please help me to get my 13 week old to sleep for longer than 45 mins for naps

[StarMeKitten]

DD2 is a catnapper and I can't seem to get out of it. She will only sleep 45 mins regardless of whether she is in buggy, cot or laid on me. If she is laid on me I have to jig her a bit after 45 mins to get her to do a longer stretch.

Ideally I want her sleeping in her cot though as I have 3yo DD1 to look after too. DD1 was swaddled so naps were better with her, but I haven't done this with DD2 as its been very hot weather.

I've been trying shush pat which has mixed results, usually works better on a night, but sometimes nights are a nightmare too!

Please help..

Sorry to say, but I think 45mins isn't bad at this age. It's a full sleep cycle... I assume she still has 3,4,5 naps a day?
DS didn't do longer than 45 mins til he dropped to two naps. Looking at my diary this happened at 34/35 weeks, and I dropped his midday nap deliberately to encourage a longer pm nap (it worked).

She has lots of naps yes but I feel like I am constantly trying to settle her to sleep as she is only having 45 mins shes tired again shortly after she wakes up. Just seem to remember things being easier with DD1 but I guess that must've been the magic swaddle.

Thanks for the response :-)

My DD is a catnapper too; 30-45 mins per nap most of the time. She's 20 weeks now and has 3-4 a day.

I've ended up using buggy for all her naps as she goes off quickly enough just rolling her up and down the kitchen.

Trying to settle her in cot takes that little bit too long and, like you, I had felt I was spending my whole day putting her down for naps.

At least now the now getting her off to sleep is quick. I just have to frantically make tea and mumsnet fly around the place cleaning in the short time I get while she's down!

DC2 is 9 months now and has never slept longer than 30 minutes in the day. It's really annoying, she also seems to be a very light sleeper, which isn't ideal with an older sibling rampaging around.

No advice - I feel your pain!

Thank you both. Whist its some consolation that there are other people in the same boat, I wish someone had the magic cure!

Do you feel that catnapping affects their nighttime sleep though? Shes not TOO bad at night but I get the feeling she would sleep much better if I sorted her naps out, which is why im so keen to do it.

Some kids do just have short little naps. Does she fall asleep ok? Does she wake up refreshed & smiley? If yes to both then don't worry.

As long as baby sleeps a decent chunk at night I would just go with the flow. 3 months is so tiny still.

My DD only ever did 30 min naps (several thru the day) but slept well through the night. It was only when she got to 18m she did an hour, consistently!

An hour nap. She slept 6-8 hrs thru the night

Thanks Blondieminx. That's the problem, she does not settle well. She is really difficult to get to sleep. If the miss the sleep window by a minute she gets hysterical and I have a 3 year old to look after too. That's why I wanted to know if anyone had any tips. I suspect she is going to sleep overtired which I why she only sleeps for 45 minutes but can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

I truly don't think you're doing anything wrong, StarMeKitten. DS was very similar, desperately needed sleep but fought it every time. It took us a while to get there but he's a very good sleeper now. What helped a little I guess was being very consistent with nap times and putting him in the sling at at the very first eye rub (his only tired sign). He napped in the sling pretty much until he was in his own room at 6m.

I know this sounds stupid but DD was exactly like this and someone said to me 'you're not going straight in to get her after 45 minutes are you? She'll be asleep again in 5 minutes if you leave her!'

I know this won't be the case for all babies but it was like magic. 5 minutes of gurgling then back to sleep. I couldn't believe it.

Of course if she started screaming I realised that was it!

I have a 6 month old catnapper he's been like this as far back as I can remember. He's naps in his cot and goes down awake for each nap and STILL only sleeps 40ish minutes per nap. The last 3 weeks he's started pulling the odd long nap of an hour and half but I've done nothing differently.
I think it's just a developmental thing and even if you avoid the 'bad habits' its no miracle cure.
I live in hope that in the next few months he will do more and more long naps

I am going through the same with a 12 wk old but am having some success sometimes by leaving him to resettle. Apparently if they don't resettle after 20mins you may as well get them up but assuming they are tired enough they may just go back to sleep. Something that has worked is making sure ds is tired enough. I have stretched his awake time to 1.45 and for afternoon naps at least this seems to ensure he is tired eneough for a proper sleep rather than short catnap. Like I said it's not consistent yet but when he sleeps for two hours with only a few whinges I feel there is light at the end of the tunnel! Good luck!

Thanks all. I'm gonna try not going in straight away next time she sleeps in her cot and see if she resettles. Having said that I haven't managed to get her to sleep in her cot yet today (only on me or in the pram)! :-S
But might have to resign myself that's shes gonna be a catnapper for a bit longer!

I have no advice but have a similar situation with my 15 week old DD! She goes to sleep fine, then sleeps for 35-45 minutes before waking upset.

She obviously needs more sleep, because when I pick her up she falls back to sleep easily. However, as soon as I put her back in her cot her eyes spring open!

She did used to nap for 1 1/2- 2 hours but recently it's been all catnaps. Drives me mad! And I don't want her to get into the habit of sleeping on me but this seems to be the only way to extend her naps.

My DS was like this. Nothing I did would make him sleep longer. His night sleep was awful too - he would sleep for three hours and then wake up hourly for the rest of the night.

At 6 months his sleep patterns started changing. He would randomly sleep for over an hour during the day on some days. He started doing that more and more often and by 7 months he had 1-2h nap nearly every day. The other nap was often still 30-45 min one. So I guess it did coincide with dropping to 2 naps. His night sleep improved massively too and he started sleeping through at 9 months. But there was gradual improvement before that.

Now at nearly 10 months he still sleeps through but wakes up at 4-5 am for the day! But that's another story!

Hang in there, it will get easier

Same as Schmoop - my 6 month old has literally in the last 2-3 weeks started pulling the odd hour/hour and a half nap. We're sort of dropping down to two naps, that's the only thing done differently. Down awake etc...

It's frustrating but normal, sorry.

agree this is totally normal and a developmental thing. YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING WRONG so chuck that unhealthy thought out the WINDOW RIGHT NOW.

.

Some babies just dont do longer naps till they're much older. DS was the same, he started doing a longer nap in the afternoon around 7mo when he was (a) fully weaned and full of lunch and (b) sitting/crawling and therefore much more tired.

he also was overtired and unhappy as a result of his catnaps and to be honest with you the first 6 months were a real slog. And he was DC1. He would scram with voertiredness and I had to fight to get him to sleep at all.

It all got better around 6mo and then loads better again around 12mo when he dropped down to one nap per day after lunch. He now freuently naps for 2 hours after lunch with is bloody blissful for me!! hang in there. It's not your job to FIX this. it's your job to survive it.

BotBotticelli speaks very wise words!!

Thank you all. Really good to hear your experiences and really good advice/support! This is why I love mumsnet :-D