40 minute nap monster and how much day sleep does your 6 month-ish have?

[Suchanamateur]

I went through a lovely period of a few weeks where I stopped worrying about DS (5.5 months) sleep and decided to go with the flow. That period is now officially over and I'm back to fretting (perhaps unsurprisingly coincides with DS going back to dreadful nighttime sleep after a couple of better weeks...)

DS always wakes after 38 minutes. He can self settle, if the wind is blowing in the right direction, the planet are aligned and I manage to hit the right window etc, so I know its not just that. I can sometimes - 1 in 3 perhaps - shush pat him back to sleep for another cycle but no guarantee.

I was just wondering how common these short naps are and whether the long 2 hours sleeps are really either a) mythical or b) for those very lucky people who did wonderful things for mankind in a former life?

Also, is it worth trying to do anything about them, or will age do the job? The baby whisperer suggests doing PUPD when they wake, but I'm reluctant to try it unless people have had real life success.Anyone had any success extending naps?

My DS has 4 or so of these short naps a day and seems to cope ok on them - we certainly don't have the mammoth screaming sessions we used to have in the late afternoon when he was chronically overtired.

How much day sleep did/does your DS have?

My DD is 8.5mo and 40mins is the best we get. I know from reading on here that people have had success with nap blending. I have tried it without much success but we are stuck in a regression at the moment so that might have something to do with it.

Sure someone will be along soon to tell you how they did it.

My DD is 7 months and for the last few months has had 4 naps a day lasting no more than 30 minutes each (40 minutes would be good!!). I know from posting on here and talking to other mums that this is actually not that uncommon. She sleeps very well at night, so after fretting about it for a bit I just decided that this was what she was like and that trying to extend the naps was pointless (she only does 30 minutes regardless of whether she is in cot, pram or carseat). I just have to make sure she has 4 naps as otherwise she gets very grumpy! At least I know when we are able to go out, as it is never any later than 30 minutes after she has gone down :-)

I am watching with interest, as my DD, 19 weeks, also only sleeps for 30 mins at a time - friends are amazed by my ablity t predict when she will wake! Recently, she is teething, and it has sometimes been 20 mins. However, she sleeps ok at night, sort of, and goes to sleep no problem at all, seems to cope on about 3 or 4 of these power naps per day. I try nap blending, but it doesn't work, she just opens her eyes wide after 30mins, has a little stretch and its game over.

Hi there, my DD (now 18 months) was a 45 min napper and nothing I did made her sleep for longer. I remember at one point she was having 5 x 45 minute naps a day! I really wish that I had gone with the flow as she managed really well on this and slept well at night. However, I became a complete obsessive and thought about nothing more than her naps for months!!

I think it sounds like your DS is getting the sleep he needs if he isn't overtired and is sleeping at night. It does change as they get older and my DD will now sleep for 2 hours at lunch.

Sorry just realised that in your post you said your DS isn't sleeping well at night. Could this be down to something that isn't related to his naps like teething?

ps the longer sleeps didn't come for us until she was about 10 months but they do happen!!

My DD1 was like this. At around 14 months she started doing 2 hour long naps, a couple of months later she started to drop naps and now at just 2 doesn't nap at all.

She's been a great sleeper at night since 6 months (did PUPD but only for going off to sleep, not to extend naps if she woke up early from them - I just coujldn't face doing that).

I think some children just don't nap much in the day. My DD2 is 8 weeks and has started sleeping through a few nights a week, but she's a short napper too.

DD2 is 6 months old.

She likes to have a 2 hour nap around lunchtime. If we're out and about she manages fine on catnaps in the carseat/pram, but if we're at home I put her in her cot and she has a long sleep.

She needs to have a half hour rest about 2 hours after she wakes up in the morning. Woe betide anyone who tried to stop her having that sleep. She is a grumpy nightmare until she's put somewhere quiet and left the hell alone.

If your DS sleeps well at night most of the time, then I wouldn't worry about having a longer nap in the day. He's probably teething at the moment, so things should go back to normal soon.

DD1 also had a long nap during the day. There was a period when she used to wake around 45 minutes into it and I would settle her back to sleep because I was used to her sleeping for longer and just treated like if she woke up in the night.

Well both my DCs at your age napped at about 9am, 12 ish and 3pm ish for only 45 mins as well, with bedtime at 6.30pm. They slept worse over night if they got over tired though.

A few months later and they were both ready to move to naps at 10.30am and 3pm and the morning nap lengthened to 90 mins all on its own

Then when they got a little older they moved to one lunchtime nap which became 2 hours. I didn't have to do anything to make it happen. It just happened as they got older and changed.

I have been known to apply teething gel before a nap with both my children, once I suspected they were teething, just to help them to sleep well by the way

Maybe the night waking is due to a developmental milestone or a growth spurt though? He's only 5.5. months, bless him. Neither of mine truly slept well reliably every night until 9 months, if that consoles you?

This too shall pass x

DD1 slept reliably every night until she was 9 months old.

Then the fun really began :o

I have been stressing about this too. DD (6 months) naps for 45 minutes four times a day and I have only ONCE! nap-blended this into a longer nap. I alternate between winding myself up about it something chronic, and going with the flow.

Really pleased to read that some babies nap longer as they grow older, I am hanging on to that thought.

yep, sounds normal. My ds had 3x 45 minute naps (ie one sleep cycle) then moved to - roughly - 2x 1hr naps at about 6 or 7mo (as his sleep cycle lengthened. He only started having a long 1.5-2hr nap when he went down to 1 nap per day around 10 or 11 months.

Enjoy little and often - all too soon, you'll have to go all day without naptime!

DD has three naps most days. One at 9am, then 12pm, then somewhere around 4/4.30pm and in bed at 7pm.

That being said, the morning and afternoon one are forty minutes (her normal sleep cycle) and four times out of five we get a two hour lunch sleep. If she wakes up after forty minutes I tend to abandon ship and just let her lie down next to me on my bed, or she just hangs out on the playmat while I do some jobs.

As to how this happens, I hate to say it, but I followed (loosely) the routines of she who must not be named on MN from pretty early on. As a result, we have a really good little sleeper.

She sleeps fairly well at night, although, we're about to remove the dummy permanently so unsure how that will affect her daytime naps. They are probably going to evaporate.

Oh yes. My baby girl (6.5 mths) is a 40 minute catnapper and has been having 3 of these a day, so that's 2 hrs sleep in a day. The strange thing is I didn't care until I started reading books and discovered what she was "supposed" to be doing. I became obsessive, but actually the obsessing has ended up causing me more stress than the short naps!

Have managed to extend her naps, oh, about twice.... This through shush-patting- like you I am loathe to PUPD as it sounds like a world of pain. The other attempts have been dismal failures which left us both in tears. Not worth it really.

Having said all this, in the past couple of weeks (since starting solids, though this could be a coincidence), she's started having random 90 min- 2hr naps. But this is by no means consistent, and I've noticed it tends to be when she's had a crap night the night before, so is just catching up perhaps.

To be honest I've noticed very little difference in her night sleeps (which vary a lot but always include one feed) depending on how her day sleeps have been. So if that is what you are worried about, I'm not sure how much effect it really has. I may be wrong though.

FWIW I know several people whose babies have short naps, a few who get lovely 2 hour stints daily, and one who often doesn't bother with naps at all! (And her baby sleeps through the night, grrrr).

Thanks for all your responses. It's extremely comforting to know that the Monster is a common occurrence. I will try to regain my zen like state.

I'm also not sure that naps have a great deal to do with our nights. Our best ever nap day- with two long stints out of the blue- was followed by a terrible night. Heigh ho.