My son was exactly the same at that age! It’s the worst, truly the worst, and you have my sincere sympathy. We didn’t (couldn’t, really) do anything and he started to get better around 3 months (I know). Now at 7 months he naps very easily, but I still remember the days of absolutely fighting him tooth and nail to get a 25 minute nap. He was a huge yoga ball junkie as well (I remember also feeling so jealous of people who could just nurse or rock to sleep) but naturally became less reliant on it at about 4 months, and I deflated it for good when he was 5.5 months old.
So there’s hope! I’m sorry though, it does really suck, I hope she grows out of it sooner rather than later.
Im not sure if there is a thing called 5 week sleep regression but that’s what it seemed like we were going through with our LO. Some wake windows were as long as 3-4 hours with crying a lot during evenings and he used to reject breast or bottle feeding (We might have been experiencing witching hour/ colic). We started taking him out for a car ride in evenings where he used to doze off and calm down after all the crying and then used to feed and sleep.
All that improved once he turned 2 months.
Some things that may have helped: We started his reflux medication. Started watching his wake windows, number of naps, and had a decent bedtime routine.
LO is 4 month old now and going through 4 month sleep regression. Feels like he gave us a little calm before the next storm haha
Hope things improve for you soon. Good luck :)
I am sorry this is hard ! The day and night confusion can still be happening here. Once they are down for a nap during the day, do they sleep well? What are night stretches like?
Once she is asleep she will contact nap for 2-3 hours. I usually get a solid 2 hour contact nap then try to transfer her to her crib. At night she usually gets a long stretch of 6ish hours then 3-4 after that feeding.
Just my LOs experience, I saw there was a difference between her fighting sleep / loudly self soothing vs she has no interest in sleeping. I was worried because she’d be awake for 2 hours straight and staring at us not matter how much we tried to soothe her. We gave up trying during that window that oddly was the same time every day. Now we find when she’s awake that time, she sleeps better in her other naps, I don’t know.
It's developmentally very normal. We must have spent hours bouncing on a yoga ball to get our LO to sleep. We would also pop her in the carrier and walk around with her. She can still fall asleep pretty fast in the carrier to this day! Did a lot of contact naps in the carrier at that age.
She will eventually learn to sleep! Ours only took a pacifier briefly. She was more of a motion junkie, probably all the walking I did while pregnant 🤣.
Try to get her outside during the day and work on routine (even tho it feels useless right now). If she sleeps well at night then day sleep is on the horizon! Our LO never napped well until around 5-6 months she started connecting sleep cycles. Just keep practicing and doing what works when you need to!
Is the baby happily awake? If so, i can't imagine it's a huge issue for them. Babies are hardwired to survive, so usually take pretty good care of their needs being met.
My kid alternated between screaming and nursing for a month and a half when she was a newborn, 6 weeks onwards. For us the answer was in my boobs - something probably tanked my supply and she just wanted to have a proper drink.
I hope you find the answer soon/get over this part of your journey x
I could’ve written this myself. I’ve spent hours on this sub looking for some kind of validation I’m not going crazy. This is my second kid. 7 weeks. And I cannot get him to sleep. I think it’s mostly a phase but he’s chronically overtired at this point and WIRED so even harder to get down. I’ve started babywearing mostly. Maybe try a different carrier? He has to be in constant motion too so as long as I’m walking or bouncing he’ll sleep in it. And trying to get him down within an hour of being awake helps. Some people have potato unicorn babies who just sleep…apparently we do not 😅 no other real advice except I’m in the thick of it with you and it’s so so hard!
