7 month baby having 4 naps

[catmay1]

Hi,

I have a 7 month baby boy (just turned 7 months on sunday). He has 4 naps a day that lasts between 20-30 mins. Sometimes he will throw in a very rare 2 hour nap however most of the time it is 20-30 mins.

He lasts about 1 hour 45 mins between each nap. When he get to 1hr 30 min he screams and cries and rubs his eyes as he is just shattered. Part of me wants to keep him awake even though he will just cry the whole time as I have read they should be having 3 hour naps and longer stints. However my little boy doesnt do this and I don't want to get him into any bad habits. Or am I over thinking it and he will go longer when he is ready?

I am currently weaning him and feeding him 2 meals a day alongside 4 8oz of formula.

Thanks all in advance for your thoughts!

20 minutes is a very short nap. It would suggest baby us to getting into the deep sleep phase. I wouldn't extend awake time until you have found reason why naps aren't extending.

How do you get baby to go to sleep?

My DS did this- he was only going one sleep cycle before waking, it was because I was rocking him to sleep, and he had a dummy- so every time he stirred, he needed those things to resettle.

All babies are different. Mine have very rare long naps - mostly it's 30 minutes. They were down to 2x 30-45 min naps by 8 or 9 months. Now they're just 15 months and they have 1 nap most days (anywhere from 30 to rarely 90 mins) or days like today where they haven't had a nap at all.

I dont rock him to sleep and have not done so for a good few months. I literally put him down in his cot tell him its nap time. He has a monkey comforter which he sucks on and uses this or his sleeve to comfort himself so I know he's not waking up and wanting to be rocked or hugged as this does not happen.

Its funny as I know he can sleep long hours as at night he does 10 hour stints and he is able to settle himself if he does wake up and has done since he was 11 weeks old. (I am very lucky I know and I am enjoying it whilst it lasts...!)

Today he had 4 naps again. 3 naps were 30 mins long and 1 nap was 45 mins long! All after being awake for 1hr 45 mins. I do feel he needs a good long stint as he does wake up tired after some naps.

I don't mind him having 4 naps a day, I just don't want him getting into bad habits which will be tricky to get out of down the line...!

Good lord - only one of my twins has ever slept for 11 hours, once! I used to drive myself crazy reading about what they should be doing and when but it turns out they can't read and they don't care what they should be doing! Mine have always refused to be scheduled until very recently so they've eaten when they want and slept when they want (or not slept, more accurately). They have a fixed bedtime and fixed solids mealtimes but beyond that I follow their lead and they're still alive and so am I. I wouldn't stress too much about it.

There's an Australian group called possums who put out some interesting info on what babies need in order to produce sleep hormones - it really helped me. Basically, they need to not be hungry and they need to be mentally stimulated. That's really it. I started making sure the boys had more mental stimulation before I wanted them to sleep (even just walking round the garden playing with some leaves or a new household object to examine chew on) and it did make a difference.

If he needs more frequent naps than other babies it's not a bad habit or permanent, it's just what he needs right now. I know it's hard but try not to worry about it too much.

I'll gladly take one nap a day off your hands if you're looking to get rid of one though!