How do you extend day time naps longer than the magic 30/40minutes??

[ellabella2]

Hi,

My DS is 5 months old and currently has 3x naps everyday. The morning and lunch time one in his cot and the afternoon one out in the pushchair. He used to sleep for 45/50 minutes but this has now reduced to 30 minutes. He will sleep for longer, sometmes up to 1 hour 40 minutes in the pushchair if on the move. Very occassionally he'll sleep for longer at lunch time for no apparent reason

I think he needs to sleep for longer at lunch time as he wakes crying and is grumpy. Whereas he wakes quiet and happy from his morning nap

I have tried re-settling him at lunch time but he just gets more and more upset so it seems unfair to persevere longer than 10 minutes or so.

Has anyone successfully managed to extend their lo's nap lengths. I'd love to hear people's experiences, tips etc.

I know that I am lucky that DS naps as well as he does but I think he would be so much happier in the afternoons if he could do a proper chunk of sleep (it would also be amazing for me to have a proper amount of free time in the day to rest or catch up on jobs )

Thanks

Honestly? I tried and tried for months and didn't get anywhere! That's not to discourage you, just to potentially save you a lot of stress.

Once my dd reached 10 months-ish she dropped down to 2 naps, which was a big relief for me.

My advice would be: the pram is your friend. Providing your lo will settle in his cot at night, what's the problem with him taking a nap in the pram in the day?

DD naps quite happily has a nap in the pram for around an hour each day- she tends to drop off on the way back from playgroup, wakes after 30 mins and I rock her back to sleep for another 30-40 mins. I put some white noise on the laptop so I can crash around, make lunch, go on the computer etc without disturbing her. If we're at home for the day she'll settle in her cot for a nap in the morning too, then we go for a walk in the afternoon.

I can make so sense of why she settles in her cot sometimes and not others, why she sleeps for 30 mins sometimes and 90 mins sometimes (very seldom).

But basically she has found her own way with naps, and while it isn't my ideal (a 2 hour lunchtime nap in her cot would be my ideal!), it's fine really. She generally sleeps well at night so I had to let go of the notion that somehow her daytime sleep patterns were "wrong".

I think some babies are just cat-nappers. You have to ask yourself if it's worth the angst of trying to fix it- before we know it they won't need any naps at all!

make NO sense, I mean

Thanks for your reply shushbaby

It sounds like our DC's are pretty similar in their sleeping habits! I know what you mean about deciding whether it is really worth stressing over too much. I am wondering whether some babies just sleep longer during the day and others just never do. Like you say it would just be so much more convenient if he would do one longer nap rather than our day being broken up by several shorter naps all the time. It's good to hear that you have been able to drop down to 2x daily naps now. What time does she take her two naps now?

I think I am just hankering after that textbook 'short morning nap and then a nice long sleep at lunch time' that will see DS through to bed time

They always keep chainging the goalposts anyway don't they so who knows what next week/month will bring

I had the same problem at your stage, my DD is now 7.5 months, and I'm happy to say i've cracked the first 2 naps now :)
She used to have 30 minutes to the dot, tried resettling, got very frustrated and upset and gave up. Then after lots of research I realised that I was leaving her awake for too long in the morning. She would wake at around 7/7.30a, and I'd take her to bed when I saw yawns etc, but by this stage it was way too late.
I started taking her up after just 90 minutes, did the Baby Whisperer 'calm time' (ie just sitting with her next to her cot for 15 mins or so til she was sleepy). After mere days of doing this she now sleeps for an hour & 20 mins both in the morning and at lunchtime.
I have steadily increased her awake times by 5 minutes each day, so now she is awake for 2.5 hours before her first nap. She is therefore nice and tired but also used to going to sleep for the right amount of time.

HTH

I've cracked it too, after 8 wks of this and she is much happier. If you read the 'my baby won't nap sign here' thread you will see several of us have overcome the short naps and there are lots of different ideas, I have to wake baby for her morning and afternoon nap now - I can't quite believe it given the frustration we had.

When dd (now 13mo) has two naps her day might look like this:

06.00 Wake up
10.00 Nap for an hour in her cot (this has got longer since she dropped her third nap)
15.00 Nap for 40 mins- 1hr on a walk
19.00 Bedtime

When she has one nap it's more like this:
06.00 Wake up
11.30 Nap for 1h 15m usually
19.00 Bedtime

She's more tired by bedtime on the one-nap days, admittedly.

Tbh it can vary quite a bit, especially as she can wake up even earlier than 6am some days, but I suppose my point is that the variation doesn't seem to bother her, and she generally sleeps 10.5-11.5 hours straight at night. It seems as she's got older her daytime sleep is affecting her night time sleep less and less. Yesterday at the childminder's, for example, she hardly slept at all, but slept 6.45pm-6.20am without a peep.

I got soooo stressed with the idea that her naps would affect her night time sleep. Turns out that all babies are different, and with her it really doesn't seem to. Your baby will have his own little ways.

I think that if the crap-napping is really affecting your baby, it's worth tackling. But if it isn't, why take on the stress?

I think it's my attitude that has really changed. I had got to the point where I wasn't getting out and about because I was so fixated on naps. It made me really really down so I know how stressful it can be. Now I think, as long as she's not suffering, it's fine if her naps get shuffled around a bit.

But like I said, it's down to what your baby can handle at any given stage rather than what the books say.

Good luck!

I must add though, that as your boy is still so young, he probably does need more daytime sleep and you may need to roll with the three naps for a while longer.

But I hope I can show you that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and within a few months he will be able to stay awake for longer and naps won't be quite such a dictator of your day! Around the six month mark was where I really struggled with naps.

HOllyFP thank you so much for your inspirational reply It has given me hope that it can be done and also some very good practical ideas on how to tackle it.

sedgiebaby I have been reading my way through that thread as you suggested. Lots of good ideas - thank you.

Shushbaby It's good to know that even if DS's napping habits don't change in the short term at least as he continues to mature things will naturally develop and like you say naps will dictate the day less and less.

I put ds on his tummy at 7 months and he started sleeping for 1.5-2 hours.

chabbychic I like the sound of that roll on DS being able to roll over and then be able to sleep on his tummy Thanks