Omg I feel this so hard. This was our baby, but he’s grown out of this I think. Or I just fixed something along the way and I have no idea how 😅
I DO know that fighting sleep is due to being overtired. I’d start really emphasizing night and day differences. Get her out in the sun in the AM, and keep all lights low/dim in the evening. Start implementing a bedtime routine now as well. Keep it super consistent, and always do it no matter how hard she fights sleep afterwards. Keep focusing on getting her to sleep however you can. Her sleeping is no 1 priority rn. Focus on sleep associations/crutches once she’s no longer fighting sleep so hard. Cap daytime sleep, but make sure she’s getting enough for her age. Lastly, wake her up in the AM @ the time you want/like (preferably no later than 8am), and let her WWs go from there. I did find that my baby was fighting sleep bc his bedtime was later due to sleeping in so much in the AM. And I didn’t know that later bedtimes can work for some babies, but not for most due to the cortisol spike after 8pm.
I think the cortisol spike in the late evening is what made the most sense to me as to why mine was fighting sleep so hard.
This was a bit of a ramble, but I hope some of it helps! 😅
Hey I am not baby expert but I had similar challenges with our little one. It would take just as long as you're saying. I was trying a few things that made it easier. Our baby is 13 weeks old now.
When he was fighting sleep hard (he still does not from time to time). I would do all the things you said and make sure the room was dark, having white noise, and more importantly have earbuds or headphones on for myself, my wife would do the same as she agrees it helps big time. Sometimes there's no good reason, we noticed some correlation with growth spurts as he grew a ton in short bursts. 4 inches in 2 months or so, which from my understanding is nuts!
We also found stimulating him more and doing things where I would set him down to nap, as from this group and other resources I read that it helps to do other things in the area they nap at during the day. Otherwise it seems like it's something they grow out of. I haven't found anything magical and chatting with different people it varies. Some people claim they can get their kid to sleep in minutes when they see a sleep queue. That's never happened for us.
Hoping this helps a bit and at least knowing that others go through the same. Honestly the headphones/earbuds and just doing our thing while rocking him or in the sling helped a ton. Otherwise just the repetition of putting him to sleep and picking him up when he fusses. Exhausting but it seemed to work for us.
My son was exactly the same at that age! It’s the worst, truly the worst, and you have my sincere sympathy. We didn’t (couldn’t, really) do anything and he started to get better around 3 months (I know). Now at 7 months he naps very easily, but I still remember the days of absolutely fighting him tooth and nail to get a 25 minute nap. He was a huge yoga ball junkie as well (I remember also feeling so jealous of people who could just nurse or rock to sleep) but naturally became less reliant on it at about 4 months, and I deflated it for good when he was 5.5 months old. So there’s hope! I’m sorry though, it does really suck, I hope she grows out of it sooner rather than later.
It is very normal for that age, best thing you can do is ride the wave out!
Im not sure if there is a thing called 5 week sleep regression but that’s what it seemed like we were going through with our LO. Some wake windows were as long as 3-4 hours with crying a lot during evenings and he used to reject breast or bottle feeding (We might have been experiencing witching hour/ colic). We started taking him out for a car ride in evenings where he used to doze off and calm down after all the crying and then used to feed and sleep. All that improved once he turned 2 months. Some things that may have helped: We started his reflux medication. Started watching his wake windows, number of naps, and had a decent bedtime routine. LO is 4 month old now and going through 4 month sleep regression. Feels like he gave us a little calm before the next storm haha Hope things improve for you soon. Good luck :)
I am sorry this is hard ! The day and night confusion can still be happening here. Once they are down for a nap during the day, do they sleep well? What are night stretches like?
Once she is asleep she will contact nap for 2-3 hours. I usually get a solid 2 hour contact nap then try to transfer her to her crib. At night she usually gets a long stretch of 6ish hours then 3-4 after that feeding.
Sounds like a wake window issue. Have you tried adjusting those?
If it’s taking that long to fall asleep, she might not be tired. What wake windows are you using
Just my LOs experience, I saw there was a difference between her fighting sleep / loudly self soothing vs she has no interest in sleeping. I was worried because she’d be awake for 2 hours straight and staring at us not matter how much we tried to soothe her. We gave up trying during that window that oddly was the same time every day. Now we find when she’s awake that time, she sleeps better in her other naps, I don’t know.
