Day time sleep

[SydneyB]

DD is 4 months, is beginning to sleep really well at night - i.e 7 to 7 with 1 or 2 wakeups but still can't stay awake from more than an hour tops during the day. She'll only nap for 40 mins which means it feels like I spend the whole day putting her down for naps - sometimes 5 a day. I'd thought that by this point she'd be able to extend her awake time longer but the most she can ever stay awake without getting grizzly and cranky is 1.5 hours and this is on a GOOD day. A lot of time its only 45 mins! Does anyone else have similar babies?

My LO napped in his crib today for the first time ever, and I thought this might help him sleep longer (he sleeps fine in it at night, touch wood) - thought he might wake in his pram or bouncer chair because he's uncomfortable or hot. But it made no difference - after exactly 30 mins in the crib, got the full-on wah treatment. So today he has had just 3 x 30min naps so far, and is resisting even being cuddled to sleep after a feed. It's not so much that I mind not having the time to myself, but he is SO much cheerier after a good nap.

I am supposed to be going to a lunch at my work on Thurs with colleagues from US office... I am already planning an excuse. My boss said 'just push the pram into the restaurant and she can sleep there'. Uh no. Re breakdowns - find that DD lasts much longer if just put in her bouncer chair with some toys and just left to watch me pottering around the house/cooking etc rather than having things actively dangled at her IYSWIM. MIL came round the other day and pounced on her with a rattle and she screamed. Quite satisfyingly!

Oh and DD went down for nap at 1506 exactly... I think I have 5 mins left on MN.

Awake! Is 31 mins progress...?

LOL

at least you can joke about it!

Sydney- My DD sleeps OK at night. She's still waking once or twice for milk, but settles easily afterwards. She wakes horrendously early between 5 and 6, but she also goes to bed very early in the evening at 6. Have tried making her bedtime later, but she still wakes early. Know what you mean about posting on MN and then the situation changing. DD had two 1.5 hour naps this week - unheard of!

Too true... DS confounded expectations by suddenly napping from 4-6pm today. Still, it was on my lap so I was able to pat and shush him back to sleep every time he woke up. But I don't think two-hour stints on the sofa is a long-term solution.

Elsy, wow on the nap front! Did she just stay asleep in her cot??? What I want to know is how does DD know it is a nap rather than bedtime? She goes to bed at 7 and stays down until at least 2/3 so how does she know to only nap for 30 mins in the day?? Perhaps I shld give her a bath before every nap..

So, I just tried to extend one of DD's naps.. I fed her right before I put her down, she woke after 31 mins, I went back in and shusshed her etc, left, she then grumbled for 5 mins, I went back in and calmed her down, she then screamed for 8 and just when I was at breaking point, she stopped, then was quiet for 10 mins, screamed for 4 and now has gone back to sleep. So, it has taken me an hour to get her to go back to sleep and she'll probably only sleep for 31 mins. And now I can't even enjoy this bit of peace as am wracked by guilt. Sigh.

Sydney, I don't know why they resist sleep so much when they're obviously tired! I managed to get DS to have a two-hour nap earlier today by pushing the pram round the streets for an hour - when we got home he slept another hour until the phone rang and woke him up. An hour later he was yawning and ready to go back to sleep.

But it's not always possible to go out and keep walking for an hour - and if the sun comes out and his pram gets too hot, he wakes up crying anyway. So right now he is having another catnap in his bouncy chair - these last 30mins exactly.

Still, at least today he will have had 3hrs of sleep so far... yesterday he had barely two hours all day. Thank god he sleeps OK at night (touch wood) although he did take aaages to settle last night, I wonder if the lack of naps was to blame.

Megbusset, its SO frustrating isn't it?? Well DD managed to go another 45 mins so had 2 and 1/4 hr nap with an hour awake in the middle.. BUT then this pm she stayed awake for 3 hours which is an all time record (with cheat 5 min nap on boob halfway through) and has now gone back down for eve nap before bath/bed. I am going to persevere with lunchtime nap thing I think as we had a really lovely pm together and I just think its got to be better for her than all these 30 min catnaps. I am firm believer in sleep begetting sleep and I'm sure you're right that they sleep better at night after good naps in the day. DD just went down instantly after record 3 hours awake too. I keep looking at her all snug in her grobag in her cot so enviously - man if I was in there I'd have a 12 hr nap with no complaints!

Had to post minor nap revelation! Decided today to try and space out DD's feeds to 3 hourly rather than 2 to see what happened as wanted to see if that would work so I could leave her for longer. Well, she didn't protest at all and upshot of this is that she spontaneously took a 2 hr nap this pm with absolutely no help by me to prolong it! Is this the answer or just a fluke? Time will tell...

