Naps!

[Solsticethefloatinghome]

So my LO is 10 weeks old nearly 11 weeks and the guidance says he should be getting between 4 and 5 hours sleep during the day but it’s impossible. I’ve tried everything. Sometimes it can take me up to 45 minutes to get him to nap and then most of the time he’s only asleep for half an hour. I’ve read about sleep cycles being half an hour long and tried so many different things to settle him again etc. I guess what I want to know is … is a half an hour nap every 90 to 120 mins enough for him? Should I be concerned? Are some babies just like that and that’s fine?

He sleeps at night from 20.30 until 01.00 and then from 02.00 until 06.30 most nights

Yes, some small babies do lots of short naps – that's fine if it works for them. That said, if it's taking you 45 minutes to get him to sleep, I wonder if you are trying to put him down before he's really tired enough? That can make their naps shorter as well as making them hard to get to sleep.

The wake windows are just an average, some babies have longer ones, some shorter. My two both had longer wake windows – absolutely no way they were napping as often as the books said!

I really wouldn’t worry too much about what guidance says - all babies are different and you can drive yourself mad trying to fit yours to a schedule that doesn’t work for them.

some babies are cat nappers and just need short naps here and there. How does your baby seem between naps? If he’s cheerful and relaxed when he wakes up, he has likely had enough.

I would just try and follow his cues for sleep, and let him wake when he wakes. He will likely sleep longer stretches when he’s older. In the meantime, don’t sweat it.

I wouldn’t worry too much about guidance. Everyone is different when it comes to sleep. For example, I can survive off 4 hours.. husband needs 8 haha. My first was a cat napper until she dropped to 1 nap and then would have a solid 2-2.5 hours. I’ve recently had my second and I just follow his cues. When he is tired I put him to sleep. I spent MONTHS with my first obsessing over wake windows and trying to force her to sleep when she clearly wasn’t tired. Just resulted in a grumpy mum and a grumpy baby. Life was better when I followed her sleep cues. Xx

Thanks guys! He’s always in a good mood after a short nap. Sometimes he does get overtired so I definitely just need to get better with the sleep cues rather than what the ‘text book’ says. I normally know but I find it so hard to trust my gut with things. Think I need to believe in my mum ability a bit more

All babies are different, if you're taking that long to get him to sleep he might not be sleepy. My own rule I made up was that if after 10mins sleep wasn't happening I would do something else with baby for 30mins and then try again.

Don't let naps rule your life! Just give opportunities for sleep every now and then and see what happens. As they get older, figuring out naps gets a lot easier - both in terms of timings and then they get better at falling asleep as well.

Also, that's great night time sleep. He's getting a good amount of sleep at night so might not need as much in the day compared to other more wakeful babies!