Day sleeps

OK, we've got night sleeping more or less going OK, but daytime sleeps are deteriorating. Daniel tends to wake at 7-8ish for a feed - feeds quickly and goes straight back to sleep (as though it's a night feed), then wakes at 10ish. After 10, he's up, feeds, plays, tops up and then I put him to bed. Then the fun starts. He will usually lie there for about 5 minutes then start crying, and if I leave him for 10 minutes (which is what we used to do), he ends up so hot and sweaty I have to pick him up and cool him down. This can happen 5-6 times before he goes to sleep, or he will doze off, then wake after 10 minutes and cry really loud and it's now happening with every day time sleep. It can take up to 1 1/2 hours to get him to go to sleep, then he always wakes after 45 minutes and won't go back to sleep. I know he's tired, and very quickly gets overtired which makes the cycle worse. It's now driving me to tears and I dread him waking up cos I know we're going to have this battle. He will *usually* but not always sleep if I rock him. I swaddle, I shush, I rock, I pat .... I feel like a rubbish mum cos I'm obviously not picking up his tired signs and if I did, we wouldn't go through this drama, but I'm getting close to the end of my tether.

Sorry for the rant, but any advice would be welcome. And, yes, I read the recent thread on settling and i've tried pretty much everything in it. I'm off to Family Centre next Thursday but need to get through a whole week first.

You're doing a great job, try not to stress. I've bumped a couple of older self-settling threads for you ... could have some more tips to try over the next week?

You could also have a look at the message boards on this site too. Good luck!

Thanks - I'll try the play in the morning (I usually pop him back to bed so I can sleep!). The thread the lilfatty started was helpful too - this week we'll just have lots of cuddles and walks, and then we'll see what Plunket say.

I've adopted the "whatever works to get him to sleep and keep me sane" approach, aka rocking, jiggling, walking, wheeling ....

It has been reassuring cos I start the rocking and wrapping when I see his tired signs - it normally takes abut 25 minutes to get from initial tired signs to sleep, and there are at least 3 periods of really fighting sleep in that 25 minutes.   So I *do* pick up the tired signs - it's just that he doesn't want to sleep - made me feel a bit less like a bad, incompetent mother. And always, just as I start to question if he is really tired, he will always start yawning again!

I do the morning play after he's had 12 hours of sleep (e.g. this morning he woke at 6 but had only had 8 hours of sleep, so I put him back to bed till 9) - the first day it was brilliant cos he had a 2 1/2 hour sleep in the afternoon. Unfortunately since then, it's back to the 45 minute snoozes.   But, I think he's different to your wee girl cos Daniel is a very efficient feeder - usually 15 minutes and then he's done and asleep.

I have bought a miracle wrap (geez, they really are a straight jacket!) cos he escaped out of his other wrap and I think he woke himself doing that. First time using it at the moment.

it was also useful to look at the ask an expert questions that Alex Bartle answered - lots of people in my boat! It was reassuring that at this point, despite what some books say, I'm not going to turn him into someone who still needs rocking to sleep at 18 years old - his approach fitted with my view that he's just really little. I'd be happy to leave him to cry if I knew it would just take 5 minutes to get him to sleep (which is how it worked till last week) but since crying is now actually distressing him more and stopping him sleeping, then I'll go with comforting him for now.