I wouldn't worry about your little one sleeping a lot, she's still very young - make the most of it. GS was exactly the same and seemed to sleep most of the time until he was about 2 1/2, then he suddenly switched to all night (6 until 7.30ish) plus 3 hours in the afternoon ... everyday without fail. This time last year he more or less just stopped napping in the daytime and dropped some night time hours (now in bed 7pm til 6am), although he does still have a long sleep on a friday afternoon 2-3 hours, which is lovely and I lok forward to it.

Glad your naps are going better, Sydney. Still crap here - just spent an hour trying to get an exhausted and crying DS to sleep in his crib... eventually he conked out, only to wake 15 minutes later, and refuses to go back to sleep after that

Having read this, you could all be writing about my ds (16 weeks). And there was I thinking I had the only child in the world who is like an alarm clock and can sleep for exactly 30 minutes before waking, and then be exhausted and grizzly/clingy for the rest of the time until next feed. He will sleep in my arms but wakes as soon as he goes into the cot. He's like a different child if he does manage to sleep well at lunchtime. I feel like I am living Groundhog Day as I constantly seem to be trying to get him to sleep.

I have been trying to get him to take a good lunchtime nap, and have started the gradual withdrawal method from Millpond book but it is exhausting, as it can take an hour to get him to go off. He will shut his eyes and breathe slowly and then after a few minutes, eyes will pop open and arms wave in the air and we have to start all over again. He is not sleeping through the night yet and so I need him to take a good long nap so I can, as I am like a bear with a sore head to dh. However, I can't stay at home all day as I get bad cabin fever, so on the days when I am out and about he doesn't get a decent nap unless I succumb in the afternoon and we both go to sleep with him in my arms - worried this is just going to create problems later, when he refuses to nap unless it's with me. Also, buggy and car don't make any difference - still wakes after 30 mins.

Sorry to rattle on - just so relieved that others are having the same problems. Fingers crossed it will get better....

Jimjam, its so odd isn't it? Exactly 30 mins. DD (20 weeks) is now showing herself able to sleep for longer but its utterly random as to when she does it and its not every day. Problem is that I now have hope every time she goes down for a nap and its even harder when she promptly wakes after 30 mins. Am trying to just go with it for now in hopes that it will improve. Problem is, like you, I want a life and want to go out and about. e.g. new swimming class is at same time as i would like DD to have lunchtime nap...

I know what you mean about the random thing....ds's night time sleep is like that. Some nights he goes from 10.30pm to 4am without waking, and the next night it's 1am, 4am, 5.30am etc etc. I rack my brains to think what I have done differently in the day when he sleeps well, and every night now I look at the clock in the hope that it's 4am and I've had 5 hours sleep.....then I get so disappointed when it's only 1.30am!!!! I think he does it to keep me on my toes. "Its just a phase".....repeat ad nauseam.

Today DS has had 3 x 20-min naps - so just an hour's sleep all day

But he still seems relatively cheerful, so hopefully won't end up in total meltdown before bedtime. Also hope we won't have too much of a bad night - the last two nights he has been waking loads (even though he'd napped OK in the day). Think this is mainly 'cause he's started kicking off his sheets and waking up cold.

My DS has similar issues. He is 3 months old and still has 4 naps each day of about 40 minutes each. He only has a long lunchtime nap if I go out with him in the pram or babybjorn. He doesn't seem to be able to stay awake happily first thing in the morning for more than 11/2 and sometimes wants a nap after only 1 hour of being awake. Perhaps I'm misreading the cues? He sleeps well at night though so I guess I am really lucky.

sydney - day naps still crap here and ds is 7.5mths!

haven't read the entire thread so apologies if i'm repeating what has already been said. But here ges anyway.

My ds is 8 months old and still only manages 2 hours awake during the day. His naps only last half hour each with the odd 45 min/1hour nap in the morning. He sleeps well at night (from 6.30/7pm till 5.30/6am with no wake ups)

I was told by a very wise lady on mn that babies tend to sleep when they need to. i have now come to accept the fact that ds will only nap for half an hour at a time and not the usual long nap at lunch that is recommended.

dont know if that is good or bad news, but hth

Muckypup, snap! DD still like this at 20 weeks but like yours is relatively good at night. And REID, I think your wise lady is right. Have been really thinking about this and have decided that I can't bare to try and enforce longer naps - for a start, every time I do we battle and battle and then she only sleeps for another 30 mins. And the longer naps she has taken have been nothing to do with anything I have done! When DD is awake she's a delight, more and more each day, and although there is continual bedtime meltdown because she's tired, it can make for a dreadful day for both of us if we just fight each other all day! Well, this is what I think today...