Naps, how long and roughly when...

[bettieblue]

My DS is 12 weeks now and im trying to get into some sort of a pattern of naps. I feed at roughly 7, 10, 1 , 4, 6.30pm. At this age what sort of period should they be awake? Is it 1.5 or 2 hours by now? If im feeding at these times when do you think i should try and put him down for a nap or should I time his wake time for example sometimes he might be awake for before a feed so should i time from then.? How many naps should he have a day, would it be 4 on this feeding routine and how long should they be (or does it not matter as long as he gets 3 hours throughout the day?) I know about looking for sleep cues but sometimes there is a fine line between being tired and over tired and then he just won't settle.

Thanks.

Hi bettie, they're all different, but my DDs at 12 weeks would feed every 3 hours too. We followed a rough Baby Whisperer routine- where it's Eat, Activity, Sleep. So feed at 7, awake for a while then sleep. At 12 weeks they could manage about 1 hour- 1.15mins awake. The key is to watch like a hawk for tired signs, at that age they ought to be in bed by the third yawn IME. I've just let my girls sleep for as long as they sleep for, I try not to wake a sleeping baby!

Hi

An hour awake doesn't seem very long. My DS is often awake before a feed, takes 20 mins plus to finish a bottle which would mean putting him down straight away? Im just finding putting him down very hit and miss and often he won't nap for more than 1/2 hour. He sleeps through the night so maybe I shouldn't be too worried? On the otherhand he has periods in the day hes cranky and clearly tired which is why i wanted more structure to his naps to try and prevent this.

I know it doesn't seem long, but that's all mine could do. Maybe another 15-20 mins. I find the key is to watch them really closely for tired signs.

If they nap for 30mins or so it indicates overtiredness, so perhaps you are putting him down too late.

we roughly follow the baby whisperer 3hr routine too. At 20 weeks my ds can manage about 1.5hrs awake (slowly creeping up to 1.45-2hours). In the early days he would take almost and hour to eat and his whole "activity" time (bar 20mins) would be taken up just eating . I put him down at the first "grizzle" now as yawning/tired signs came too late. If I put him down overtired he will only nap for 20mins and the cycle repeats itself or he'll only manage 45mins before he needs his next nap. If I catch him nice and early then he will sleep for 1.5hrs-ish.

Babies might not look busy but they have a whole lot going on that seems to exhaust them pretty quickly!

Hmm I look forward to reading more replies on this. My DS is 12 weeks too, and often only sleeps for 10 minute bursts, two or three times a day, sometimes managing one longer nap of around 30-40 minutes. He also tends to feed, play, then sleep, being awake for about 2-2.5 hours before starting to grizzle. It usually takes me much longer to get him to go to sleep than he actually spends sleeping!