fight or accept the 45 min nap

[hooplahoop]

Apologies if this has been discussed to death, but could really do with some advice about daytime naps. My ds ( 9 weeks) will wake up from him naps on the dot of 45 mins when he's in his cot ( out in the buggy its a bit more mixed)

My first was also like this. They're both good night time sleepers, so not sure whether just to accept, or to try and do anything to extend. The short ones do leave him tired and grumpy

Thanks

I'm not sure you can do much can you? DS2 is 5 months and he is just starting to go for longer, and not every time. I hear him croak after 45 mins, and he goes back to sleep for much longer. Other days its the standard45 mins. If he's going to do it though, it seems to be the morning nap, rather than afternoon. He doesn't have a dummy which probably helps a lot of babies when they start to sleep past one sleep cycle.

I'm not sure what you mean? Why would you want him not to nap for 45 mins? If that is what he needs, why fight him or keep him awake deliberately. He'll only get grumpy if you do.

DD only has 30min naps and has been like this for months (now 7mo). I would be tempted to accept this as normal, but then DD isn't grumpy.

Sounds like my boy. He always used to only nap for 30 mins and would quite happily go all day without a nap sometimes. I have to walk him in the pram to get him to sleep and managed to extend the nap by going on longer walks. Once he'd been napping longer for a few weeks I found I could bring him home soon after he'd fallen asleep and he'd stay asleep.

The other thing you can try is to wait outside their room just before the time they're going to wake up and as soon as you hear the slightest noise go in quickly but quietly and resettle. I've had some success with this for frequent evening waking but we've not totally cracked it yet

HTH

Thanks, I do think things will be happier for all if he has more daytime sleep, just don't want to focus on it too much and not enjoy him If you see what I mean

If he sleeps well at night I'd be tempted to leave well alone. I started really trying to get him to nap to help with nighttimes as well but I'm not entirely convinced it's been worth the effort as he's still terrible at night. I'll be joining the over-one bad sleeper support group in a few weeks!

I'm having the same dilemma and think i've resolved to go with it if he wakes after 45 mins in the morning, but try to re-settle him if he wakes after 45 mins at lunch/ early afternoon. The reason being is partly that he's always shattered by early evening if he doesn't have enough daytime sleep (i think i've learned he currently needs at least 3 hours during the daytime) and partly because that afternoon nap is the last one they drop so it's a good chunk of time i can be doing other things while he sleeps (including hopefully sleeping myself if he's had a bad night). Yesterday i spent 15 to 20 minutes shhhing him back to sleep on the baby monitor and he eventually slept for 2 hours from 12.30pm

At the moment, if he sleeps for longer than 45 mins it's generally the morning nap, but there really is no pattern to it and he's a law unto himself. I find the unpredictability quite difficult sometimes when i'm shattered and just want to get my head down for longer than 20 mins.

same problem here i tried everything to extend his naps and sometimes it worked but mostly it didn't. with all the time and energy i wasted on it i wish i hadn't bothred, now DS is 8 months and more mobile he has started sleeping longer or his own accord but it's still a bit hit and miss!

My 1 yr old has always been a 30/40 min napper and is only just now starting to go longer. But he was a rubbish night time sleeper too so to be honest, if nights are ok then I'd just go with it. I've wasted too much of the last year fretting about it. have had some success with resettling at first murmer of a wake up but does usually take 10-15mins to make sure he's out again, so prob only works if you've not got another DC around.