Our 10 week old breastfed daughter doesn’t nap well, or sleep particularly well. She tends to sleep from 11.30pm – 2-3am, then in very short spurts if she is held, with a slightly longer 30 minute sleep around 7am. What can we try and do so she will sleep for longer periods between awakenings at night?
The following information is for background, in case it impacts on a babies sleep at night.
She does not nap during the day unless she is in a car, sling or pram. As soon as we bring her back into the house most times she wakes up even if we leave her in her car seat or pram, presumably because she senses a change in environment.
During the evening and night she wants to feed for long durations, in which she may close her eyes but still seems to be feeding. She doesn’t seem unwell, and her weight gain is good after a difficult start when she dropped over 10%. She had her 8 week checkup and inoculations last week with no problems found.
She has a short temper and cries very quickly and very loudly if we take too long over changing, or put her down when she is awake but seemingly sleepy. She likes being bathed but by the time she is dried and changed she tends to be crying. Most of the time she needs to be fed in order to be soothed. She is quite happy lying on her back on her playmat interacting with mobiles etc. Our house is well insulated, and temperature varies between 19-21 C. She will tolerate swaddling for the first part of the night, and she seems to sleep for longer when swaddled but we don’t swaddle her during the day. A couple of nights last week we managed to swaddle her and put her into her moses basket awake, and get her to sleep on her own, with lights out and white noise. We haven’t managed this since.
She seems to be developing well and gaining weight with this pattern, but it is extremely tiring as there is very little downtime where one or both of us can sleep.
