having one's cake and eating it? or naps vs night time sleep

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

dd2 is 5mo. her night time sleep has been slowly getting better. she is mostly waking once nightly now, and has even slept through twice.

however, since she has improved at night, her naps have gone to pot. she is now having just 3x 30mins, and spending most of the day miserable as a result. is the crappy napping the price we pay for better night time sleep? or is it possible to have both in a baby so young?

I don't know charlotte but if you had to choose.... I would say, go with the night sleep. IME with first DD, those day naps do eventually get longer, and not to the detriment of daytime sleep. With her, they started lengthening around 9 months. Didn't know what to do with myself, all that spare time. I suddenly got why other parents (with babies who'd always napped well) seemed to find things a lot easier than I did!

narmada, you're right, if i had to choose, i would stick as we are! it's just a shame that she's such a grumpy sod girl at the moment. but at least i can now stay up later than 8pm without nearly collapsing the next day .

Oh I am so with you on this one. My DS is 6 months old and just like your DD, he sleeps pretty well at night most of the time but only does 3x 30 minute naps during the day. He SOOO needs more than this as he too is really grumpy due to tiredness

Getting better sleep at night has got to be the best option though don't you think? It doesn't always feel like it when you are trying to entertain a really grouchy baby i know

I am just living for the time when he decides to sleep longer during the day. At the moment our days feel ruled by his naps or lack of them

by the way, narmada - how is your DS? is the reflux any better?

ella - sorry you're in the same boat. at least the crappy napping is slightly liberating in some ways. when dd2 napped for an hour a couple of times a day i would stay at home both to ensure he got the nap, and to avoid catnapping in the car. now she's stopped taking proper naps, i just think "sod it" and get out. she grabs what she can in the car/buggy. she does get bloody grumpy when we're out though, so it's a good job i have quite a thick skin re the old biddies dears judging .

Ah thanks charlotte for remembering. We are just coming through a very dark patch of trying to move him onto a hypo formula - didn't go well at all and meant he stopped feeding very much. Reflux not too bad but sleep pretty awful, just constantly wriggling and writhing in our arms, very very difficult to settle him. We don't really know what to do with him any more.

There is definitely a plus side to them not napping. I sometimes find even DD1's lunchtime nap a bit of a tie, even though I like the relative downtime.