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Nap regressions- anyone else experienced this?

9 replies

2mummies1baby · 17/07/2023 14:02

I just want to know if anyone else's baby has done this, and if so, did it end?!

After two months of four naps a day that were almost never longer than 30 mins each, my DD suddenly started doing longer naps a few days after she turned six months. I was absolutely delighted. She was down to three naps a day, one of which would always be over an hour (ranging from just over an hour to just over an hour and a half, although we had one memorable two hour nap!). This lasted two weeks, then we had a few days with no long naps, followed by another week of one long nap and two short naps every day, then another couple of days with no long nap. Then a week where she had one long nap every other day- the next day would only be three short naps (usually between 30 and 40 minutes).

This brings us to the last couple of days: Saturday naps were 34, 28, 27 mins; Sunday was 30, 8(!) then spent half an hour getting her back to sleep only for her to only sleep another 14 mins, 32 (that one was in the car); today has been 29, 15- she wouldn't go back to sleep after that.

I feel pretty defeated tbh- once she started sleeping for longer stretches, I thought that was it- I didn't imagine she'd have quite such a dramatic regression! The only thing I can think of which may be affecting her is that I think she's a bit ill- she's coughed and sneezed more than usual over the last few days, but she's not snotty and she's coping very well with it if she is ill. (Wife is ill and not coping well at all, so baby is clearly very tough if it's the same thing!)

Thank you if you managed to get through all of that! I'd love to hear from anyone who has experienced similar.

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Lammveg · 18/07/2023 02:57

Going through it with my 6 month old! Unfortunately sleep isn't linear and they'll be ups and downs generally, with illness, teething, milestones etc. Sometimes we have 4 nap days where naps are 30mins ish and other days its 3 nap days which can be naps of 1.5hrs and the last nap is 30mins ish. I always recommend Lyndsey hookway on IG for normalising baby and infant sleep. However, just because what you're experiencing is normal doesn't mean it's not hard.

I actually used to track naps etc but stopped doing it now as it stressed me out. Generally now i look for sleepy queues (were much harder to read before she was 5 months old) like rubbing her eyes which usually happens 2-3hrs after waking. Is your DD generally happy in the day? I.e are the short naps affecting her? I realised I was trying to put mine to sleep when she wasn't ready, when this happens I just leave it for about 15mins and try again.

DD is still a rubbish sleeper (currently holding her sleeping as since midnight she hasn't wanted to be put down 🙄 ) but slowly slowly things are getting better. Solidarity though...its hard!

F1nit0 · 18/07/2023 08:51

Yep, had the exact same thing. Naps only got consistently longer when he dropped to 2 naps a day around 7-8 months. He was a serial cat napper before that but used to throw in the odd few days of long naps when I was always convinced I'd cracked the nap thing. I'd say it's normal until their wake windows start naturally getting longer and they go down to 2 naps a day.

2mummies1baby · 18/07/2023 09:47

Thank you so much, both of you- it's good to know I'm not alone!

@F1nit0 , how did you know your baby was ready to go down to 2 naps? Mine is 7.5 months old and I was starting to think she was ready, but now she's gone back to ridiculously short naps I don't want to risk her getting even less sleep than she is now!

@Lammveg , it's hard to tell as she's always been quite a grumpy baby 😂She's less grumpy now than a few months ago, and I don't notice a difference in grumpiness between days when she's had a long nap and days when she hasn't. Thank you for the Lyndsey Hookway recommendation, I'll take a look.

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headcheffer · 18/07/2023 10:28

Currently going through this with my 8 month old it's very normal! As PP has said sleep development isn't linear, and this will be just a phase. Your baby will soon fall in to a two nap pattern which will last a while!

2mummies1baby · 18/07/2023 10:45

@headcheffer , thank you for the reassurance! As is probably blindingly obvious, this is my first baby so it's all new and I have no idea what's normal!

Said baby has currently been asleep for over an hour 😳she clearly just wanted to whip me up into a frenzy before showing me how stupid I was to be so worried! At least I now know she can have three days of terrible naps and then have a long one again- hopefully I'll panic less next time!

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headcheffer · 18/07/2023 10:58

Aw good I'm pleased she's having a good nap now. Because sleep is so essential for us to be able to function, it's easy to get a bit obsessed about what you can tweak to get them and you enough of it. But truthfully, at times like this there isn't much you can do apart from ride it out!

2mummies1baby · 18/07/2023 14:05

@headcheffer , I am definitely guilty of getting obsessed re: sleep... 😬

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F1nit0 · 18/07/2023 14:49

@2mummies1baby when he started fighting bedtime every night and also fighting the last nap. Sometimes he would nap for 5 minutes on the last nap. It might not be time yet, but when she is ready to go down to two naps don't be afraid to move bedtime forward for a bit. My DS had a 6pm bedtime when he first went down to 2 because he just wouldn't make his usual 7. I then moved it to 6:15, 6:30 etc...

2mummies1baby · 18/07/2023 16:53

@F1nit0 , thank you, that's really helpful advice!

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