One month old ?hates napping

[teaspring]

I think my newborn has FOMO? He just does not seem to nap. Wondering if it’s just his personality or if I’m doing something wrong?

Typical flow of the day is he wakes for the day around 6:30-7:00. As soon as he wakes up, he wants to eat. BF and then he’s awake. No nap. Wants to eat again around 8:30 or so. During daytime feeds he will BF for 20-35 mins. Just lovessss to eat. Maybe he’ll take a nap between 8:30-10:30 but very often no. Usually after 10:30 feed he naps. Then is up again around 12 to 1. Again with 2-3 hr cycles of long BF sessions, wakefulness and repeat. Except as the day goes on he gets fussy (bc he’s tired I’m sure) and his tired cues often look like hunger cues. And I wonder if he does get himself hungry from all the crying!?

Idk, I’m sort of at a loss. I know all babies are different and maybe he’s just not a napper. But when he doesn’t nap, it’s really hard to have so little “downtime” and the lack of sleep makes his evenings so much harder for him (and me) and more difficult to satiate.

Any tips, ideas, solidarity appreciated!

 

[christiangal34]

@teaspring My baby was the same at one month. Slept about 12h at night and only 2h combined during the day. Little 15-minute cat naps, up to 45 minutes at most. He started sleeping more after a few weeks though, and it turns out he just needs a little help to fall asleep.

So when he yawns a few times in a row, or rubs his eyes, I hold him in his favourite sleeping position, rock him and sing lullabies. He usually falls asleep within at most 15 minutes that way. During his nap I sit in a quiet room with a book, and I put him in the wrap on my chest (so my hands are free to hold the book). If I put him down he immediately wakes up. I plan on sleep training at 4 months, see if we can get him to nap in his crib.

 

[cjs17]

@teaspring My 6 week old fights naps hard during the day! This has led to her having a complete meltdown in the evening. She sleeps really well swaddled. So I swaddled her and held her for her naps today and she did better. But I feel the same way, sometimes I just stare at her like is she hungry or tired? It's so confusing. But if she's not hungry and starts to get fussy I will bounce her on the yoga ball until she starts to yawn or gets the slow blinks and then I swaddle her and bounce more. I go back and forth between the yoga ball and rocking in the recliner (bouncing on the ball hurts my back lol). She'll fall asleep and wake up and look around wildly like she is missing something and I just keep bouncing, rocking, patting her butt and she'll eventually sleep. It's a lot of work lol

 

[tfran]

@cjs17 Omg this is EXACTLY what I’m doing, I get nothing done because getting her to sleep takes so long. Poor dear, she’s so obviously tired

 

[cjs17]

@tfran That's so funny!! It's a good method! Yeah my house is TRASHED. In the small increments that I can set her down I scarf some food. We prioritize litter boxes, dishes, and laundry. Anything beyond that is a bonus. She'll learn how to nap eventually so right now I just have low expectations for what my house looks like. Thankfully she's gotten a lot better at sleeping independently at night and for longer stretches (this wasn't the case a week or so ago! We had middle of the night meltdowns and 2-4 hour awake periods). So she just needs to learn to nap and things will get better! I just try to enjoy the time holding her because one day I won't get to just hold her all the time! But it's still so hard!!

 

[texfire316]

@teaspring Is he eating enough? Does he get the normal amount of diapers / what do you see if you weigh him before/after?

 

[teaspring]

@texfire316 I really think he is. His weight gain has been excellent (born a bit premature at 36w4d at 5 lb 15 oz) and weighed 9 lb 1 oz as of Tuesday. Actually went to a lactation group and pre and post weight indicated 3.2 oz transferred. That feed took about 45 mins but included the mid feed weigh in. Def seems to have adequate wet diapers (at least seven or eight daily).

 

[tfran]

@teaspring My 5 weeker fights naps during the day, especially as the day progresses. I might catch her in a nap before noon but after? No way

 

[lovemyangel]

@teaspring 6w also fighting naps. LO starts day around 7:30, eats, and then pretty much goes into his first nap which can last until 9-9:30. After that it’s go time! We maybe get a few 20-45 minute naps during the remainder of the day. Even with the yawning, book, swaddle, white noise, heating pad in bassinet, he struggles to stay down. Usually we do a walk or I wear him to get him to sleep in the afternoon.