[LukeDuke]

My 5 month old DD does not sleep much thru the day, she sleeps like a rock thru the night though. I feel like she should sleep more because my son did, and he also slept thru the night and had great naps during the day. Everyone says this is normal, just different habits, and I should be happy she sleeps all night. I am, but...

I notice she startles very easily. She'll be 5 minutes into a nap and her arms and legs will splay around like she thinks she's falling (You know that feeling of being asleep and then feeling like you are falling?) She does that a lot and then she scares herself awake. Today I tried swaddling her, but boy did that make her mad! She seems to sleep fine in the day when I am slinging her, and sometimes in her carseat, but not laying down.

Any suggestions for a startled baby?

 

[Sagesgirl]

As long as she's not cranky, I wouldn't worry about it, honestly. Every single person has different sleeping patterns. But if it seems like she's not getting good sleep laying down, it's not going to hurt anything for her to sleep in her car seat as long as it's somewhere safe, like on the floor in a quiet corner of the living room. Do what's best for the baby; don't worry so much about what you "should" do. My youngest takes a lot of her naps in the swing because sometimes she just won't sleep any other way.

 

[Tellera]

We still swaddle DS for naps. He is the same way. He doesn't *like* being swaddled, and gets mad/shouts, but calms down.

For us, I feel that we are doing the right thing because with the swaddling he takes naps between 1 and 3 hours long. Usually a short one in the AM and a long one just after lunchtime. Without the swaddle we get no napping, really. Maybe a couple of 15 minute long stretches and he is easily cranktified.

Do you nurse to sleep? DS would be very upset in the swaddle while we did him up in it but would settle immediately once he started to nurse. He now no longer nurses to sleep (it stopped working

) but he now naps in the swing and he settles once we put him in the swing.

That said, if your baby is happy and content, it doesn't sound like you have an issue.