Getting 6 month old to nap for more than 30 mins

[scotjls]

Any tips on getting my 6 month old to nap during the day for longer than half an hour? He's fine at night, sleeps from 7 until 5, feeds then goes back to sleep for 2 hours. But during the day he just catnaps every couple of hours. He wakes up crying and obviously still tired. I've tried picking him up until he stops, settling him to sleep again but he just wakes up 15 mins later crying again. He's fine at self-settling, I just put him in the cot awake, leave the room and he drifts off himself. Any tips much appreciated.

No tips but watching this with interest I have dts aged 6 months and theyre sleep pattern is exactly the same for night. They do sometimes sleep till 6 at night and they do sometimes sleep longer than 30 mins in the day but it is rare. I put them down every 2 hours but the other day it was more like 2 1/4 hours and they slept longer so maybe thats where Im going wrong? Maybe things will change for us soon

DD was the same at that age. She had two naps a day up to 9 months where she dropped to 1 and then she dropped her daytime naps at 12 months.

The only satisfactory way to get her to nap for a good amount of time [hour and a half] was after swimming and as she got older, I made sure she had some good fun exhausting play to prepare her for sleep and then do a calm down read and relax ready for nap.

Nap times were 11am and 2pm, once she hit 9 months 11am only. She slept 10-12 hours at night and still does. She still naps for about 45 minutes after swimming though.

DD has always been like this, down to the good nights and the self-settling. The only way I could get her to nap for longer than 30 mins was to either have her sleep on me, so that as soon as she stirred I could hush and rock her back to sleep - which would actually only take a minute at the most - or to go for hour long walks. If I did at one hour long nap during the day, the other naps she would wake from at 30 mins much more content.

Now she has turned 6mo she is starting to sleep on her side or front sometimes, and this seems to have made a difference, we have had a few 50 min or so naps. She has also dropped from 4 catnaps to 3 naps (roughly 1hr in the morning, 30 mins at lunchtime and 1hr in the afternoon).

The Baby Whisperer has some tips called 'wake to sleep', you can find lots of guidance online, which is sort of what I have been doing with the cuddle back to sleep, and that does seem to work. On the plus side, it does mean you get forced to sit down for an hour and read or watch TV!

Me too!!! My daughter is almost 5 months and is exactly like this. Thought I was only one.

It always baffles me that when I put her to bed at 7.30pm she stirs and flickers her eyelids at 8pm but keeps on sleeping but during day ping! Wide awake after EXACTLY 30 mins.

During the day I put her down awake in cot and she drifts off happily, I then run and get shower or whatever. If I go back in and pick her up at 25 mins and cuddle for 15 mins or so we get another 30mins (sometimes an hour).

Somebody did suggest putting her to sleep on her front during day but not tried this.

I had this problem with my son some years ago and I set him to nap in his pram/pushchair. When he stirred after 30 mins ish I rocked it gently until he went back to sleep and then again whenever he stirred again. After doing this for a few days he got into a longer nap habit and it continued from then on.

Thanks for all your responses. He also sleeps longer if he's on me, in the buggy or in the car. My daughter who's 2;9 was and still is a terrible sleeper, would never sleep in her cot during the day (and badly at night!) so I am keen to persist with putting him down in his cot during the day when I'm home as he does fall asleep there happily just now. Will try the cuddling and settling back to sleep as I've only done that a couple of times, I tend to just pick him and start the whole cycle again. Have been roughly following Baby Whisperer's EASY. So will definitely look the book out again and look for other sleep tips. We had also found a wee while ago, when he was ill, that he slept easier if we propped him on his side. So maybe that's an other possibility. A friend had said her wee boy slept for only an hour or two at night until he discovered sleeping on his tummy at 5 months, and now he sleeps 7-7.
Thanks.

My DS was like this. He slept for 12 hrs at night but during the day it was only 20 min power naps. When he hit 9 months however he started sleeping longer and now he has three sleeps a day of between and hour to a max of 2 hrs. I'm sure they will get better. When they become a bit more active it makes them more tired.