Nap time- is this an issue?

[xxx28xxx]

Hi

Just after some advice really regarding my 5 month old. Finally managed to crack night time sleeping by night weaning/sleep training (pu/pd for a couple of nights) and he's doing really well but day time naps still aren't great.

Tbh I was quite happy to go with his natural routine which seems to be 3x 30-45min naps a day (approx 9, 12 & 3) but lately he seems to be tired still which makes me think he needs longer. But how do I encourage this??

He tends to sleep in his bouncer or pram, I've tried the cot but he goes nuts as I think he associates it with bed time. Should I perhaps try the cot again?

When he naturally wakes after his nap I do try to rock or push him back to sleep in the hope he will dose off again but he rarely does.

Bedtime routine is pretty well enforced (by him mainly lol) and he's npw down by 7pm and waking between 6&7am which is good (he has a dream feed around 1030/11pm) but I just want him to nap some more during the day. For his benefit not mine, any tips or advice would be most welcome.

I haven't started weaning yet so don't know whether to tackle naps more proactively once he's eating properly as I suspect weaning may disrupt all routines anyway?

Thanks!

[taxi4ballet]

It's been a few years now, but the thing I most remember about routines, is that dd would settle into a routine but it would only last a few weeks at the most before we had to move the goalposts because she was growing and developing all the time.

Lots of people seem to manage a routine for ages but it never happened like that with us - we had to adapt it constantly!!!

[minipie]

I remember 6 months being the time when DD started naturally having longer naps. This was also about the time when I pushed her lunchtime nap a bit later, so I guess she was more tired by the time she got to it and more likely to sleep longer. You could try that but if it doesn't work wait a few weeks and see what happens... as taxi says it changes so much at this age!

At about 6.5 months she dropped her afternoon nap (we had a tricky few weeks where she needed about 10-15 mins at 4.30) and after that we were on the same routine for ages, until she dropped the morning nap at 13 ish months (I think!! it's been a while)

[minipie]

PS when I say she started having longer naps, I mean the post lunch nap. Morning one was always 30 minutes.

[waterrat]

he will nap later when he gets older - I spent ages trying to make ds sleep longer and it just naturally happens when they get to between 6- 8 months.

You have an amazing sleeper if he is going all night at 5 months ......

I have a 5 month old at the moment and she has a very similar nap pattern - sounds v normal to me.

[xxx28xxx]

Thanks for all the advice, sound like I should just be patient and see if the naps naturally progress. Tbh that kind of suits me better anyway at the moment as it means I'm not constantly stressing over him napping, one less thing to worry about :)

[Bee14]

Could have written this myself about my 5 month old!

About 2-3 times a week I will let her sleep on me if she seems extra tired and then she will go for up to 2-3 hours (she is asleep on me now).

About once a fortnight I decide I will try and get her into a more set day routine, it doesn't work that well (not sure if she's not ready or I'm not trying for long enough!) but it basically seems to mean that going out for baby classes etc is impossible as they cut across the routine and if I'm honest staying in all day sends me loopy. Latest plan is to leave to 6/7 months and tackle when we are both home at Christmas....

[AnnaBanana25]

I found this website helpful about the science of napping. This page explains sleeps cycles, and there are more pages about other issues. Have a look

childsleepscience.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/nap-101-post-1-does-my-baby-have-a-nap-problem/

[TarkaTheOtter]

None of mine napped for more than 30-45mins until they were crawling then both started having proper naps without me doing anything.

[StarMeKitten]

I've been trying to get 4 month old DD2 to have longer naps too. She's a cat napper too and usually only has 30-45 minutes each time. I have to say I do think it's worth trying to get them to sleep a bit in their cot through the day and ive found that sometimes DD2 will have the odd long nap there.
Having said that I remember DD1 didn't start proper long napping til she was about 6 months.