How did you extend LO's naps?

[OneDayIWillSleepAgain]

So my DS is a great child in every way apart from at sleeping... He's getting better at nights and tends to wake twice for feeding (as long as there's no teething or cold issues) between 7pm-6.30am
However naps are a disaster and I'm desperate to get things better as at the moment I feel I spend most of my days in a dark room!

He is 7 months old and very lively... He tends to wake quite tired in the morning, yawning and rubbing his eyes so I aim to get him back down for his first nap around 8.30am.

By then he's usually getting cranky, whining etc. so
It's upstairs, nappy changed, lullaby on, quick boob feed, sometimes rocking and down... He will nap anywhere between 20-30 minutes.
This is the same for his lunch time nap (taken around 2-2.5 hours after he wakes) and the late afternoon catnap tends to be in the sling (which he would nap
All day in but is now too heavy plus more aware of everything around so wakes too easily).

So if I don't intervene he will have 3x30 minute naps
Which just isn't enough and he goes to bed overtired and the evenings are a nightmare trying to settle him.

I tried lengthening his awake time but that made things worse - sometimes mapped for 5-10 minutes!!

If I go in or wait till he stirs and pick him up, rock him - 8 out of 10 times he goes back to sleep withinh minutes and will then sleep (on me!) for over an hour... So he clearly needs it. I have only just started doing this and it at least gives him better naps. I'm happy to continue with this if it helps extend them in the long run but not sure if I'm making matters worse...?
I can't stand to hear him cry and I know I'm far too soppy with him so tend to rush to him to prevent that happening.
He's such a happy little boy though and I'm scared of changing that

Can anyone offer advice on what they did please or do I need to just suck it up and continue what im doing?? I would just like some life rather than walking around the house in silence with him in his sling or hovering over a dark cot!

Thank you.

[PenelopeChipShop]

Haha I wish I knew but mine's the same. He's asleep on me right now! I am starving and need the loo but no way am I going to risk waking him as he needs the sleep, like yours he will be just beyond tired by 5ish if he doesn't get enough rest. Sorry that was no help! They are too clever for is basically, my ds will eventually sleep in the pram but inky for 30 mins but in my arms will do 2 hours!! At the mo I'm just going with it and doing lots of reading and MNing!!

[PenelopeChipShop]

Sorry about typos only got one hand free obvs!

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

My only advice is to sleep with him - sorry... :)

[OneDayIWillSleepAgain]

Will that help him 'ebentually' take longer naps on his own? I don't mind/enjoy it for now but just wondered if it will be necessary for the next several months...
Thank you

[OneDayIWillSleepAgain]

*eventually!

[blushingmare]

Watching with interest as have the same issue with my dd, although she's only (nearly) 5 months, so maybe it's too soon anyway. Like your's she'll normally sleep forever in the sling and that's how I usually get a long lunchtime nap out of her, although irritatingly for the past week she's been waking after half an hour in the sling too . I do occasionally find that if she drops off when we're out and about in the pram at the lunchtime nap time, then as long as I keep walking for over an hour (ie. pushes her over into the next sleep cycle) she will stay asleep for 2 hours or even a bit more. So I think Im going to have to do lots of walking - good for burning those calories, although can be tedious to have to keep pounding the streets and I'm not looking forward to it in winter! I'd love to get her to extend her morning nap too, which is currently never longer than half an hour.

So basically that was no help, but just to say I'm in the same boat! [hgrin]

[ShushBaby]

My daughter was like this, and I'm afraid that she was just a catnapper as a baby. Very little worked consistently. At one stage, it worked to rock her to sleep in the pram indoors, then put white noise on and rock her back off when she woke. But it was an immense pain in the arse!

The good news is that, some time in her second year, once she started walking and became super-verbal and dropped down to one nap, she magically started sleeping for two hours.

Now at 2.9 months she has sadly started to drop her nap (woe) but we had AT LEAST a year of blissful 2 hour sleeps daily.

I know this is easy to say with hindsight, but I wish I hadn't stressed about it so much. In my experience little ones can be overtired and screamy in the evenings no matter what their napping habits. I am now expecting our second child, and am going to try my best not to get caught up in the nap issue (from what I gather, second children tend to just grab the odd catnap here and there whilst on the move- this would have been an anethema to me with my first child!) as I wasted too much time stressing.

[ShushBaby]

2.9 years, I meant, of course

[PoppyAmex]

Same problem. DD is 7 months and you could set a watch by her naps.

I'm an absolute wuss and won't do ANY form of controlled crying.

A fellow MN'tter recommended "awake to sleep" method and it rocks! No distress for the baby and worked really well in TWO days now just need to sort the 700 nighttime wakings.

Can't link from phone but do a google search or MN search. Dead easy to implement too!

[MumOfTheMoos]

I've been having this problem too with a 7 mo, since about 4 months. I've been reading the no cry nap solution and she recommends a number of things for catnappers including white noise, making a nap log so that you're there ready to shush back to sleep as soon as they begin to stir at around 15 mins (or whenever yours does stir), getting into a routine, doing a wind own in prep (which it looks lie you're already doing).

Since last Saturday night, my ds has moved permanently into his own room ( we used to bring him in to ours to the sidecar crib when we went to bed before) and my price for doing tat was a video monitor - it's fab! What it means is that during the day I'm (a) not going in his room every 5 mins to check on him as I was before and (b) can see the moment he starts to stir and rush in to forestall him waking up.

I really would recommend the no cry nap solution by Elizabeth pantley. It's got loads of different ideas and has a really good explanation of how naps snd sleep works ad why babies catnap etc

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/007159695X/?hvadid=3436558746&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=20513094071876598807&hvqmt=e&ref=pd_sl_w5kr8c3zi_e&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21