3 month old won't nap in the daytime

[Curlywurly85]

I'm very lucky my 3 month old is fantastic at night, he goes to sleep no trouble at around 7.30pm to around 5.30am with just one feed in the night. But the daytime is another issue I can't get him to sleep longer than 40mins at a time. I've tried everything but nothing works.

Has anyone got any brilliant ideas to get him to sleep longer or does my baby just manage on frequent short naps rather than less frequent longer ones?

He just needs less sleep!

Is he ok in every other respect? Eating etc ok?

You're lucky with the night sleeping but I sympathise that you probably can't get much done during the day. Have you tried seeing if he'll settle himself if you leave him in his cot for a bit?

He's fine otherwise. I've tried leaving him to self settle when he wakes up but he just cries until I pick him up.

He's not getting enough sleep in the day as he gets tired and more and more grumpy throughout the day as he gets more tired.

Hi there,

My 4 month old has 4 30-45 min naps a day. When they get more mobile they will sleep for longer stretches. Watch for awake time of 1.5 hours after this time offer him a sleep. The naps will lengthen in time.

Thanks, I'm pleased to here I'm not the only one. Just feel like I'm either breast feeding or trying to get him to sleep. And don't seem to get much done in between as he's awake before I know it!

It's fun ain't it?!

Most of them will start to sleep more at around 7 months, even if they have been the ones taking just short naps before then. I was shocked when it happened and ended up checking on DS several times to make sure he was still breething :-) I can now boob him back to sleep too if I think he left his nap short and woke up tired. One thing I used to do is if he fell asleep in the car is to just stay there, rather than move him into the house. DH used to bring me a cup of tea if he was around and I'd be reading my mags or texting friends. That way I sometimes got him to sleep longer - in fact, sleeping outdoors always resulted in longer naps. Oh, and just by accident we found that he sleeps longer on our bed, rather than in his cot - must be the smell. Good luck - you are doing great. It makes your days hard work sometimes but it will change.

Where does your baby nap?

Like scrumptious , my ds (4 months) won't nap in his cot but will on our bed... I like the idea that it is the smell!!! Since moving him into his pushchair from the carrycot, I find he sleeps well in there too. He needs his dummy though and quite a lot of stroking of the face. I often have to lie down with him on the bed to get him off to sleep though.

It's only in the last month that he's been taking regular naps though, about 3 a day (2 of about 30 mins and his midday one of about 1.5 hrs). Before that he could go the whole day without sleeping and became unbearable!! So I know how you feel.

They do start to sleep for longer periods around the 7 month mark. My almost 8 month old has always been a pretty good day sleeper but she has become better when she became more mobile and active. How long are you leaving him to self settle when he awakes after one sleep cycle (40 minutes)? I found with my DD she would often put herself back to sleep after one sleep cycle with a bit of self settling. I would leave her for a bit and if she didn't and she had only had 40-45 minutes I would pop her in the pram to try and get some more sleep. Ideally, they need 1 1/2 hours minimum per nap. This is what the sleep consultant told me anyway. But it has been much better (knock on wood) since she turned 7 months. She is also a very good night sleeper. My son, on the other hand, was a shocker.

Watching with interest as my 13 week old will only take 20-40 min catnaps. Yesterday, he had 3 sleeps, totalling 1 hr 20 mins over a 12 hour period. And I really have to persuade him to take those

I had a non-napper and unfortunately unlike others it never reliably improved much beyond 40 mins naps (dd is now 20 mths old). Most do improve though once they're on the move.

As others have suggested if the cot isn't working you could try other methods (pram, co-sleeping in the bed, even a sling). Those methods aren't going to give you a break though so you might want to persevere with settling in the cot (eg try patting but not picking up). That never worked for my dd but has worked for others I know.

You could also try getting ds into a routine (they're not the work of the devil and can help non-sleepers), putting down for a nap at similar times each day, use the same routine as bedtime etc. Maybe introduce a comforter or soothing music just for sleeptime. My dd went from doing a couple of 10-20 min catnaps a day on my lap to reliably doing 3x40min naps a day (two of those in the cot) when I introduced a routine. It was a massive improvement for us.

Your ds does need the sleep so you're right to try to improve it (it's highly unlikely that 10-11 hours sleep is sufficient for a 3 mth old). It's really hard when babies don't nap, I feel for you.

I used to weep when people would tell me about having to wake their babies from 2-3 hour naps. Still, the people who find toddler tantrums a walk in the park are probably the ones who didn't have babies who napped for long :)

Thanks everyone for the advice. He goes down in a travel cot in the lounge as unfortunately we can't put him down upstairs in his cot as my partner works shifts so needs to sleep. He has a cloth as a comforter that smells of me and breast milk but that doesn't seem to help. I put on a lullaby in the background and leave it on. I'm trying to establish a routine but as he's not napping well in the day it makes this difficult.

I could deal with the fact that he just likes short naps. But it's such and ordeal to get him to sleep even though I know he's tired. And he just gets so grizzly by the end of the day as he's not had enough sleep that he becomes impossible.