Daytime napping schedule for a 14 week old?

[Qferrymum1]

Hi, DD is 14 weeks old and I am a little concerned about her daytime napping schedule (or lack of). In a typical day she wakes between 7 and 8 (having normally woken for a feed between 5-6), then after an hour goes back down for an hour long nap an hour later (at which point she is definitely ready for a nap...yawning etc, goes to sleep easily). During the day she then mostly catnaps, usually 2-3 times for no longer than half an hour. These naps mostly happen in the pram/car seat etc as that is when I am out and about. She then has a lat afternoon nap around 5ish (which she def really needs as she just looks exhausted at that point), before going to bed between 7 and 8.

This seems to be working well for us in that her nighttime sleep is reasonable- other than us waking her for a sleepy feed at 10.30, she often then goes through until 5 or even later. And she is generally a happy enough baby during the day.

But recently I have been reading about daytime napping and it seems everyone and his mother says she should be having her first nap no earlier than 2 hours after waking, then a 1-2 hour solid nap over lunchtime, and that she most likely doesn't need a late afternoon nap.

So my question is does it matter that she really doesn't match this schedule...in particular the timing of the morning nap,and the disrupted nature of the lunchtime 'nap'. Should I work on getting her to 'schedule' or just trust that things will work out as she grows?? Don't want to be causing problems for her further down the line by not thinking about this now....

Any thoughts gratefully received!

whatever works for you and her is best. mine didn't drop to 2 naps until much later than 14 weeks

Agree. The napping pattern you describe with no late afternoon nap is more typical of a 6 month+ baby (some keep the AN til 9 months).

My dd is 15 weeks (12 adjusted) & can also only manage between 1-1.5hrs awake time max before she is overtired.

We also have short catnaps - its a developmental thing - it takes time for them to learn how to resettle at the end of each sleep cycle (typically 45 mins). You can help with this by being poised ready to reinsert the dummy/stop her jolting awake as she stirs, or by trying 'wake to sleep', but it doesn't always work. Or you can wait for it to happen naturally. hth

Hi OP

My DS is 16 weeks today and our daytime schedule sounds a lot like yours. He can't manage 2 hours awake time certinly not "up" anyway. Sometimes he might be awake for 2 hours but his maximum "up" time is one hour 40 min before I put him in the cot. He gets up anywhere between 6.30 - 7.30 (usually about 7am ish) and is ready for a nap about one hour 15/one hour 20 later.

Occasionally we get a nap longer than 45 minutes but not frequently. I also try to get him to have a catnap between 5 - 6 as I find he has more energy for the bedtim routine & thus feeds better & so sleeps longer.

Weirdly I am writng this at 1.07pm and DS has been asleep since 10.50am, with a 15-20 min wake/resettle at 11.35am. Unheard of.