to a blanket and as soon as he feels it near his face or plays with it he immediately closes his eyes and gets sleepy with the dummy too. So now most of the time I can put him in awake and give him the blanket and dummy and within minutes he is fast asleep! I also never thought it would happen to me just hang in there! The 3 month mark has been great for us and I finally see the light at the end of he tunnel! My problem now is he is very unsettled at night, not due for a feed but rolling around a lot and waking slightly so I try settle him often - should I just leave him. I'm not a fan of CIO but he's not crying just unsettled..... ETA have you got The No Cry Sleep Solution? Kiwispiers emailed the PDF to me which I can give to you... Also I sat next to the cot with a hand on him/patting him so he knew I was there initially. It does take time but you will get there :) <em>edited by Pingu on 03/07/2012</em>

Hi duddym We had the same thing with our LO and though the cuddles are lovely it does get to that point doesn't it! I think it was till around 8 weeks too actually then it slowly became easier and easier to put her down. First for 10 minutes, then 20 then she started the full 45 minute sleep cycle in her bassinet or cott. Sometimes 90 minutes now.. And an occasional 2hr plus. We were just persistent but also very responsive when she woke up or cried, picked her up, settled her for a bit longer and tried again. I remember some days she woke up too much and ended up being a bit behind on her sleep so I stopped and tried again the next day. WELL! Now she prefers the cott and sometimes arches her back looking around for her bed while we hold her because she WANTS the cott. I never thought this would happen!! It just did and she loves to lie down and go to sleep alone. It broke my heart at first because she didn't want cuddles at all but after a couple of weeks she has started a little more if a 'cuddle till drowsy then put down' routine. It was such a turnaround. So I would suggest the same, be responsive and sensitive if your LO wakes or is not happy about being put down but keep it up, eventually your LO will learn to like their bed and trust that when they wake you will be there to say good morning (or good afternoon!) and cuddle them all they like when they're awake. HTH x <em>edited by sparkly on 01/07/2012</em>