Am I making a horrible mistake? (Newborn naps)

[Pickle]

Yes, my opinion stems from the age of the baby in this case, I'm surprised that a health care professional would mention bad habits with one so young.

[joshR]

I can Beat 2 weeks or 4 weeks... A nurse on the postnatal ward saw my 1 day old baby asleep on exhaisted but elated daddy's Chest. She told him, put the baby in a cot, she'll get used to sleeping on you!!

Needless to say, my 6 month old still has every nap on me, next to me, carried in a sling by me and I love every minute. She goes down just fine in her cot at bedtime and we cosleep from about midnight so that's the night wakes taken care of. Just do what works for you...And believe me, those six months have flown by.

[sillywoman]

Buggie, yes of course you're right, and admirably measured in your response. But at 4 weeks??? Surely there's no-one on the planet (with the odd Guru exception) who would make the Mum of a tiny 4 week old baby feel that she was creating bad habits by holding him - health professional or not?

[Saffron]

Emski Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> My 10-wk old has never been great at sleeping in

> her basket, but now she seems to have taken

> against the buggy as well... just cries whereas it

> used to be virtually guaranteed to make her drop

> off. Now she'll only sleep in the papoose, where

> she will drop off quickly and sleep for hours, but

> am I storing up trouble for myself? Should I be

> pushing the basket, and even working on getting

> her to fall asleep on her own without rocking her

> into slumber first? My feeling is she's still too

> young for that, and to wait for the magical

> 12-week turnaround before biting any bullets...

> Any advice? Could it just be the weather throwing

> her?

> Thank you

Have you thought of trying a baby hammock? Amby Hammock Nature's Nest is lovely. I had a used one off the Forum and resold it on the Forum. It was a great investment and also easy to resell, so nothing lost if you try and it doesn't work.

[buggie]

True enough, & I'd never suggest bad habits being formed so early, and as reported by the OP it comes across as overbearing & unsolicited, but none of us know the full context of the conversation OP & HP had, thus my defensive hat!

[astrid83]

Thank you all for your input, I shall do my best to listen to you instead of these 'professionals'...

And joshR, the exact same thing happened to me on the post natal ward at Kings, when my son was one day old I was told to put him down in his cot when I wasn't feeding him as 'he will be used to being hold'.

SO HE SHOULD BE, in my opinion!!

[sillywoman]

buggie Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> True enough, & I'd never suggest bad habits being

> formed so early, and as reported by the OP it

> comes across as overbearing & unsolicited, but

> none of us know the full context of the

> conversation OP & HP had, thus my defensive hat!

I've worn that a few times myself ;)

[LauraHW]

This is kind of related to this thread. I know that I'm being totally ridiculous as my baby is only 6 weeks old but until last week she was an amazing sleeper during her short life. She would nap in moses basket and sleep in there at night after feeds. For past week this has all gone to pot. She will only nap for 30 mins at a time and on me. This is exhausting for her and me - by 6.30 she's beside herself for lack of sleep. She won't go down at night in basket either so have been having her in our bed. WHilst I'm not anti co- sleeping it's definitely not something I want to do in the medium / long term. I'm quite a control freak so even if people tell me I need to relax and go with the flow etc, it's not something that's in my nature to do! Is there a period around 6 weeks when there's massive development that will be causing this change. Again I know that at 6 weeks, no 2 days are the same but the control freak in me takes over!

[Bellenden Belle]

LauraHW - it's been more than a year for me so my memory may be a little rusty. BUT I remember well the six week growth spurt. I was the last in my antenatal group by some distance which was an absolute blessing as I watched all of them go through it so I knew what was coming. Being ready didn't help though - it was still tough! Baby Belle just wanted to feed all the time. But it does pass. I would just make sure she's not hungry - you wouldn't believe how much my one fed during a growth spurt.

Also - it could well be the heat - my little one is a great sleeper but has had trouble settling for the first time in a year this week. My work colleague (whose baby is much younger and also a great sleeper) is reporting exactly the same.

[LauraHW]

Thanks BB. I was thinking growth spurt but then she doesn't seem to want to feed more - still every 3 hours or so

[Saffron]

It could still be a growth spurt. During times of less growth, fat stores are being built up. During the growth spurt, your baby can access these stores plus the milk she normally drinks. So overall feeding patterns may not change significantly for some babies.

I would also recommend reading the book The Wonder Weeks, which helps you track your baby's developmental milestones and precursor fussy periods. xx

[devsdev]

Agree about the Wonder Weeks - really handy. If you don't want to buy the book (a library may have a copy) then here is a website with a useful general overview of the weeks. (http://www.whosthatmom.com/wonder-weeks-week-by-week/) Admittedly every symptom includes more crying, but other points are helpful!

And as others have said - enjoy the moments when your LO will sleep on you. I miss those cuddles now! My LO suddenly started napping better at 3 months and till then I used a sling a lot of the time so I could get things done. Used the sling as a fallback nap option till last month when she became too curious about the world to nap in sling or buggy (AHHHH!)

[LauraHW]

Obviously am totally obsessed with sleep but just found this link to an American website that confidently states:

"By 2 months most babies are sleeping 6 to 8 hours through the night. If your baby isn't sleeping through the night by 4 months, talk with your doctor about how you can help this to happen"

http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/sleep/sleepnewborn.html#

Are they drugging them?

[Saffron]

"...talk with your doctor..." (Ahem, article written by Dr Steven Dowshen.)

Well he would say that, wouldn't he?

And, no surprises, a brief search turns up that he's got a book to sell.

The word "unscrupulous" comes to mind.

[canela]

I got some unusual but very useful advice from my health visitor for first child. She said to take all clocks, phones, or any device with the time on it out of the bedroom, so as not to get caught up in the cycle of worrying about did the baby sleep for half an hour or one hour or two hours, and how long to get them back to sleep etc. I found it really made a difference. it's not just the amount of sleep, it's also the quality. Also people constantly asking you if your baby sleeps through yet really do not help as it is very easy to get obsessed and fixated and feel that if you can just crack the sleep thing everything will be ok.

Sleep changes when you become a mother, and broken nights are often the norm for many a year. I was just talking with a friend today about how now even if I'm not with the kids I'll still wake up at 6am and be ready to get up - something unthinkable 10 years ago!

I know it can feel desperate when you are really sleep deprived, but it really will get better.