45 minute naps- remind me what I can do!

[slightlyconfused85]

I should know- I've had a baby before but it's driving me mad! I have 11 week old Ds - since about 6 weeks his day naps have been 45 minutes. He settles himself so it's not that, he eats well so he's not hungry, he wakes up after. 45 mins and is totally ratty because he's still tired! Any tips on how to extend this? It's only when he sleeps in the cot, if we are out in the car or pushchair he snoozes longer. Not the end of the world of course but I've got a 3 year old so can't spend hours patting him etc

White noise was always good when DD was brand new! YouTube have some good washing machine/Hoover/heartbeat sounds.

We also have a bouncer chair that literally saved my sanity when she was tiny - it had a built in vibration setting which we called her 'off switch'. Instant sleep! Although I have to say she rarely slept more than an hour at a time during the day at any stage.

The one way she would do a good 2+ hours was if I took her out in her baby bjorn sling. I used to get anxious about her sleeping through feeds!

I did it by going in at 35-40 minutes, picking him up and cosleeping for the next bit. I did it for all naps for a week and it got him in the habit of sleeping for longer and he did it on his own.

DS2 drove me NUTS with 45 min naps. I tried

White noise
Dark room
Wake to sleep (going in 35 mins before he woke and waking slightly to reset sleep cycle)
Extending awake time
Reducing awake time
Leaving for 10 mins to see if he would resettle

Nothing worked! In the end I decided to embrace it and just put him down for more naps to avoid overtiredness. On the plus side i could plan my day around the naps as I was guaranteed each one would be 45 mins. Once he got to 6 months (ish) naps started to gradually lengthen on their own. He is an amazing napper now!

DD is 17 weeks and is following exactly same pattern. Grr! Only thing I've done different this time is to put her down for a much earlier bedtime (around 6/6.30) to compensate for less day sleep. Night sleep is more restorative so I've found EBT helps to reduce overtiredness during the day.

Thanks all. I've tried everything except co-sleeping the next bit: older dd doesn't allow me time for this - and wake to sleep. The latter has always made me very nervous but worth a try! Dd definitely did this too but I had lots of spare time to try and sort it out!!

I just went with it. Made sure they had 4 or 5 naps a day so they weren't tired. Some were in the sling, when around the house even. It wasn't until 8-10 months that they suddenly started breaking through the 40 mins and doing an hour or two.

Mine didn't usually sleep more than 45mins ish at a time. It's not that unuusal is it?

I'm not suggesting it's unusual, it's just that my ds is still yawning and crying when he wakes which makes for a grumpy baby- just wondering if there are any techniques that have helped people to help their babies with this.

Google a technique called "Wake to Sleep". It worked brilliantly for us & saved my sanity

That day where you ask for help and your baby naps for 3 hours...I wish I knew why!

Typical! Could you relax & enjoy it or were you pacing & on edge?

I would have enjoyed it but DD decided to spend most of that time having a colossal tantrum because I would not let her draw on the cream carpet with a biro....he went back to the 45 minute ones today it was short lived!!

I used to put DS to sleep into his pushchair. It went virtually flat so he just napped there. He didn't like being in a room on his own and was much more settled when around a bit of noise and the family.

As he sleeps for longer in his pushchair that might be worth a try