12 week old - long morning nap

[purpleviolet1]

Hi,

Just checking if this is fairly common. We try and put DS down between 7-8pm and then get him up for a dream feed at 10.30pm. He is usually asleep for 11pm and wakes up around 5am for a feed. I offer him an ounce less at this feed and he goes straight back down. He then wakes around 8am and is up until 9.45-10am ish. He then goes down for a nap. This nap tends to be 2-2.5 hours.

The rest of the day is just sort of go with the flow but my concern is that with the morning nap being so long, we won't want him overtired by the evening. He doesn't always manage to get another long nap in especially if we are out. He's too nosy! He will have at least a short nap of 40 mins somewhere in the afternoon though.

A 6 hour stretch is relatively good for his age, he doesn't seem to be overtired at all. If it's not affecting his night time sleep and I don't honk it is from what you've said, then I wouldn't worry. It's just the routine he's gotten himself into!
If you feel that later on down the line this is affecting night time sleep then i would suggest stretching his awake period but right now he's sleeping perfectly normally for his age :)

Thanks! I read Gina Ford and she suggests a routine where they have 45 mins morning nap, 2 hours lunch time nap and then 15 mins if required around 4pm. However to stick to the above then your pretty restricted in terms of having to be home etc.

Personally, I'd bin Gina Ford and make sure he naps about 90mins after he last woke up throughout the day. He'll get the overtired if naps are not frequent enough and sleep does promote sleep!

Honestly until 4 months, they're still considered newborn and I'm sure the advice is to let them sleep as and when they need to. My DS wasn't in a nap routine until just before 7 months. I thought he'd never get there but they do, in their own time

Tea - that's exactly what he tends to do. He manages about 1.5-2hours and then nods off himself if he isn't being bothered by his silent reflux. Sometimes I get a bit anxious that the naps are too long / too short / too close to bedtime etc , especially after reading Gina Ford and how too much daytime sleep won't let them sleep through the night but I'll just go with his flow! The nights aren't too bad , I'm hoping he will naturally push the 5am wake up to 6am and then 7am... here's dreaming!!!

Thanks for that Becci.

Can I ask when your LO's slept through the night?

The sleep books are really helpful but a newborn won't sleep more than they need so don't worry lovely!

My little lad was 10 or 11 weeks. We had a solid routine, he was bottle fed and he still loves his sleep though so I think we got lucky with how he's wired! Sure he'll make up for it in his toddler years though

My DS is 11 weeks on Monday and I couldn't really tell you what naps he has. I think it's too early to be worrying about a routine and we never even thought about that with DS1 until he was 4-5 months, we just went with the flow and he's still a great napper and sleeper now at nearly 2.

We always tried to limit 'awake' time to 90 minutes though, so nap times would vary depending on when he last woke up. Gradually the awake time extended to 3 hours but that wasn't until he was about 9-10 months old! I am doing the same with DS2 I suppose but being led by him, luckily he has a very specific noise he makes when he's tired to it's easy to tell.

I don't think a baby can sleep too much though (health issues aside obviously). For my DS1 sleep was more important to him than food and still is!

By the way, the notion that too much sleep during the day means they won't sleep at night is nonsense. If anything, for my DS's, it's the reverse.

How would you feel if someone woke you up in the middle of your sleep?!

Bin Gina Ford and let your baby dictate terms. And relax!

Take the GF book outside and burn it. The woman knows nothing.

What sort of hours was that (sorry everyone has different interpretations!)

Also what sort of routine was it?

It was 9-6 and then when he was about 14 weeks it was 9-8. Since he's been around 18 weeks it's been 7-6:30.

We take him for a bath at 7 with Infacare bubble bath and wash. Dry him off in his room that is completely dark with the exception of his nightlight. Then we give him a quick all over baby massage with lotion. Put him in his pj's and he has one more bottle. He goes to bed sleepy but awake and we use Ewan the Dream Sheep and a comforter to help him sleep. We also used to have a projector which helped but he doesn't need it anymore.

DS1 slept through the night (7pm to 7am ish) from about 4 months. No routine other the 90 minute thing. He's not the norm though!

Thanks ladies! Appreciate it!!

By the way, the notion that too much sleep during the day means they won't sleep at night is nonsense. If anything, for my DS's, it's the reverse.

Yep. For babies "sleep breeds sleep".

My baby is 14 weeks and to be honest the only time I try to shorten the nap is if she falls asleep around 7pm as we have a nice routine going at night (asleep by 9/10 wakes around 3/4 and up at 8ish) and if she has too late a nap it throws this out and the current routine works well around my 4 year old. The rest of the time I let her sleep when she wants for how long she wants unless I really really have to do something. X

My DS is now 5 months and normally has 4 naps a day. Not at a strict time but something like:

8:00-9:00
10:45-11:30
1:00-3:00
5:00-5:30

Then bed for about 7. He wakes 2-3 times a night normally, sometimes more, very occasionally less.

My DD slept through at 18 months.

They're all different and unless you have some flexibility for the type of baby you have, it's a battle. Yours is still very young. Make sure he naps regularly throughout the day and you'll be fine!

My DS was exactly the same always had a good morning nap and was less structured in the afternoon, plus if we went out in the afternoon and he slept in his pram he would wake as soon as anyone said hello to me as he was very nosy too and then he would go back off so never a good stretch of sleep. He is 2.5 years old now and stopped any sort of afternoon nap at 11 months, and would just have a good morning sleep of 1/2 hours. A

Thank you all! It's my first baby and so it's all unknown territory. It doesn't sound as if he is doing too bad. X

He's doing fine and so are you! 'Sleeping through the night' means different things to different people and happens at different times for every baby. My DS1 dropped night feeds really early on and was a 'sleep through the night' baby really quickly, things change though and when I went back to work at 11 months he regressed and was up all hours (he's fine now). My only advice is to go with the flow and let them lead things, being flexible and adaptable is sometimes the only was to survive the early years I think. My other bit of advice is to make sleep a priority during the day, it can be tempting to be 'out and about' all the time and sometimes your sanity needs it, but your baby needs good quality sleep and sometimes that means being at home in bed.

Focussing on DS getting plenty sleep during the day was something we definitely did and are doing with DS2. DS1 was a great sleeper and so it definitely did no harm, although that might just be his nature!

Thanks mister