Nap regression?

[showtunesgirl]

Now I know there's a four month sleep regression but can this just be naps?

4 m/o DD has basically all but stopped nappping the last few days but will still go down at bedtime with about three or four wakings for BM.

Any experiences to share?

Its quite common for naps to shorten at this age but its very unlikely they would stop completely. However at this age they are getting so much more alert & can handle staying awake a bit longer before needing to nap, so it might be she just needs a routine tweak. Can you post her daytime routine (before things went wonky) so I can see when she usually wakes, naps (& how long for) & what time she goes to bed?

Well it's roughly:

8am up
10am nap. Which can be about an hour or maybe only 20 minutes.
12/1 - nap for about half an hour or more if the 10am one was short.
3pm - nap - sometimes for two hours if I'm out and about.
8pm bed.

I couldn't begin to say when she feeds though as she's BF on demand.

Today she napped for about 20 minutes at 9.45. Then about another 20 minutes at 12.30 and then another 20 minutes at 2pm. Then another 20 minutes at 5.30. So quite a bit shorter and she was rather grumpy and harder to get to bed tonight.

IMO, her naps (pre-wonkiness) are a bit out of kilter. The long 3pm would ideally be happening after lunch with the 3pm one being half an hour or so (and possibly starting later at about 5pm if she's not going down to bed until 8pm), as the last nap of the day is usually the one which is dropped first (or it starts affecting settling at bedtime as they get more used to being awake for longer). I would try and swap these around if you can.

Do the feeds coincide with her going down to sleep? Some babies only catnap because they are hungry and if you're feeding on demand, it may be that the feed/sleep synching is a little out.

The long-term effect of catnapping for 20 mins here and there is that she will start to become overtired as time goes on and get very cranky before bed, possibly waking more in the night than before.

I have read this before but HOW do you make them swap the naps around?

As it stands, she got up today at 0730, napped for an hour from 0900-1000, an hour at 1pm and then a half an hour nap which ended at 1630 and we have just put her to bed now. So all in all, pretty good today!

The feeds don't coincide with her going to sleep.

This seems like such a common problem today! Or it might just be that I'm watching threads for ideas - will watch with interest on how to sort out 4 month old's naps!

Good luck!

I think your day today was pretty good. The only thing I'd perhaps change is to push the morning nap slightly later (so she's awake a wee bit more than 1.5hrs) & make the gap between the morning & lunchtime nap shorter, more like 2-2.5hrs max & you might find she sleeps longer at that nap. You want a good 2hr nap here to help her last through the day.

At that age my LO could handle being awake for about 1.75-2hrs. So his routine was something like:

Wake: 7am
Nap: 9-10
Nap: 12-2
CN: 4.30-5.00
BT: 7pm

Then as he got towards 6 months his naps moved a little later & we were able to drop the teatime catnap.

HTH.x

Ok right, I can try to keep her up a bit longer but how do you make them go to sleep if they don't want to?

You can't! What makes you ask that? Is she resisting her morning nap? Or are you talking about the afternoon nap i.e. how can you put her down earlier if she's not ready?

Sometimes, little ones can fight going down for a nap when they aren't tired enough, but they can also fight going down when they are overtired. The only reason I suggested closing the gap between your morning & lunchtime nap a tad is that taking a 1hr nap was usually a sign of overtiredness for us, so a shorter time awake before that nap might actually give you a longer nap. If you push the morning nap out very gently by 5mins at a time, but try keeping the lunchtime nap at the same time, then you might find her lunchtime nap gets longer.

No, she's not resisting her morning nap.

However, how on earth do you put them down at exactly the same time every day if you're out and about?

I guess it depends on whether you plan your day around their naps or vice versa. Some babies sleep best in their cots so in that case, a lot of mums would choose to be at home for their sleeps.

My daughter always had a long sleep just after lunch when 9 times out of 10 we were at home anyway. The odd time we were out, she just nodded off in her pram. The other naps (morning and afternoon) were shorter so easier to take when you're out.

We would always make sure we were home for naps, once he got to a certain age, b/c he got so alert he wouldn't sleep in the pushchair anymore. But at that age we did go out a bit more.

I would probably aim to have the longest nap (after lunch) at home & then the other naps can be taken while out & about. Perhaps if you could devote a week or so with ALL naps at home to get the routine established, then you might find she will still take her naps while you are out b/c she will be used to sleeping at those times of day & her bodyclock will kick in & zzzzzzzzzz!

I don't drive so it wouldn't really be possible for me to just nip home for all her naps. If I did that, as soon as I got somewhere, I'd have to turn around and head home again! I've also found that if I don't go out at least once a day and am at home with me and just DD, I can get very depressed. The hardest thing I've found with motherhood is the loneliness as I'm quite a sociable person.

However, lo and behold, DD's naps made a firm reappearance yesterday. And after about two hours of wakefullness she's going down immediately. Babies, they sure do keep you guessing!