Fixing cat napping!

[Baguette2021]

My son, just 7 months, is a real cat napper! He has a wake window of 90-120 mins, shows signs of tiredness (grumbling, rubbing eyes etc) then has a nap of 30 mins on average (unless he is super super tired, like after swimming!)

He goes down easily and can sleep for 6 hours in a chunk at night but struggling with his day time sleep, to the extent he is absolutely knackered by 6pm when he is down for the night.

Any ideas to get a longer nap in the morning and afternoon??

Thanks!

Some babies just don't need longer naps and you'll stress yourself trying to force it.

There's a tip where, if baby usually naps for 30mins, you go in at about 25mins and just disturb them slightly - not waking them fully - to help them start another sleep cycle .

I would extend wake windows to 2.5 hours / 3 hours before bed

I don't think you can change this, based on my experience. My baby was the same when he was 7 months. He'd have a 30 min nap every 2 hrs then he'd be down for bed time at 6. I've found his sleep has just naturally evolved over time and now he's nearly 17 months he has 1 big midday nap and he goes to bed at 7.30pm. I found weaning changed things and gave the day, and therefore the naps, more structure. By the time he was on 3 meals a day he was doing a mid morning and mid afternoon nap, then naturally dropped to the 1 nap over time. He (nearly) sleeps through the night now, 7.30pm until between 6-7am with 1 wake up. He's been a terrible night sleeper at times and I've googled so much about sleep and read so much about sleep on here but it has just been time and patience (and a solid routine) that's solved everything in the end. I'd just roll with it and not stress, it won't be forever. Everything is a phase, as they say.

My LO is 5 months and had wake windows of 90-120 mins (shortest in morning and long before bed) and was a chronic cat napper, 5 a day. I tried extending his wake windows a tiny bit each day and made no difference so 3 days ago took a bit of a gamble and added a full 15/20 mins to his wake windows. Was expecting a bit of protest but utterly amazed to find he’s dropped to 3 naps. 1hr 45 mins, 90 mins and a 30 min catnap. He goes 1hr45/2hr/2hr/2hr15 sometimes a little longer. Possibly stretching out the awake time may build a bit more sleep pressure?

It's really normal for them to "cat nap" around that age. Both of mine have done and grew out of it in a few months.
You can try rocking them when it's coming up to 30 minutes to get them back off to sleep but it'll get better over time

Another vote for extending wake windows. That’s really short for 7 months old. My 4.5 month old copes fine with 90-120 minutes. Grumbling and eye rubbing can be a sign of boredom as well. Instead of leaping in to offering sleep try mixing up the activity you are doing for another 30 minutes.

Thanks all! Appreciate the point of extending wake windows, but genuinely I think he is tired! When I do extend a wake window, for example, he's been up 2.5-3 hours because we've had baby sensory and not managed a nap beforehand, he crashes immediately but still only does 30mins...

To be fair, this afternoon I just left him awake but content in his cot and he went back to sleep after 20mins for another 50!

I'm just worried that trying to introduce a dinner meal, he's so tired that it won't work.

@Baguette2021 mines exactly the same, he wakes up after 30 minutes without fail but has fallen back to sleep after 15/20 mins for another hour or so. He’s content during that time he just plays with his feet or chats away to himself. I can usually tell after 10 mins if he’s winding up to want to get up or winding back down to drift off again.

Hopefully if you leave him again for the morning nap he will do the same. The morning nap is apparently the easiest to extend so if he’s done it for the afternoon nap it’s promising for morning nap too. Hope it works for you I know the catnaps are frustrating, especially when you can see them getting more and more tired as the day goes on. Fingers crossed!

Thank you! That's reassuring to hear!

Mine finally outgrew them at 9 months. It coincided with learning to crawl - the physical exhaustion was so much that he started sleeping more!

Also he became receptive to going back to sleep if he woke after one cycle. I would go in and pat him to sleep again to get a longer nap out of him. Sleep guides told me not to try this after 8 months (the sight of you is stimulating enough that they want to wake up and play), but for us it didn't work until around 9 months.

My son is 7 months next week and having similar issue with short naps.
His wake windows are 2 hours, 2.15, 2.30 and then 2.45 before bed.
I’m going to try shifting them all 10/15 mins over the next few days though.

How much day time sleep does your little one get overall?