7 month old 25/30 min naps since 6 weeks old. HELP!

[MamaF88]

Hi there,

This is my first time writing one of these. I feel I have exhausted all options and found zero solutions!

My son is 3 days shy of 7 months and he is a chronic 25/30min catnapper. He always has been! I have had the odd long nap but they are few and far between and seem to be less and less. When he was younger he had 4-5 25min naps a day and slept well at night. At 4 months we hit a regression and at 5 months we hit teething and a leap which he really struggled with!

He's a very happy, active little boy and is in a good mood most of the day. I've been through phases of accepting that was him and as everyone always tells me "maybe that's all he needs, he's happy." And then phases of being determined to sort his naps out but nothing has worked. His night sleep is now suffering. We've had 30min wake ups after going down and early rising issues. The initial waking at the start of the night has been teething pain but I think also overtirdness. And maybe some seperation anxiety?

The naps dropped from 4 naps a day to 3 naps a day. Now I can only get 2 naps out of him! I fear he's trying to transition to 2 naps without being able to nap long enough to recharge.

I've shortened and lengthened wake times, changed bed time and tried nap extension but nothing seems to help. When I shorten it takes 30/40mins to get him to sleep and the outcome can be a 10min nap! If I wait until he gets grizzly and is showing tired signs he's much easier to put down and will stay asleep longer. I was sticking to 2hrs first awake time then 2.5hrs after first nap and he seemed to show some tired signs and would go down ok but would stir at 10mins and if I didn't catch him he'd be wide awake and I wouldn't be able to get him back down again.

I'm in such fear of him being overtired that I have been guilty in the past of putting him down too early and misreading tired signs.

He had colic and silent reflux as a younger baby and also used a dummy. As he was in pain we would hold/rock him to sleep. I managed to get him to self settle without the dummy and without me but only at bedtime. After teething we are now back to holding to sleep which I think is also contributing to the night wakings.

I even paid for a sleep consultant who advised a longer nap of 1.5hrs over lunch, a morning nap of one sleep cycle and a catnap afternoon naps. I tried this for two weeks. I had to shh and pat his chest through the naps at 20/25 mins for about 20 mins then around every 10mins after. It didn't seem to help him extend his naps on his own but he would have a 45-1hr morning nap and a 1.5hr lunch time nap if I was lucky and managed to pat him at every moment he looked like he was stirring. But then he wouldn't have the afternoon cat nap - he would only do this if I forced him in the sling or in my arms and he would usually wake around 10/15mins. He didn't seem tired all afternoon but then his last awake time was huge!

So today I tried 3hr awake time between first and second nap and then 3.5 before bed. First nap was one hour and second was 1.5 but his eyes shot open at 25mins on both even with the shhing and patting so I had to pick him up and rock him or sit with him, he wouldn't let me put him back down.

So, do I continue with the 3 hour awake time and try to get him used to the nap time and length by holding/patting or am I just making the situation worse?

I also tried going back to the 30 min catnaps to see if he would do 3 but again the third one was only 15/20mins and I forced the nap.

He gets cuddled to sleep and I sing a lullaby. I'm planning on doing the PU/PD method once he is settled in his new room (we are having building work done so staying away from home.)

Any advise appreciated. I feel like I'm failing and not giving him what he needs. I'm so drained and exhausted.

[FATEdestiny]

Have you thought of asking your sleep consultant? They will have a better idea of the overall situation from your previous discussions.

You talk about forcing naps like that's a bad thing? If baby needs lots of active help to get to sleep and stay asleep then that's exactly what I'd do. I did this on the bouncy chair, just because that was easier fur me. But patting while stood by the cot works the same. Or sling nap jiggling, pushchair - there are several methods used to 'force' or 'extend' s nap.

If patting in the cot is your way of doing it, my guess would be that the consultants advice would be to carry that on consistantly.