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Short naps & 4/5am wake ups @ 5 months

2 replies

Farrah87 · 17/08/2017 07:14

Hi all, I'm looking for some advice please Smile my DS is only just 5 months old and has a nap issue. He very rarely naps longer than 30 minutes, 4 times a day. Ive stopped rocking him to sleep for his naps and he's getting better at self settling but it still takes him about 15-20 mins, (rather than 20-40) putting his dummy back in and some shhhh-ing. He nearly always seems tired when he wakes up so I try to encourage him to go back to sleep. He never does Confused.

He's awake 1.5-2 hours between naps and goes to bed between 7.30-8pm after being awake for 2.5-3 hours. He then wakes up in the morning at about 5 (sometimes as early as 4). He sometimes wakes for a bottle at about 2am - I tried to night wean but he would just lie awake for 2 hours no matter what I tried Shock. Sometimes he just wakes briefly for his dummy.

Majority of his sleep is in his crib in my bedroom, but occasionally he'll sleep in his pram if we're out - if I'm moving he will always sleep longer than 30mins! We used to have his first nap together on the sofa and he'd always sleep longer then too but I've stopped that to try and encourage him to self settle - but I do miss the bonding Sad

I know in the grand scheme of things it could be a lot worse but it bothers me that he seems tired a lot, exhausted coming up to bed time! Very grizzly. his total 10-12 hours sleep maybe isn't enough 🤔 But I'm not sure how to help him increase it! Do I need to...? Thank you in advance ❤️

OP posts:
Fitzsimmons · 17/08/2017 07:18

He sounds like my DD who would only nap in short bursts. She dropped most of her naps quite early and now only has one hour each day. Could you drop one of the naps to see if that would help? Four naps a day at 5 months seems a lot to me.

FATEdestiny · 17/08/2017 08:42

Babies usually need extra help to get to sleep in the daytime compared to night time. I added movement in, since it helped extend naps. But fudfling could do much the same.

How about cosleeping for naps on your bed? If you have a sidecar cot, you could have these cosleeping naps but with baby in the cot.

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