Concerned about son's napping

[newmum234]

My son (5.5 months) sleeps about 12 hours straight every night, from 7-7.

However, I'm worried about his daytime naps. He used to sleep for a couple of hours in the morning or at lunchtime, but recently he's only sleeping for 45 mins (so one sleep cycle) at a time before waking up. It means he's only getting just over 2 hours of naps a day. He sleeps in his cot generally as he naps better there than in the pram.

How can I encourage him to sleep for longer?

Does he seem likes he needs it? Is he happy and content or grisley and unhappy? If he's happy and let him crack on. He might decide to sleep more again in a week or month.
If he's not, what are you doing at the moment to encourage sleep?

He actually seems perfectly happy, which is surprising.

He goes to sleep fairly easily in his cot with white noise. Then sleeps well but wakes up after 45 minutes! Should I be trying to get him back to sleep again for another cycle after he wakes, or is that impossible?

Not impossible but if he's happy I'd not bother. My lo would have 3 hours a day at that age. 1 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Not really that different.

Mine started doing this when the sleep regression hit, around 3.5months. Hes 6 months now and seems to have stopped doing it.

Thanks. Maybe tomorrow I will see if I can get him back to sleep after 45 mins. He just seems so wide awake!

I think it’s developmental. Mine went through quite a long catnapping phase at around that age. As with Letsallscream..., it improved at 6 months when naps started consolidating.

You could send yourself mad trying to extend naps, when actually it will resolve in time. It’s just a phase. I was also lucky enough to have a good night sleeper, and the 45 minute napping was the only sign of the 4 month sleep regression.

Thanks - sounds like I just need to wait it out then!

it improved at 6 months when naps started consolidating.

Do babies tend to drop from 3 to 2 naps at 6 months?

All babies are different, but mine started having 3 predictable naps at 6 months (two longer and one short cat nap late afternoon). She dropped the third nap at 8 months and has been in a 2 nap routine ever since.

She is now 15 months and shows no sign of dropping a nap, though I know a lot of babies are down to one nap at her age.

It sounds like you’re guided by your baby - just keep doing what you’re doing. It sounds like you’re doing a fab job.

We just let ds dictate when he wanted to sleep, if my son seemed happy awake i would have assumed that meant he was not tired

Look up 4 month sleep regression. It’s a common time for cat napping to start. They need to learn to link their sleep cycles then the longer naps should come back.

My son is having 3 predictable naps now. One short one in the morning, a long one over lunch, then another short one a mid-afternoon. I think the mid-afternoon one will be the first to go though as sometimes he doesnt need it.

From someone whose babies were fairly wakeful at night, if your baby is happy during the day napping like that and doesn’t seem tired or grumpy then I have no idea why you would mess with it!

They need to learn to link their sleep cycles then the longer naps should come back.

Is there anything I should be doing to make sure that happens, or do they just do it on their own?

Our oldest was a persistent 45 min napper at that age, used to drive me crazy!

By 7 months he was on 2 long naps a day

It’s debatable. There’s one school of thought that if you’re actively feeding/rocking/patting to sleep, your baby might rely on that and might not learn how to settle himself and link his sleep cycles by himself. I’m not suggesting leaving him to cry, but maybe experimenting with gently and slowly reducing your involvement in his settling, if you’re actively involved.

If he already settled himself, you might just have to wait it out a bit and it’ll come in time.

However lot of other people are quite happy to keep supporting their babies to sleep with feeding/rocking etc and their babies still seem to learn to link their sleep cycles at some point too. I don’t know much about this as my DS settled better when left in the dark with white noise, he found my presence too stimulating. He still went through a catnapping stage, but it did pass.

So really it depends on whether you think your baby is relying on you to settle and how you feel about that, then seeing if you want to change things up a bit or just see if it passes by itself.

Just to add, I literally never successfully managed to get DS back to sleep after 45 mins in this phase. Used to drive me crazy! Wish I hadn’t bothered.

Just read-read and seen that your baby already settles in a cot with white noise. Sounds similar to mine. What does he do when he wakes up? If he’s chilled and not upset, you could try just leaving him in there a bit longer? He might go back to sleep, and if not, at least he’s resting his body and relaxing? Sounds like you might just need to give it a bit of time and hopefully he’ll go back to napping soon. It is frustrating though!

Thanks. I sit next to DS as he’s falling asleep with my hand on his chest. He also has white noise on. Is the hand on chest creating a bad habit and should I be encouraging him to completely settle himself (with me not touching him at all?) Or is what I’m doing okay?

My current charge does a similar thing...... she sleeps for 40/45 mins...... wakes up, wide awake, chatting moaning looking around the room, then 10 mins later happily goes back to sleep for another 1.5 hours etc.
I think the trick I found best is to not go up straight away...... obviously watch Bebe on monitor and if they cry or don’t settle for ages then go back in......

Let us know how you get on!

You’re baby is only little for a short while and it all goes so quickly! If it helps you to bond and both enjoy this experience more than crack on with the hand on chest etc. Nothing more delicious than watching a Bebe falling asleep !!!

However!!!! Yes you’re right, this can create an association and Is harder to establish self soothing And straight forwards bedtime habits