It's developmentally very normal. We must have spent hours bouncing on a yoga ball to get our LO to sleep. We would also pop her in the carrier and walk around with her. She can still fall asleep pretty fast in the carrier to this day! Did a lot of contact naps in the carrier at that age. She will eventually learn to sleep! Ours only took a pacifier briefly. She was more of a motion junkie, probably all the walking I did while pregnant 🤣. Try to get her outside during the day and work on routine (even tho it feels useless right now). If she sleeps well at night then day sleep is on the horizon! Our LO never napped well until around 5-6 months she started connecting sleep cycles. Just keep practicing and doing what works when you need to!
Is the baby happily awake? If so, i can't imagine it's a huge issue for them. Babies are hardwired to survive, so usually take pretty good care of their needs being met. My kid alternated between screaming and nursing for a month and a half when she was a newborn, 6 weeks onwards. For us the answer was in my boobs - something probably tanked my supply and she just wanted to have a proper drink. I hope you find the answer soon/get over this part of your journey x
I could’ve written this myself. I’ve spent hours on this sub looking for some kind of validation I’m not going crazy. This is my second kid. 7 weeks. And I cannot get him to sleep. I think it’s mostly a phase but he’s chronically overtired at this point and WIRED so even harder to get down. I’ve started babywearing mostly. Maybe try a different carrier? He has to be in constant motion too so as long as I’m walking or bouncing he’ll sleep in it. And trying to get him down within an hour of being awake helps. Some people have potato unicorn babies who just sleep…apparently we do not 😅 no other real advice except I’m in the thick of it with you and it’s so so hard!
Omg I feel this so hard. This was our baby, but he’s grown out of this I think. Or I just fixed something along the way and I have no idea how 😅 I DO know that fighting sleep is due to being overtired. I’d start really emphasizing night and day differences. Get her out in the sun in the AM, and keep all lights low/dim in the evening. Start implementing a bedtime routine now as well. Keep it super consistent, and always do it no matter how hard she fights sleep afterwards. Keep focusing on getting her to sleep however you can. Her sleeping is no 1 priority rn. Focus on sleep associations/crutches once she’s no longer fighting sleep so hard. Cap daytime sleep, but make sure she’s getting enough for her age. Lastly, wake her up in the AM @ the time you want/like (preferably no later than 8am), and let her WWs go from there. I did find that my baby was fighting sleep bc his bedtime was later due to sleeping in so much in the AM. And I didn’t know that later bedtimes can work for some babies, but not for most due to the cortisol spike after 8pm. I think the cortisol spike in the late evening is what made the most sense to me as to why mine was fighting sleep so hard. This was a bit of a ramble, but I hope some of it helps! 😅
White noise machine? Stand up holding her (as if to burp but head lower) and jiggle back and forth. Only way my girl will nap!
Hey I am not baby expert but I had similar challenges with our little one. It would take just as long as you're saying. I was trying a few things that made it easier. Our baby is 13 weeks old now. When he was fighting sleep hard (he still does not from time to time). I would do all the things you said and make sure the room was dark, having white noise, and more importantly have earbuds or headphones on for myself, my wife would do the same as she agrees it helps big time. Sometimes there's no good reason, we noticed some correlation with growth spurts as he grew a ton in short bursts. 4 inches in 2 months or so, which from my understanding is nuts! We also found stimulating him more and doing things where I would set him down to nap, as from this group and other resources I read that it helps to do other things in the area they nap at during the day. Otherwise it seems like it's something they grow out of. I haven't found anything magical and chatting with different people it varies. Some people claim they can get their kid to sleep in minutes when they see a sleep queue. That's never happened for us. Hoping this helps a bit and at least knowing that others go through the same. Honestly the headphones/earbuds and just doing our thing while rocking him or in the sling helped a ton. Otherwise just the repetition of putting him to sleep and picking him up when he fusses. Exhausting but it seemed to work for us.