Hellobee Boards

@Revel: Just wanted to say I was there, and it sucked, and I felt like I had the only baby in the whole world who didn't sleep peacefully in the carseat, swing, or in my arms. We slogged through and it got better and now it's so easy at 7 months. Hang in there

No advice, just hugs. We were so there. I felt like a failure of a mother because all of my friends' babies were sleeping so easily all around me. One day things just clicked, and it's been a breeze since. I now consider sleep as just another milestone that each baby reaches in his/her own time.

@Revel: will she sleep in a stroller or the car? Around that time I made it my life's mission to get Madeline down for a nap every 2 hours MAX, earlier than that is better. I went out in the stroller or the car if I had to. And doing that seemed to help us get ahead of the overtiredness. For what it's worth, I'm not sure it's unusual for it to take an hour to get her to sleep at night! We are at 10 weeks and it definitely takes some time.

@Revel: Oh, naps were certainly our biggest stressor! It's totally okay if you have to nurse/feed/stroll/car ride to sleep at this age, too!

@JoJoGirl:

@Revel: I get it. There was one day that he did not nap more than 30 minutes, in 10 minute increments. I was crying, beside myself, while poor bewildered DH kept saying "what else could we do besides drugging him!". I thought my head was going to explode. It didn't, baby was fine, and the more I kept trying to not stress over it and just do what I could, the better.

Actual things that helped were swaddling tight for all sleep, white noise, blackout shades, and rocking. I would not worry one bit at this age about "habits". My LO had a three week phase where he only slept on me for naps and I just stayed patient and kept trying. He now loves his crib!

It's so hard when you're in the middle of it, I counted down the minutes until DH would be home and I could take a break from trying to get baby to sleep/worrying about baby not sleeping. Then we had 30 minute naps that were terrible teases. Now we get 2 decent naps a day and it's amazing. I agree 100% with @weagle that it is a developmental thing.

@Revel: I agree with getting her to sleep before you might necessarily think she's ready...at that age most babies can only go 45 min to 1 hour AT MOST, meaning that many babies can only handle less awake time. The more overtired they get the harder it gets unfortunately! And I would try to make nap time as consistent as possible if you're trying the crib/rock n play. What about babywearing? Does she fall asleep in a carrier?

@Revel: yeah, I still go for long drives on bad sleep days! I go to Starbucks, get a calm tea and a cookie and drive around the countryside...I try to make if relaxing for he and me!

@Revel: It's not you, it's the baby! Haha. I know that isn't a useful piece of advice, but I PROMISE this is normal (albeit difficult!) newborn sleep, especially as they come out of that sleepy newborn phase and head into the first wonder week. We just used the swing, it was the only way lo would nap for the first few months but it worked.

Plus some babies are nappers. Mine isn't, and she's 9 months old! She's gone through phases where she napped pretty well but not recently. However, even if your lo never becomes a great napper, two things will change: 1) lo becomes more predictable and 2) you get better at reading lo. Those help a lot when it comes to sleep and maintaining your sanity! Even on bad nap days it's not always a huge deal for us. Hang in there!