Please help with naps

[Annie456]

My 7 month old DS has never been a good napper, always waking up bang on 30 mins and I can't re-settle him. He sleeps well most nights going from 7.30-5.30 when I give him a morning feed and try to put him back down.

DH works such long hours that I'm doing the full day with DS from wake up to bedtime (sometimes he can do the breakfast shift while I sleep) and I feel like I need more than 3 x 30 minute short breaks in the day!! Also by the evening DS is really 'wired' from being overtired and it makes the end of the day really hard work for us both. I've tried gradually moving the bedtime earlier but he just woke up earlier and that doesn't help either!

Looking for some advice on how to extend naps (I've tried taking out his last nap and he fell asleep in his high chair at 5pm!)
Thanks

Annie haven't got much advice but is does sound ok to me. Lots of babies at that age won't do anything like that amount of sleep at night and being tired before bed is perfectly normal for babies, and lots of children too. Just try to keep calm and think of all the sleep you'll get at night.

As for naps, Dr Sears has written this article which might help and Elizabeth Pantley has written this book which you would probably find useful too.

My DD1 never slept for more than 30mins and I totally empathise! I felt that I couldn't get anything done - it was only just long enough to wolf down lunch. However it's just what she did and I never changed it. I ended up just going with the flow and as she got older I got her doing things with me! She's a dab hand at cleaning the bathroom !!!

No need to be embarrassed about that Minstrel, my DS napped beautifully but was so horrendous at night that I was so sleep deprived I couldn't get anything done when he was asleep, just had to go asleep myself when I could.

Going with the flow sounds like a good idea though, we try to do that as much as possible too.

My DS is the same (but wakes several times a night too) and I also do morning to bedtime by myself. He will sleep longer if we are in the car or a very long walk sometimes but you can't do that 3 times a day. I get fed up of people saying "he is not sleeping enough and should be having 1-2hr naps" I am lucky if he sleeps that long at night without waking. I think you just have to deal with it but if I get desperate I get him to curl up on sofa with me straight after lunch time nap and allow him to feed and nap on me so I can have a small snooze. Am hoping that as he gets a bit older the naps will get a bit longer as he is already dropping his morning one. He is sleeping a bit better outside in the pram now the weather is nice so maybe breaking the routine might help.

When going with the flow I found it hard to accept that sometimes its ok just to sit on the sofa and do nothing. When naps are only 30mins it's pretty intense and sitting is resting! It needs to be done!
I now have DD2 showing signs of only having short naps - and I'm considering a sling to allow me some freedom. Mumsnetters have been fab with recommendations for sling meets and libraries. It sounds very appealing!

Just wanted to add my name to the list of mothers of catnapping babies! I was going to start a thread on here asking how to get DS to sleep longer and bunch his naps togethers. When are babies supposed to start doing 2 regular long naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon? Is it after they turn 1 year old? DS is almost 6 months and goes a bit longer than 30-40 minutes occasionally but in the main, we're still on the newborn-style, catnap every couple of hours. I hardly ever get much done as a result.

I'm also a Mon-Fri lone parent as DH often doesn't get back from work until 9 or 10pm and leaves for work at 7:30am so it's a long day when you only get a few short breaks.

Yesterday, DS inexplicably slept from 12 until 1:30pm and I genuinely didn't know what to do with myself. I kept checking him thinking he was awake and I just hadn't noticed or something. So he can do long naps, he just doesn't want to... He doesn't seem overtired though and does sleep 8-10 hours at night so I really don't feel like I can complain too much. I'll read the Dr Sears article and see if it has any advice...

Napa if my memory is right I think that once they are one they usually start having one nap a day, however this isn't the case for all babies obviously.

I thought that it was normal for babies to have a short morning nap, a long lunchtime nap and a short afternoon nap, and that the afternoon nap and then the morning nap would eventually be dropped?

ceeveebee, that is the norm it's just no one has told my DS especially about the long lunchtime snooze

Hiya, I have a suggestion of one or two things to try to extend naps (based on lots of research!!l) First is to aim for the first nap to be at about 9.15/9.30 if they wake at 7. A short nap here is fine. Then wait til 1ish for the lunchtime nap. By stringing out the waking time consistently for a few days it should hopefully promote longer sleeping. And I think try to gwt rid of that late nap or make it a short one if necessary.

And suggestion two for trying to extend the lunch nap is, if he sleeps in a buggy, take him out for a long walk during lunch nap and keep going- do whatever you can to help him get onto the next sleep cycle, teaching him that he can sleep for longer. Then revert back to cot naps. If you prefer to keep to cot naps, when he wakes after 30 mins try leaving him for 5 mins before going to him and then to 10mins after a few days etc. This really worked with dd....amazingly she started building those minutes into her sleeping time. most important thing is to be consistent as nothing works overnight xx

Mewkins, that is a really good idea for getting longer lunch naps. Will try after the weekend (DH is home and always puts us out of routine at WE), will let you know if it works.

Good luck!x