Mumsnet Talk

Hello!

I have a 12 week old son who is sort of getting into a routine slooowly by himself. But I'm a bit confused as to what to with naps... at the moment, he falls asleep when he likes (I keep him in the living room with me, or sometimes if I have him in the sling, he falls asleep in that.) I don't know whether I should be moving him to his crib or trying to get him to sleep at certain times.

I tried looking at the Baby Whisperer, but got a bit confused (!) and I just don't know if I'm doing the right things... he can sleep through anything (we usually have the radio or TV on during the day), so I would like some advice, please!

Thank you!

I'd be interested to know more about this too! Lying on my bed next to the cot while my 10wk old DS is having his 2nd nap of the day.

He only ever sleeps for 40-45 mins. Trying to settle him before he fully wakes up...

Sorry im no help- just pondering the same sort of things!

Sounds exactly like what we do. So sorry no help earlier.

My 12 week DD2 also only manages 40-45 minute naps (i.e. one sleep cycle) about 3-4 times a day. At this age, my DD1 was managing 2-3 hours in the afternoon with two shorter naps either side, but she was a smaller and less hungry baby, so I wonder if this has something to do with it.

Short nap, long nap, short nap seems to be the more usual pattern up until six months. But I think anything goes with some babies!

Apparently they can also start to develop a longer midday nap when they start on solids. Fingers crossed.

I think it was about 6 months when my DD1 dropped to two naps a day. A really useful thing I found was to watch for signals of tiredness and get them into the cot, buggy, sling then before they become too wired/overtired. Then let them nod off on their own. I can't recommend self-settling highly enough. We managed to reclaim our evenings this way!

Good luck!

Having a look at no cry nap solution book, it could be worth a read! Its nicely written. It does say you cant put a baby under 4 months into a routine mind you..
But i tend to think some routine is no bad thing as you can get yourself into good habits. As long as baby seems happy and his signs /ques arent being ignored.
I think im going backwards! At 6-7 weeks i had ds in a gina ford routine and he seemed happy enough, and ive now dropped all that and watching him but he does seem to yawn alot more...
I did the gf routine as i was getting depressed and didn't have a clue or confidence to trust my instincts.

AH, right- the 45 minute thing makes sense! Occassionally he sleeps a bit longer (esp in the morning.) He's a big baby (91st and 95th percentiles for weight and height!) so I guess he'll just settle when he's ready. His night time sleep is fairly uniform, so we should be grateful for that!

Thank you!

Same here! Mine is already 14 weeks. TBH I haven't been bothered too much about the routine thing. Is it really important? I kind of think as long as he's happy and getting a few naps here and there between feedings, he should be fine, right?

Especially the night routine, I don't know if it's really necessary to enforce some sort of timetable. So far I have been following his feeding gaps, i.e. 4 hours feeding in between. Because the length of sleep at night isn't stable yet (between 6-8 hours), the time when he starts his morning varies each day. And therefore he receives his last feed of a day varies as well.

If he's fed around 9pm, I would just let him sleep as long as possible - often 7 hours till next feed. If he's fed around 7pm, I will feed him at 11pm again before put him into sleep.

Not really sure if it's the correct way, but he seems to be ok with it and reasonably happy. Is it ok to continue this or shall I try to follow a fixed pattern by being flexible with the gaps between feedings?

It's what I do too.

What do you do with the nappy thing though? Mine is currently happily asleep on me. We need to go to bed. He will SQUEAL if we wake him to change his nappy.

AliceWChild I use more absorbent nappy for night time and the first one in the morning. `So far, it's sufficient to make a difference.

D has just started sleeping through from 10.30-7(ish)- hurrah! I just make sure he's changed at about 10pm and first thing in the morning. And put LOADS of Sudocreme on his bum :D

My DD is 14w and she has about 1hour to 1hour30min nap aboutn9-10am then she only has about 2 or 3 if I'm lucky 15-20 min cat naps per day