extending naps?

[YouTry]

My DD (PFB!) is 16 weeks. She sleeps well at night, sometimes wakes for one night feed or very early in the morning hungry. She self-settles at bed time and nap times. However, when I put her down in her cot for naps she only sleeps for exactly half an hour and then wakes even if still tired. I have tried shush-pat, tried leaving her, tried rousing her slightly just before the half an hour but nothing works! If I put her down in her pram, she wakes after half an hour but with a tiny rock or walk she goes back to sleep and stays asleep for ages (currently 2.5 hours and counting!). Any ideas on how to extend cot naps or will it just come naturally as she gets older? Would you just use the pram and not worry about bad habits or keep persevering with the cot? Thanks!

Hi YouTry

Our DC could be related; exactly same problem with 14 week DS, although he does wake for one night feed because he's low birth weight still. Good at night, but I can't consistently get him to settle for longer than 40 minutes in his basket - sometimes he does, and surprises me, but other times it's a shush-pat, resettling experience that doesn't always work. I've left this week open to crack it but if today is anything to go by, I've got a job on my hand...

I would say, though, that 2.5 hour nap is possibly too long - everything I've read suggests that 2 hours should be max, otherwise it might prove counterproductive and impact on night sleep.

Will be watching this thread!

Hi,

I started a very similar thread (How to extend day time naps past that magic 30/40 minutes) on here the other day as my DS is pretty much the same as yours. He sleeps pretty well at night but during the day will only sleep in his cot for exactly 30 minutes. He is able to self settle to sleep but cannot be persuaded to go back to sleep once he has woken, even if still really tired like you say. In the last week or so (he is now 21 weeks old) he has started waking after 30 minutes in the pram too and will not go back to sleep. Before this used to be the one nap of the day when he could go for up to 1 hour 40 minutes.

There were some useful sugestions from people that replied to the thread I started. It seems though that sometimes whatever we try some babies just can't get past that 30 minute sleep cycle during the day. I try and remind myself that better night time sleep is surely preferable over better day time naps in terms of our own sleep and sanity needs. Of course the perfect world would be to have both

DS got past the half hour sleeps at 13 months LOL I too tried EVERYTHING to get him to extend. But the difference was he woke happy and raring to go.

Yes sleeping in the pushchair is bad habits. It is good if you need to go out. My sisters LO has his naps in the pushchair, and if she ever needs to go out, he's ready and doesn't get disturbed!
It's not something I personally do, but if it works it works. And its amazing how not enough day sleeps mess up the nights sleep.

Mine was the same - always 45 minutes. I just let him sleep 45 minutes in the morning and late afternoon in his cot, and then for the after lunch nap I would either take him out in the pram/sling, hold him for two hours, or feed him back to sleep every time he woke until he'd slept at least 2 hours.

Suddenly at 7 months he started sleeping 2 hours in his cot all on his own. Now he usually has an hour/90 minutes in the morning and 90 minutes/2 hours in the afternoon.

Mine was exactly the same, no more than 30 minutes at a time in the cot. But once he dropped down to one nap per day (at about 12 months) that one is now about 2 hours, so we got there in the end! It wasn't anything I did though - he just grew up I appreciate that it's frustrating though, as you don't get much time to get anything done.