What's this about naps after 2,3,4 hours? Ha!

[stickersarecurrency]

DD has just woken from her 3rd 45 minute nap of the day - she's yawning ten minutes after waking.

TWO babies like this now, TWO OF THEM! WHAT DID I DO WRONG?!?!?!?!?!

I had one like this who improved when he started doing a long lunch time nap. My 2 girls were/are ok.

How old is your dd?

[know i shouldn't really say this but....sleeping on front helps!]

I'm with you on this, logged on about to start a thread of my own, my DD of nearly 5 months had 4 naps today, each of no more than 30 minutes, driving me crazy!!! I get her up because after 30 mins she is awake and chatting away in her cot, but half an hour later she is yawning again. Does anyone have the answer pls as to how to extend naps? After 5 months it is really starting to get to me!

I think it really depends how the nights are? Some kids sleep really well at night but do 4 short naps a day so it would be unrealistic to try and change them. Others ( like my ds1) were crap day and night!

I know a lot of people do PUPD to extend naps ( particularly the lunch time one) - personally I didn't do anything and accepted he wasn't a great napper. Also, I didnt really follow a routine so it didnt bother me that much.

Well, she does sleep on her front. Or did - she won't really be put down this last few weeks, just wakes. Occasionally I manage to slide her off my knee onto the sofa. She's only really fed to sleep - sleeps in pushchair but only if it's moving. DS slept for 90 minutes once a day after 6 months. 3 months to go (1 for you Sleepless!)

I always used to feed/rock/hold back to sleep, make sure room pitch black (and I mean totally, can't see your hand in front of your face pitch black), be totally topped up with milk before they went down, not too tired/not too awake. Etc etc etc. All very gina ford. It worked well with dd1, took till about 4 months I thunk with dd2, and she's only started doing regular 2 hour sleeps now she's 18 months and has dropped the morning nap.

Think it largely depends on your baby though, there was sometimes no persuading dd2 to sleep if she didn't want to, whatever I did really. Whereas dd1 has always been a sleep addict.

Certainly try the above out to see if it works, but don't let it drive you insane if it doesn't. Their sleep patterns change all the time, so just when you've got one thing sorted, something else crops up. Qed, not worth stressing about unless you/they are miserable.

She's ok at night, down before 10 and 1-3 feeds. I would be fine with crap naps if she wasn't so bloody tired all the time. And like DS (I swear she's his double!) when overtired she gets really hyper and upset before she gives in and sleeps.

Sorry, I'm just needing a good bitch about it!

I feel for you - I remember how jealous I used to be when ds slept 30 mins and his friends slept for 2 hrs! I now have one who sleeps 2 hrs so I know how different they can be.

However, what I do differently with dd3 ( 6 mths old) and ds1 is the following:

1. never feed her to sleep except bedtime/night time

1. always put her to sleep awake - I even make sure burping her at bedtime wakes her up so she goes to sleep herself

1. If I think she is tired and wants to go to sleep, let her cry herself down for max 5 mins and it usually works.

I was completely averse to any sort of crying with my first so I think this may have contributed to his poor sleeping day and night. He was high maintenance as he wasn't truly rested in the day and now I have 3 kids I look back and wonder why I made such a meal over one but it was because he was much harder work than my other two.

amijee - of course, how quickly I forget! Yes, I used to do all those as well (except I did feed to sleep if I was trying to get them back to sleep after 45mins at lunch, but not regularly at any other time). Think they are quite important things really.

I've always fed to sleep. This may be where I'm going wrong. Seems easier to do this while reading to DS etc than to leave him to it while I disappear upstairs. I need to set the cot up, don't I?

I do think that there is a lot to be said for not feeding them to sleep, my DD is a reasonable sleeper at night, since 4 months she has been waking once between 11pm and 7am for a feed which I can handle. Still do a dream feed at 11pm though. Have been making a conscious effort to put her down at night awake. The other thing I am trying is when she wakes after a 30 minute nap I don't rush to her straight away, I let her grumble for 10 minutes or so, and only go in once she starts crying properly. I am a routine kind of person so it stresses me out when she does not nap properly, maybe they just grow out of it? I have scoured the internet and read loads of books (my husband says I'm obsessed) but I don't have the solution yet i'm afraid!

I drove myself crazy over DDs naps, which were rarely longer than 30 minutes. I'm taking naps myself at the moment as I'm rather pregnant. For some reason, I never sleep more than 45 minutes. Maybe, young or old, we just sleep for as long as we need. Don't quote me on this in 6 months time, but I'm just going to roll with it this time, whether the naps are long or short (in fact, I suspect with a toddler around that the babies will just have to take their naps when they can)

Ok. I'm inspired by you ami. We'll try and set the cot up after Christmas (it's a sidecar now as we're cosleeping) and have a go at naps. Wish me luck!

As well as being able to self settle (which I do think is very important) I think age has a lot to do with it. My DS (now nearly 9mo) would only ever nap for 38mins exactly. His timing amazed me.

Since about 7mo he has started napping for longer but still 'only' 1.5hrs, I honestly don't think he'll ever sleep for 2hrs. Maybe solids have helped, ie, he is fuller for longer so can sleep for longer. Whatever it is, I'm very glad as he always seemed tired, even if he'd just woken up!

Well after reading all your thoughts yesterday, when she woke at 11pm with a stuck fart I was brave - took her out of the basket, did a bit of massage then plonked her back in without a feed. 5 mins of bum rubbing and she slept - until 6.40am! So 9 hours between feeds! Less frequent feeds may help her wind troubles too, so thanks very much and I'm now repeating to myself "she who dares wins" before naps!

fantastic news - well done sticker and a happy christmas x

at 'stuck fart'!