Napping - who else has short nappers?? What do your 7months old do?

[redandyellowandpinkandgreen]

DS is 7 months and naps about three times a day for about half an hour each time. Maybe 45 minutes if I'm lucky. I keep hearing everyone saying their baby naps for two hours plus and I'm so jealous, half an hour is no time to do anything. Plus he seems constantly tired and I seem to spend most of the day trying to get him to sleep.

How do I help him to sleep longer? He did suddenly start having an hour in the morning and it lasted about three days and then he went back to half an hour. Does anyone know any solutions?

Thank you

Have you tried a sling? My DD only has short naps but if she's in the sling she can nap for up to two hours.

DS3 is 7 months too. He has two or three 25 minute naps a day, which is pretty useless imo. It doesn't really give me enough time to do anything and come on MN!

I has hoped crawling and cruising would tire him out but no sign of that.

I'll watch with interest.

DD did this (she is now 4) and she didn't really get any better with age, sorry. She would nap every 2 hours for 25 minutes, regardless of what she or I did. The only thing that tired her out and made her nap for longer was taking her swimming.

By the time she wanted fewer longer naps (at 18 months +) I didn't want her to have longer naps as then she'd be awake all night. If she slept for more than 30 minutes it would impact her night time sleep.

I took the view that I'd rather she had a short nap in the morning/afternoon and then went to bed at 7 pm and slept for 12 hours solidly, than longer naps, a screeching fight over bedtime, sleep by 10pm and awake when she was still tired at 8am.

This is probably no help at all, sorry. But once I accepted that DD wasn't going to suddenly magically nap for 2 hours each day it did get easier to deal with.
My MIL kept telling me that her two napped together for 2 hours a day so she got everything done around the house then (whilst looking around at my rather scruffy house) and it used to make me so frustrated with the situation. And her!

My DS (7.5 months) has gradually increased the length of his naps from 25 minutes. I found that timing was key, and still is. Yesterday for example I took too long to get him down, so he was awake for 3 hours, and I got 25 minutes.

At the moment he goes roughly 2.5 hours between naps, and he will nap for between 1hr 20 mins and 2 hours each time.

Have found the only way 5mo dd will nap for more than 30 mins is in her cot in her own room. Great for getting stuff done, but bad as we can't leave the house!

DD is nearly 8 moths and has just dropped the 3rd nap so is having one short and one longer nap a day. One is usually still 45 mins and one is usually 1-1.5 hours. She still swaps around which one will be longer though. The entire winter she would not sleep at home so I was out walking in all weathers, no the weather has warmed up she only has nice long sleeps at home . I think it was just the right time developmentally but I did work on keeping her up a bit longer 2hrs ish rather than 1.5. I also just happened to be out and about late afternoon for a couple of days so she missed her last nap.

I have the same problem with my DD, she sleeps well at night but only naps for about 20 minutes to half an hour at home. She naps well when we're out either in her pram or car seat. We've started leaving her in her pram/car seat when we get home and she does sleep for much longer. Sometimes I just take her for a short walk in her pram to get her to sleep, bring her home then leave her to sleep in her pram at home before taking her out.

hi, my daughter was the same - I got longer naps out of her by using a Snooze Shade on the pram, I'd take her for a walk, pop it on and she'd usually nod off ok - if I got home early I'd leave her with it on in the hallway - used it on her til last year when she was about 2 and didn't like being covered any more.. hope that helps..

40-45 minutes dead for mine.

Just been reading "The No-Cry Nap Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley and it advises actually this is just a mid point in a baby's sleep cycle and that with management, DC can just turn over and go back to sleep.
Going to try to implement her techniques and see what happens!

like scuba's dd, dd2 will only nap for longer than 20mins in her cot. which is a right pain. dd1 was the other way round, napping well in the buggy but not at home, and i much preferred that.

some dc do need much less sleep though. dd2 dropped her third nap at about 12 weeks, and now has about an hour both am and pm, which seems about right for her. when she was younger, stretching the intervals between naps led to overtiredness, and short naps. however now she's 8mo, the reverse is true, and she needs a good 3 hours between naps otherwise she wakes after 30mins.

Thanks all. I've not been able to get him to nap in the sling since he was tiny, I can't work out where his head would go? He's quite long and I'm quite short so it all gets a bit uncomfortable.

I have a snooze shade thing on my wishlist on Amazon so I might have to look in to getting one.

I put him down for his first nap about two hours after he wakes up as he seems tired, does anyone have more success leaving it a bit longer? I wonder if that's the answer.

Nice to hear that I am not alone - my girl ( 10 wks ) will only nap in her pram - "stationary" naps are rarely longer than 20 mins. She does not like ( and never liked ) slings or baby carriers and detested swaddling.

My DD is 13 months old & is terrible regarding napping!!
If I am lucky she will have 2 naps day- each if them lasting 20-30 minutes.
She gets really grizzly before she naps & has started2 wake up like it after a nap
Night times are bit iffy- have 2 rock her 2 sleep.
Have tried leaving her, but I couldn't cope with the screaming & she looked like she was hyperventilating as she got in such a state!!
But she does sleep good 10hrs- just getting her 2 sleep is the problem