Won’t sleep during the day

I know, join the queue. There must be hundreds of mum's with this problem, so I'm hoping there are some good tips out there.

My DS is 6wk+5dy. Starting about a week ago he won't sleep during the day. Good night sleeper - once he's down but that can take anywhere from 1-4hrs.

I know he's tired. His wee eyes droop, he's alseep? 5-15 min later, he's awake and grumpy. Some rocking and stuff, asleep again - for another 5-15 min, then awake and grumpier. This goes on and on. Then it's really time for his next feed, I try to BF, but he's too tired.
So he ends up snacking, 5-15min napping, and getting grumpier everytime.

Amazingly enough he actually had a proper nap yesterday, and I had a wee happy angel again    (till he got tired and wouldn't sleep).

Any idea's on how to get him to stay asleep?
(oddly enough, getting him to sleep is not the main problem)

Hi there! Ashley did this for a bit. Not sure what changed to make her do better. SOme days she still does that but others she is much better. The 3 things I know affect her sleep are:
1. Growth spurts - she doesn't nap much at all during those. There is huge one at 6 weeks so that may well be it for you
2. Getting her into bed at the right moment - can be tricky to get them down at th right time and not too early or too late. If she is even a bit overtired she will wake frequently and then all the other naps of the day are shot too.
3. Swaddling tightly - if it is loose she does't nap well.

This is what worked for us when H was tiny:

- making sure he was only up for 1 hour max, incl feeds
- wrapping him tightly
- pulling curtains
- wind down time (a little cuddle and song)
- white noise (I used a radio tuned between stations to get the static)

If all else failed and he needed a good sleep I took him for a walk.

I swaddled Toby til almost 6 months then swapped to a sleeping bag. We did the EASY routine, eat, activity, sleep (you time) and made sure to get him to sleep before he was over tired (which a lot quicker than you'd expect). Avoid feeding to sleep (it took us a long time to break this habit once started).

We kept wrapping DD till later too (6.5months) as it made getting to sleep so much easier and quicker. I'd stick with if as long as you need to especially in the first few months - whatever works!
I think I found it harder from about 6-8 weeks to get DD to sleep as she was suddenly much more alert and aware of things. There is some good info on the Sleep Store's website if you haven't discovered that already :)

Yep definately agree swaddle for much longer than that if bubs is okay with it, we swaddled for 6/7mths and Hayden was a great little day sleeper and only woke for a quick feed during the night. We tried weaning him off it at 4mths and it was a massive disaster so went to one arm out and that was fine and then at 6mths he was ready and we just stopped cold turkey and he wasnt bothered at all.

The one hour turn around was really important at that age for us, but sometimes he would get tired quicker and the rule in our house was to get him back to bed between the 2nd and 3rd yawns!

When he was really little we sometimes had an issue with the late afternoon sleep so often I would wear him in the front pack so he would get much needed sleep. I think a sling would be more comfy than the Baby Bjorn and will get one for any future kidlets we might have.

Edited by kiwikid

Thanks all.
He had a bad night last night (unusual for him).
But I actually got 2 1/2 naps out of him yesterday
He seems to be powerless against the power of an off-station radio    It does however mean I can't go down for a nap in the same room as the white noise really doesn't work for me

How long are other mum's making the naps?

Yesterday, I did first nap 1.5 hrs. Second nap 3 hrs (almost woke at 1.5, but I left him 5 min and he went back to sleep on his own). Tried for a late afternoon nap, and got a few batches of 5-10min while being held.