4month old will only sleep for 30mins a time

[Angela1982]

Hi can anyone help? My DD is 4 months old and although I have cracked the night tine sleeping (8pm-7am for now anyway!!) she will only sleep for 30 mins at a time during the day and is then still tired. I seem to spend nearly all day going up and down to her cot as she sleeps 1/2 hour awake less than an hour and screams blue murder as she is tired again, I take her back to her cot and she falls asleep again (takes anywhere between 5 and 25 minutes) and half an hour later she is awake again but still tired. I seem to do this about 3 times each morning and 3-4 times in the afternoon just to get to have a reasonable sleep. If I let her sleep on me she will sleep for an hour and is really happy after and I am close to giving in again but really don't want to as feel that that would be a backwards step. Any one got any ideas?!?!?

Just wondering if she is actually tired??? to be sleeping 11 hours a night a 4 months is very impressive - my 2nd child was the same and from 12 weeks old only ever slept for 1/2 hour during the day in total - maybe she just wanting to be played with and entertained, tough i know cause time to yourself during the day is fab but sleeping ALL night is better.

My DD was/is a rubbish napper. We did get good nights out of her, so I let her mess around with her naps. Until the summer when, for some reason, we lost the nights. So, at crisis point, I worked on the naps. She was down to two naps at that point. I picked two times (9am and 1.30pm for us) and decided she would nap then for 90 mins. We did a wind down 30 mins before. A mini-bedtime of grobag and stories and then into bed. When she woke after 30 mins (!), I took her to bed with me. She would then sleep for another hour and wake up happy rather than howling.

Some days she did longer on her own. Some days she slept with me for the whole nap. As long as she woke up happy I didn't mind. If she woke up grumpy it was back to bed for her.

I gave in. But I had a much happier baby for it. She's now down to one nap from about 11.30am-1pm. Because she's just dropped her second she'd finding it hard going to get to 11.30am without getting exhausted. So, we're back to 35 mins on her own and then resettled by me. But she'll go back to sleep relatively quickly on my chest and then I can put her down and she will now stay asleep.

Day naps have been awful for us and you have my sympathy. I wish I had sorted them out before she was 7 months old.

Angela I posted almostly exactly the same thread a couple of days ago! My dd is 4 months too and only sleeps for 30mins at a time during the day.
I got some useful replies, look for my post under the sleep section (think it was called "catnapping baby" or something like that)

My DS nearly always has a 30 mins nap and hardly any more. He is now 10mo and still is the same.
There are occassions when he'll surprise me and sleep for an hour (or like you, he'll sleep longer on me).

Sorry this isnt much like advise - but your not alone

If this is your only baby at home I would just lie with her and have a rest myself

After the first few weeks, mine never slept more than once during the day for 30 minutes during their first year

Hi there my son is just over 6 months and is exactly the same he NEVER sleeps for more than 30mins twice a day but does sleep at night to- sorry for having no tips but your not alone!!!!

angela if she is up at 7 when does she next fall asleep? iwould guess around 9 or so?
i wouldnt spend that time (5 to 25mins) with her for her to fall asleep again, let her sit in her chair and watch oyu busy about, and when does she last nap before her bedtime of 8pm?

My first was like this (tho' she also slept badly at night!|). My solution - wear a sling so she can sleep and you can do things at the same time.

Going out is really good too (either with pram or sling), they always seem to sleep outdoors. You can always nip home if she falls asleep and leave her in the pram/sling).

My second (12 weeks) is a really good day and night sleeper, it's just pure luck either way

Wind is often a cause of waking after 20-30 mins so you cd look at that too.

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my ds was exactly like this (minus the fantastic nights tho ! he now naps well but he learned it himself over time. (he is 24 weeks now). he doesnt nap in his cot - EVER - i really wish he would. but naps fantastically in his buggy at home or on the move. could you take lo out at naptime till she gets used to longer naps, then try the cot again? maybe that is steps backwards but it may help, you never know...

Mellin, thanks for the link to your question. I think I will try the shhh technique too. To every one who thinks I should just let her sleep on me, although she is my only child as well as running a house I am also studying to become a teacher as I have found out that I am going to be made redundant.

with regards to maybe she isn't tired, I have tried letting her play, sitting her in her chair, having a cuddle and she still screams and rubs her eyes.

Thanks for all your comments though

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angela- I never used a sling. I thought that once he had got used to not having a sling it would be going backwards to start to use one. My objective (as I am sure yours is) was to have him sleep independent of me and not to create even more sleep crutches iyswim. the lack of naps thing becamse such an issue for me that I got quite down about it. I wasn't having any me time or time for my dd. it did get better. we still have crap days where he naps badly but there are in the minority. Motion was the answer for me . hth

Hmm .. am going through similar with my 14 week old DS. The days when he naps for only 30 minutes at a time are usually spent with him being crotchety while awake, and a nightmare to settle in the evening (crying from about 6-7pm.) He currently wakes (on a good night) twice - at 1am ish and 5 am ish, going down at 7pm.

So I am working on extending his lunchtime nap. When he wakes after 30-40 minutes, I give him a small comfort feed, without drawing the curtains, and today at least he has gone off to sleep again.

I'm not so bothered about the other 2 naps (8.30ish and 4ish). I'd just like to crack this one. Perhaps choose one nap per day to extend like this and let your DD catnap the rest of the time? Sorry not to have better advice, but we are working on this too! Glad we're not alone.

I haven't tried it myself but came across something in the CLB book (she who must not be named...) which suggests trying to form a habit of longer sleeps by doing whatever it takes to get a long nap - out in the car, buggy, in the bed with you etc for about 10 days. The theory is that after this time their sleep cycles will adapt to do it naturally ... that's the theory anyway! Good luck x

yes personally i would "walk the streets" with her in a buggy at the times you think she needs to sleep. at least that way you will get her into a pattern.
then you can try having some of those naps in a cot.

lucky you having 8-7 though

to reiterate - napping anywhere is better than napping nowhere. Hence why my ds still naps only in his cot at 24 weeks