Strange baby....

[MassiveBoobs]

My DS is 13 weeks and has slept through 11-7 from 6 weeks. He now has last feed at 9 and goes through until 7:30-8 ish. He goes down in the crib awake and puts himself to sleep. We have only just put in a bedtime routine to help us over teething but before that he would still put himself to sleep for the whole night.

I know I'm really lucky and I do really appreciate night sleep. It's just that all this is so perfect but in the day he is a nightmare. He has to be rocked to sleep and half the time will not go out of my arms. He only sleeps for 30 mins and then wakes up crying. He doesn't very often sleep past 5 before he goes to bed.

I'm confused. How come he has got the hang of night but finds day time do difficult?

[FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain]

DD never sussed daytime sleeping (sorry), and at the time I was convinced that I would love her to be settled during the day even if it meant less sleep at nights.

Fast forward 3 yrs... 9 months with sod all sleep at night and a settled daytime baby - gimme the first one back!

[MassiveBoobs]

I know it's perfect in so many ways.

i wasn't too concerned until my mum told me that he needed more sleep, obviously wasn't gettimg enough and why wasn't I getting him to sleep more?

TBH I'm a bit scared to do too much in case I mess up the nights

[FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain]

DD is just a very very active child who never needed the daytime sleep - we would get 30-45 mins a morning (held at all times), and another 30 in the afternoon if we were lucky. At about 12 months she would quite often consent to an hr/ hr & a half early afternoon, but not every day, and dropped it again fairly quickly. She started up again when I was pregnant with DS, but ONLY for the pregnancy (I think she knew it was sleep or be yelled at by exhausted mummy ).

She is fine, just didn't need sleep. I kept reading about newborns sleeping for 20 odd hours a day and was really worried, but they are just all different.

[MassiveBoobs]

Thanks...I suppose I'm worrying about nothing. Should never listen to my mum...

[FLAMEinEckItsYuleAgain]

Ah, always listen to mum's, just filter out the insanity

[Galmum]

Your DS sounds amazing....My son did n't sleep through that long at night until around 7 months. To be sleeping that much at night from 13 weeks is WONDERFUL!!!

Maybe he just does n't want to sleep for long periods in the day and you can't force him to. It might be easier to accept the days are hard work rather than trying to be forced into flowing what books or family decree as ideal daytime sleeps!!

Have you tried taking him out in the pram...sometimes fresh air does wonders for settling them down and gives you a break too, what about a sling sometimes for the day to let you get on with stuff or taking him places where he can be really stimulated...like friends houses with kids or putting out new baby toys/stuff to watch and play with?

He sounds like a gorgeous little man who's going to keep you running around in the day, but atleast he lets you collaspe in the evenings!

PS All mothers get false memory sydrome - everything from how early children should do stuff, how much sleep they should have and what they did. They often "forget" the tough bits. When asked my Mum does recall how difficult it was with my brother who never slept, threw up all the time and had dreadful asthma but it's not what she first meintions when dealing out baby advice!!

Best of luck...I'm sure you'll find your way of making the days a bit easier!

[Galmum]

Sorry meant following not flowing. Attack of the Pregnancy brain

[MassiveBoobs]

Thanks - yes, all of a sudden horror stories about what terrible children we were when we were childless have been replaced by 'I'm sure when you were that age, you were sleeping for 14 hours a night with 4 hours of naps in between.!'