Extending 30 minute nap!

[user1478684342]

Hi - am a FTM and new to posting but am in desperate need of help on how to extend the 30 min nap.
LO is 5 months and was previously going down in Snuzpod (after a BF) for 1.5-2 hours in the morning (usually put down 1.5-2 hours after waking at 7).
Since moving him to his cot bed which is still in our room, he won't nap for more than 30 mins, yet is obviously still tired when wakes and if I let him get up becomes very grumpy within 45 mins.

We have a short nap routine before putting him down and despite feeding him before he often goes down awake but sleepy. Settles within 10 mins.

At night he sleeps 7-6 ish with 2 bfs

Any advice much appreciated

[FATEdestiny]

How long have these 30 minute naps been happening for? A month or two?

It's just that the phisiology of sleep does change for all babies at around 3 to 4 months old. In the "fourth trimester" when baby is new to the world his sleep is passive, like it was in the womb.this means that as long as all needs are met (primarily hunger and comfort) then the passive state for baby is asleep.

From around 4 months old sleep matures. It develops into cycles like and adult, so with brief arousal phases every 20-40 mins between one sleep cycle and the next.

Also sleep now becomes active. Baby and parent have to actively work to get baby to sleep. Things that are known to work to help baby sleep include

• Sucking (dummy or feed to sleep)
  
• Movement (rocking, bouncing, walking, pushchair)
  
• Feeling secure (being held, sling, swaddle, tucked in blankets, sleepyhead)
  

This isn't a phase. It's not a change whereby everything will go back to how it was if you wait. This is a perminant biological change and it will last as long as it takes for you and baby to find a new way of getting to sleep and staying asleep.

In the meantime, while naps are short keep them frequent to avoid over tiredness. Awake time of 40-80 minutes and then naps if 20-40 minutes in constant awake-asleep-awake-asleep cycles are usual.

[user1478684342]

Thanks for response - They've only been happening for 2 weeks (started almost bang on him turning 5 months) and at the same time as moving him out of snuzpod and into cotbed.

Some of the things you mention in regards to helping him sleep we have used but can't rely on indefinitely e.g buggy walks / sleepy head etc

[FATEdestiny]

You can't rely on then indefinately but baby will need some form of comfort to get to sleep until school age (thank God for dummies that allow for independant soothing).

What usually happens is you find a way to get baby to sleep and then slowly over time reduce the parental involvement in that settling technique, so that baby soothes themself.

But anyway, if you think the issue is because of the move from bedside crib to cot, you could turn your cot into a cosleeper by removing one side of the cot and wedging it up to your bed. Rasily done with an allen key. This would allow for an easier transition.

[NapQueen]

Could he sleep in his pushchair instead? Maybe he preferred the snug Ness of the snuzzpod?

[Tumtitum]

DD is 9 months and still has 30 min naps. Occasionally she'll go through a week of two hour naps or hour naps and then she reverts back to 30 mins! So I figure there's not much point trying lots to extend them (have tried wake to sleep, long naps in buggy at nap times, resettling when she wakes etc) as she clearly is capable when she chooses/needs to...