No more naps at 7 weeks...??

[stamcel]

Looking for some advice....

My 7 week old son has decided he no longer wants to take naps..or when he does nap it is very brief..20-30 minutes...he is just so tired..I swaddle him, shh....him...feed him...and sometimes rock him to sleep (a habit I do not want to start) - the boy little guy needs to sleep and so do I. I let him cry for no more than 10 minutes...he is so upset after 10 minutes and so am I .....any advice on how to get him to nap.....

He is sleeping ok at night...usually 8pm-1 am...and the back to sleep at 2ish...until 6.

thanks,
C

 

[Obiwan]

Hi C, my daughter is 9 weeks old. She naps irregularly too, sometimes she doesn't want to sleep, other times when she is eventually tired, I give her a good feed and she sleeps for 2 hours. She typically doesn't cry, so I figure she just wants to be out of the cot and interact with us.

If you think that your bub is tired but can't get to sleep, I would hold him and pat him to sleep, and put him down when he has fallen asleep. That's just me, others will probably not advocate holding the baby

If he's crying, perhaps he's hungry?

 

[dolphinyp]

My son was quite about the same when he was little, he would not sleep for more than 30 minutes in the day. Whatever we did to get him into sleep mode, he wouldn't follow, but then he just playing with himself, kicking his leg, looking at the ceiling.....I was quite concerned about his growth, so i consulted his PD, he said as long as he sleeps well at night, everything should be fine. I know its not easy for you having a energetic baby, i think and i hope it'll get better when he's older. Cheers.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

No advice, but my little one did this from around 4 weeks til 10 weeks. I just think that when he woke up from being a sleepy little newborn that he didn`t know how to put himself to sleep. And I couldn`t. It was a tough time. He would only fall asleep either from breastfeeding or just on me and within minutes of my putting him down in his bed he would wake up. It would be like that all day. Then one day he discovered his fingers and sucked them and that seemed to help sooth him. He started napping after that.
I would have liked to read the Baby Whisperer before I gave birth. It`s got a lot of great advice and insight.

 

[Obiwan]

Hi Shenzhennifer, on the subject of fingers sucking, my little one is turning out to be a thumb sucker too (actually the entire right fist at the moment).

Do you allow your son to suck his fingers or try to discourage that?

 

[bumbeeno]

Stamcel,

My baby did the same thing when he was about that age too, except that he never wanted to take naps when he was very small. Then after he finally started to take naps, he'd suddenly wake up like clockwork 45 minutes after going down. Like Shenzhennifer said, he didn't know how to put himself (back) to sleep. I was told he would grow out of it so I did what I could in the meantime to survive Fed him, let him cry, picked him up and rocked/patted him, hold him for another half to one hour... just so he'd get that sleep. I was tired, but like you I felt he needed his nap because he was very tired. After a while he remembered how to go back to sleep as suddenly as he'd forgotten how to. He always slept well at night like your little guy and I used to feel that perhaps it's a trade-off. But I do think it could be a phase and you could do what you need to for now and he might change his sleep pattern again (babies are always changing!). Btw, IMHO don't think there is any harm rocking him to sleep occasionally as I don't think you can actually get stuck in that habit at that age. And you might not always need to do it.

Obiwan,

I think babies of around this age begin to stuff their hands/fingers into their mouths. It's part of their sensory development - they see something (in this case, their hands because they move in front of their faces and are the most accessible) and want to get to know more about it and so put it in their mouth as a way of exploring it. Pretty soon when he can grab and hold stuff, the first place it will go? Into the mouth! I daresay all babies do it, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

[Obiwan]

Thanks Bumbeeno. I guess it's better the fist than anything she can get her hands on!!

When my baby fusses and doesn't want to nap, sometimes i wonder if I should actually be playing/educating (?) her instead of trying to get her to sleep - i.e. eat/sleep and nothing much else in between, not that I think babies at these age can really learn much ... or am I wrong?

 

[Shenzhennifer]

Hi Shenzhennifer, on the subject of fingers sucking, my little one is turning out to be a thumb sucker too (actually the entire right fist at the moment).

Do you allow your son to suck his fingers or try to discourage that?

You wouldn`t believe how many Chinese people have made a comment, or even tried to take my son`s thumb out of his mouth. It really annoys me. I wonder if they say the same thing to the mothers of the babies who are sucking on pacifiers. Do they try to rip the dummy out of their mouth too?
I never minded it. If it helped him calm down, I even encouraged it. He still does it (at 9.5 months), particularly when he`s uncomfortable, hungry or tired. I don`t mind at all. Ask me in 5 years if he`s still doing it and I might be singing a different tune. But he`s a baby. I let him be one.

 

[Shenzhennifer]

Thanks Bumbeeno. I guess it's better the fist than anything she can get her hands on!!

When my baby fusses and doesn't want to nap, sometimes i wonder if I should actually be playing/educating (?) her instead of trying to get her to sleep - i.e. eat/sleep and nothing much else in between, not that I think babies at these age can really learn much ... or am I wrong?

I used to wonder the same thing when my baby was just hanging around all day not sleeping. But he always seemed to be tired, so I didn`t want to push anything on him.
I think at that young age, just doing nothing is stimulating. Like changing their positions, showing them different things, playing a song. That`s learning, and it`s no effort to do it. I mean, what else is there to do?
Sometimes I wonder how I got through those stages until he was able to move around and amuse himself. It passes. And now sometimes I miss my poor, unmoving helpless little baby~

 

[stamcel]

Hi and thank you for your suggestions,

Well today was another almost nap-free day. My little guy did have a short nap during our morning walk. I feed him every 2 1/2 to 3 hours, so I hope he is not hungry. He does not know how to put him self to sleep and I am not sure how to hel him either.
I swaddle him so he is unable to suck his fingers or thumb...he startles himself at night so I need to keep him wrapped up. He is not fond of pacifiers, I have tried 3 different brands and sizes-no go....any advice?

The poor little guy is so exhausted by the end of the day...I need to reread Tracy Hogg's book Baby Whisper as I feel we do not have a 'real' routine, we have been out of the house a lot with visitors and various appointments...i never got around to the EASY routine.

Shenzhennifer, I am not sure how I would react if some tried to take my son's thumb out of his mouth (if he sucked one)...I would be pretty angry...I sucked my thumb until I was 5..and gave it up when I was ready.

Thanks again for your advice,
C