My little girl will not sleep during the day once she is put down into her basinet. It's the same basinet she has slept in since she was born. She is nine weeks old and has a solid 6 - 8 hr sleep at night which takes a fair time before she nods off in her basinet. If I am holding her she's fine and will sleep. I've tried patting her, rocking the basinet, singing to her but most of the time I'll be back in the room within 5 minutes doing the same thing!

I dont want to sound like an ungrateful mother, especially since it took a long and hard journey to actually be blessed with a healthy happy baby, but I find it is hard to wear her all day when there is so much to do! and i actually start to go a little insane not having my own space! I would like to be able to have her play and feed then have a good rest! Does anyone have any tips? And has anyone experienced this?

My little girl will not sleep during the day once she is put down into her basinet. It's the same basinet she has slept in since she was born. She is nine weeks old and has a solid 6 - 8 hr sleep at night which takes a fair time before she nods off in her basinet. If I am holding her she's fine and will sleep. I've tried patting her, rocking the basinet, singing to her but most of the time I'll be back in the room within 5 minutes doing the same thing!

yes, been there done that!

Unfortunately a baby needs to be taught to put herself to sleep and at times once learnt needs to be reminded how to do it...

For my first it used to take me 20-40 mins of settling techiniques for him to go off....for my second, well that is another story, depends upon which direction the wind blows..meaning that she is unpredictable with self settling.

Have you tried darkening the room? developing a bedtime routine?Warming the bed? Music? Putting bubs to bed drowsy rather than wide awake?


Good luck on your journey of motherhood, it is a fantastic experience if not a little frustrating along the way!

My first would do this - and would only catnap (30 mins or so) if I could put her down once she was asleep.
My MIL got me Tizzy Hall's Save Our Sleep and I used that for direction on how to get her to self settle.
I didn't follow it 100% - just loosely used it and it really did help.
Good luck!

Ok 2 questions: Does she take a dummy? I know a lot of people don't like them, but I find them great at bedtime for my girl.

And do you swaddle her? I find that if I don't swaddle my daughter she will move her arms up near her face and startle herself away within 20 minutes of me putting her down. I just use an arm swaddle now because she loves to kick her legs around and this doesn't wake her up.

I also find the feed, play (including tummy time), cuddles to unwind then bed structure works for me. Although, when she's having a growth spurt it is very hard to put her down!

I also agree that putting her down drowsy might help. You might like to try a comforter. Something like a little toy or blanket that you've put under your shirt for half a day so it has your scent on it. That way she can still smell you while she sleeps and know you're close by even if you're not in the room.

I know she's very little, but if this has only started recently, she may be wanting to be moved into a cot? My daughter went into her cot 3 days ago and has slept a lot better since, however she is 4 weeks older than you bub.

Good luck with everything you try and I hope it gets better for you soon.

Hello

Cheshiresmile has suggested a lot of the ideas that I was having.
I found with my daughter that if I put her in her pram and pushed her around the house that she would eventually nod off.
She wouldn't sleep in her cot during the day and would only sleep in the pram.

It made it easier for me to do housework as I would just push her into what ever room I was in and she enjoyed looking at all the different things, and I would also explain to her what activity I was doing eg.washing the saucepan as we had used it to make bolognaise sauce.
When she fell asleep I would push the pram into our bedroom as that was the darkest room in the house,so maybe you should get some darker curtains to cut out the sunlight.

best of luck
Narelle

everyone has suggested what I was going to, but I figured I'd put a couple of other tips in.
Don't stress if the house is a mess, dishes aren't done etc my house was a bomb until DS was about 12weeks and we managed to get a routine going. I just told people who came over if it bothered them they could do it I had more important things to do - look after baby.

Also to get some space you could go for a walk with baby - then they are in the pram, chances are asleep and you can get fresh air and a bit of time to clear your head. I also found when DH came home from work while dinner was getting ready I would go and have a bath - I'd pop my iPod and and just relax for an hour or so. I would do this when I had a really stressful day and feared I would take it out on DS

Fingers crossed it all gets better for you soon - things started to look up for us after the 12wk growth spurt smile

Thank you all! Great tips! And the last two days her sleeping has definately improved and she is a much happier little bub for it smile

yes, been there done that!

Unfortunately a baby needs to be taught to put herself to sleep and at times once learnt needs to be reminded how to do it...

For my first it used to take me 20-40 mins of settling techiniques for him to go off....for my second, well that is another story, depends upon which direction the wind blows..meaning that she is unpredictable with self settling.

Have you tried darkening the room? developing a bedtime routine?Warming the bed? Music? Putting bubs to bed drowsy rather than wide awake?


Good luck on your journey of motherhood, it is a fantastic experience if not a little frustrating along the way!

babies don't need to be taught to put themselves to sleep. as the poster said, she falls asleep in her arms. A baby is perfectly capable of falling asleep, but they might not fall asleep in the place where a parent wants them to. The teaching to sleep is something that you do, if a baby is naturally not really happy with the location or environmental conditions.