How do I get him past the 45min sleep cycle (naps)?

[LaTristesse]

DS is 11mo, sleeps fine at night (i.e. for hours - resettling himself), but only ever has 45 mins if asleep in his cot for naps.

How do I get him to sleep longer - he definitely needs it. Will PUPD work?

Any advice gratefully received!

I have a 3 month old with a similar issue - what is PUPD?

I hold mine and he sleeps great, prob not a good solution for most people tho . In better weather I used to take v long walks with him to keep him asleep. Seriously tho, one thing I heard was to go in a couple of mins before they usually wake and when they begin stirring to stroke or pat or whatever works so they dont wake fully. If you do this for a while they should get used to sleeping longer on their own

Put him down for a nap earlier, make sure he's winded and there are few distractions. Tbh my DS didn't consistently nap for more than 45 mins until he was 1. Before that I'd have to resettle him with some success (only the lunch nap though)

I've tried PUPD and didn't have a huge amount of sucess - DS is nearly 6 months and has started taking longer naps by himself.

If i could go back in time i would just roll with the catnaps, i spent way too much energy trying to extent them for very little gain!

Thanks all. Kath, PUPD is Pick Up-Put Down, a method of helping to get them to sleep. Details are in the Baby Whisperer sleep book, or there's plenty of info on these boards.

I used to hold mine, and will agree he did sleep longer then, but due to going back to work soon I've had to get him napping in his cot.

I'll try putting him down sooner - during the day he usually goes 3 hours between waking and needing to sleep again, so I'll try putting him down at 2.5 hours maybe, see if he'll sort it out himself!

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I find that how long DS sleeps for depends on how he went down. If he cries and fusses when going down, 45 minutes later he wakes up still crying. If he's calm and fals asleep by himself then he sleeps through.

I have no practical advice above how to get him into either of those states so not particularly helpful...

So I tried putting him down sooner this morning and he just cried and fussed until exactly 3 hours after he woke up, so that doesn't look like it's going to work...

I agree I am spending too much energy and emotion on getting this to work... maybe it's never going to and I should just go with it. It just seems frustrating that I know he's tired but can't do anything about it. Maybe I should just repeat 'this too shall pass' (when he's a teenager and won't get up for love nor money!).

I agree - just go with it. When he is more established on solids, he might sleep longer. that's what happened with DS

My 6 month old does the same - I'm been going in to his room about 40 minutes and sshing/patting or sometimes rocking him back to sleep for weeks now, but he hasn't started sleeping any longer.

I think some babies just do it. At 11 m.o. the 46 week developmental spurt may mess with naps so babies can't go back to sleep even if resettled.

MUA, I still have to resettle 13 m.o. DS in the middle of his lunchtime nap - I've been doing that since 7 months. If he's absolutely shattered, he'll self-settle in the middle, though.

KathMCB, at 3 months it's totally normal and is often developmental - it usually improves around 4/5 months. DS did it, and no amount of resettling / pram naps / sling naps would get him to sleep any longer.

Lurking in the room just before the 45 mins is up and patting / whatever can work well - I keep meaning to try it again with DS, but there's always too much MN housework to do.

AngelDog, it's weird - every week or so he'll suddenly have a 1.5-2 hour nap for no apparent reason, but never repeats it twice in a row. It doesn't seem to be when he's particularly tired or well-fed or anything either.

They're odd. DS spontaneously started long naps at around 4/5 months or so - but they stopped as soon as he started being able to self-settle.

A few days later he decided he hated the swaddle, which put paid to the self-settling and long naps have only been occasional since then, apart from when we first dropped to one nap and he was exhausted. He's caught up on sleep now so I'm back doing the mid-nap feed again.

my ds is 9 months used to do this, and i would go in and re-settle him, i did this for about 2 months, every time and then he just started doing longer naps and now I wake him most days. I'm not sure if this was my constant re-settling or just his age.

Today though he woke after 45 mins, the cheeky monkey!

My sister could never ever get my nephew to sleep for longer then 45 mins until he was 14 months, i think it's just a bit of luck what type of sleeper you get.

We have exactly the same problem with my 8 and half month old ds. Spot on 45 mins, he's wide awake. I went through a phase of letting him sleep in his car seat and then rocking him back off as he stirred which worked, but like you am going back to work, and nursery wont do this!!!

Have just accepted that this is how he is, and hopefully will improve as he gets older.