5 mnth old can't nap for longer than 30mins by self during day. Any advice?

[merindol]

DD wakes up like clockwork after 30 mins and only manages to sleep longer if held and rocked or fed back to sleep. I'm ending up sitting next to her for entire nap, trying to settle her as soon as she stirs, which is gettting bit nuts. If I get her up when she wakes she's crochety and cross and clearly knackered within an hour and it all starts all over again. I'd just put up with it except have a nearly 5 yr old at school - naps are timed around the school run, so in ideal world she'd have 1hr at 9.30ish and 1.5 hrs at about 1. Is that too much? I can't see how she could do on less -- this just about allows her to get through to 6.30 and bedtime without all going pearshaped. If she only has 30 minutes at lunch she's a wreck by 3 when we have to leave for school and I then I spend ages trying to get her off again when we get home which isn't fair on older sister. Oh, and she won't sleep properly in the buggy. She's pretty good at night (sorry if sounds smug for those of you having wretched nights) so I'm baffled. Any tips?

[iwouldgoouttonight]

No tips I'm afraid but will watch this thread as my DD (nearly 6 months) only has 3 half-hour naps a day and is in a right state by bedtime. I can't get her to sleep for longer at all! It doesn't seem enough to me but I can't seem to get her to sleep longer (the only way is if I drive a long way she'll go into a deeper sleep in the car but obviously can't do that every day!)

[merindol]

Am both heartened and depressed that someone else going through the same thing!

[cockles]

I managed to fix this maddening problem by:
halfwaking baby (light shake or stroke) 10 minutes before the 30 mins is up. He would then resettle himself for another 30-60 mins. Bliss! Did this at every nap and after a week he was sleeping longer automatically.
It also might be one of th ose things that will change with time.
The other point that helped me was aiming for, until around 6 months, two hours from wake up to next naptime, and from around 6 months on, 2 hours from first nap to next, 3 hours til next, then 4 hours til bedtime. Intervals between sleeps do seem to make a difference.
Good luck!

[sparklefrog]

I had this with my DD.
Where do you put your DC down for naps?
I don't know if this worked, or if it was just a fluke, but I was advised to put DD in her cot at naptime. I did, and she slept for 2 hrs. Then she was fresh as a daisy until bedtime.

[DanielBumpsMummy]

I'm in this boat too my litle guy sleeps for 40 mins and then wakes up..........sometimes like this and sometimes like this !!

I've tried everything - lightly waking before the 40 misn is up, the PUPD, shush pat, cycle blender naps, waling in the push cahir, napping in the swing yada yada yada

I hope someone gives us something else - or even just hope that he'll grow out of it

[merindol]

Thanks for that Cockles, I am going to try the 20 minutes intervention today - in about 5 minutes in fact! Sparklefrog, she sleeps in her moses basket in her bedroom with blackout curtains. Still haven't done transition to cot, more from lack of organisation than anything else, but am going to do that this weekend. If the preemptive wake up doesn't work am just hoping it's something she'll grow out of? But am dreading summer hols with older DD around and getting fed up because I'm spending hours trying to settle baby.

[Bramshott]

I think 30-40 mins is the end of one sleep cycle, and that as they get older they gradually learn to nap for longer. You can gently "teach" them to sleep for longer by persisiting with what you're doing - resettling after that first waking, but it might take a while. I did this with DD2 because I work from home and I needed her to sleep when DD1 was at nursery - it took about a month of persistence!

[xandrarama]

merindol, let us know if cockles' 20-min intervention works for you - I am v. curious as my 7-month old naps for 30 min, 3x a day and does not respond well to efforts to resettle her after she wakes up. It would be great if we could stretch that out a little bit.

Fingers crossed for you and all the rest of us

[FamilarSting]

My nearly 6 month old DD is like this too. She used to nap for 40 minutes exactly, but the they have been getting shorter and shorter lately. I've read about half wakening them, and I can see why it'd make sense, but I'm worried that once I disturb her that'll be it- nap time over. It'd be interesting to see if it works for you, then maybe I'll pluck up the courage.

Yesterday I had some sucess in feeding her as soon as she woke, then putting her back down, singing a lullabye again quietly, then walking out. She squealed to herself for a while, and then, to my amazement went back to sleep for over 40 mins! But I'm far from optomistic that it'll be a regular thing. Plus, the feeding back to sleep thing is a horrible habit that goes on every few hours in the night, so I don't want to encourage that as a getting-to-sleep method.
I've also started trying white noise, but can't say I've noticed it helping yet.

Anyhow, good luck to you, and us all!

[Snooch]

Oh gosh, DS2 also does this and will cry from exhaustion whenever he's awake - he's 3 and a half months old so I suppose could be forgiven, but he does this on and off (more on than off of late...). I find that he sleeps less at night though if he has anything more than 3 or 4 half hour naps during the day so it's a bit of a catch 22 really - do I want more time to myself during the day or a better sleep at night....? He also suffers from pretty bad reflux though so I think that this sometimes contributes to his poor sleep

[crevee]

My 6 month old ds is like this too & has always been a terrible daytime sleeper. I've been known to resort to spending 2 hours of my day sitting in front of the tv watching terrible daytime tv just rocking him when he wakes just to keep us both sane as he is a mess by bedtime. He sleeps dreadfully at night as well and if anything seems to be getting worse ....

Very interested to see how you get on with the 20 min waking thing as not sure i have the courage to do at the moment!

[merindol]

OK, I've tried the 20 minute intervention on both naps and - probably jinxed it now - but it did seem to help. Is this the answer?? Morning nap: put her down at 9, gave her a bit of a joggle 20 mins later, and then, scarcely believing my luck, 20 mins after that and she slept for 1hr 15 mins. did same for afternoon nap and she slept for another hour and a quarter. coincidence? fluke? will probably all go wrong tomorrow. technical question: how much are you supposed to wake them up? she wasn't properly awake, more sort of stirred - was too chicken to make her eyes snap open! Sorry Danielbumpsmummy, I know this didn't work for your little boy - and will probably stop working for us by tomorrow...

[FamilarSting]

OoOo that sounds encouraging merindol! My LO is currently asleep, due to wake up any time now, but I'm still too chicken! Perhaps tomorrow...

[cockles]

Just stirring is fine, you don't want her really awake. With a bit of luck she will get into the habit of it now. It takes nerve though doesn't it! It is my only sleep success.

[ChocOrange05]

static radio increased DS's naps from 45-60 mins to 2 hours min (and I wake him up). This worked from about 16 weeks old. Put static radio on, quite loudly so they can clearly hear it, at the start of the nap and leave on throughout. It worked wonders for us. Good luck!

BTW - we seem to have just weaned him off it at 8mo and his naps are still 2 hours.