14 week old naps

[strawberrychewits]

Hello,

My dd has been sleeping through the night from 6 weeks. We put her down at 7.30pm, wake her at 10.30pm for a dream feed and she will sleep until 7am. She is also very happy and content in the evenings so never seems over tired.

However I have never used formal naps, just let her sleep on me during the day at random times. Now that she is 3months old I think I should be trying to get her to nap in her cot. A couple of times I have noticed her cues and put her down with out effort for 30mins but that has only ever happened once in a day.

I have no idea where to start so here are my main questions.

1. Does she actually need formal naps if she is happy and sleeping through? Should I just put her in her cot if I think she is ready at random times and if she screams give up?
2. Conflicting advice - should I be aiming for 3 naps a day OR should I be aiming for her to only be awake for 1hr and 45mins at a time. Loads of websites give both of these instructions but the maths doesn't add up! She would be have way more than 3 naps if I went by awake time.
3. I use shh and pat but it can take 15mins of screaming and crying for this to work, is this normal and will it reduce with practice?

Thanks very much in advance!

The little one I nanny for is us ally ready for a nap 1hr 40/2 hours after getting up and if placed in the cot/pram will nap for anything between 25 minutes and 3 hours - no real routine to it. We go by wake up times. So the other day it was

730 wake up
8.30 feed
920 nap until 12
1215 feed
120 nap until 2.15
330 feed
5 nap until 5.30
630 feed
7 bed

Sometimes it's
730 wake
745 feed
9 nap until 9.40
1030 feed
1115 nap until 2
2 feed
3 45 nap until 4.30
5 feed
6 bed

My ds is also 14 weeks although he's not quite as good at night!
He naps in his cot for anything between 45mins and 2.5 hours and I try to put him down no later than 2 hours after last nap. Many days this goes to pieces and he just naps whenever, wherever as he is number 2 and gets dragged about a bit. I wouldn't worry as long as you're happy- if you can encourage naps in the cot it's no bad thing but she'll get there

Thanks very much for your replies. I understand the maths now, it's because I was basing it on 30min naps not 3hours! I will try to keep an eye on awake times and see how we go tomorrow.
Thanks again