30 min naps (5 month old)

[123456kent]

These are so frustrating!
Today we’ve had a 5.20am wake up, and 2 x 30 mins nap already.
Gina Ford would have a fit if she saw our routine!
I realise it’s part of sleep regression and linking sleep cycles etc but does anyone have experiece of these naps sorting themselves out?
At this rate she’s going to end up having about 6 naps today! Apparently supposed to be 3 by this age.
She’s got good at self settling (with a dummy). Doesnt want to be in my arms anymore. All good, except that means they are stupidly short.
Her eyes just ping open, in the car, in the pram, in her cot, something makes her wake (internal, not external) and she is done.
Makes catching up on sleep for me hard, and that’s the only way I stay sane.
Any tips?

30 mins is about a sleep cycle, leave the baby in their cot for 10 mins after waking up, even if crying. I did this and he went back to sleep and did 90 minutes, he doesn’t wake up afternoon 30-45 anymore at all.

Unused a technique called "wake to sleep" which saves my sanity. Google it & see what you think

I have tried leaving her but she is just wide awake, looking at her hands and talking to herself. Dummy is out and if I sneak in and pop it back in she just spits it out.
Wake to sleep looks like it will go totally wrong for me and I’ll just wake her up!! Does it actually work? How do you make sure you don’t wake them properly?

Honestly 5 months was horrendous for sleep with DS. Wouldn't nap - fought them with every fibre of his being. Awake several times at night and often for hours on end. Super early wake ups. It was hell. I didn't do anything particularly and at 9 months old he is way better in every way! Will nap 1-2 hours every morning and afternoon, bed at 7pm and up at 6am. Does still wake up at night but easily re-settled. I think it's developmental. Hang in there, it will improve!

Ok good to know.
Some days I’d say it’s fine despite the short naps, some days it’s all just silly and hard to deal with, she is so variable with her sleeping! Last Monday she woke up at 9.10am. Today at 5.20am. There is no explanation! This is why I hate the baby books, she is not a machine I can programme!!

We were up at 5 today on 3rd nap already! Had an awful night too felt like DS needed re settling every 5 minutes.
Hand hold

This is normal! I am on my third baby (youngest is four months) and 30 minute sleep cycles are normal. Throw out the Gina Ford book 😂
Baby will sleep longer in your arms.. I am currently snuggling my baby on the sofa with a cup of tea.
This doesn’t last forever.. try not to stress about sleeping and nap times. They change all the time

I have a 2.5 year old who did 40 minute naps till he was 2 unless he was ill. You could've set your clock by him. Now he'll do two hour naps, it just changed one day when he was about 2

So glad I found this. I'm going out of my mind. DS started sleeping through at 8 weeks old and now at 4 months doesn't want to know - he woke four times last night, which is pretty typical and will only nap on my lap while I rock him. It's awful.

I'm also holding my 5.5mth old while he naps. 30min alone or a good nap on me....seeing as nights are diabolical atm i am too scared to make it worse with bad naps! Looking by the threads today 4 - 5 months is brutal makes me feel better

No advice really but you're not alone. Mine is 5 months today and a total catnapper. He has 4 x 30 minute naps every day. It's so hard to get anything done in the house or give my eldest the attention he needs, especially when two of the naps are usually on the drives to preschool for drop off and pick up. He had a random 1.5 hour nap in his car seat last Thursday when he'd fallen asleep in the car and I transferred him into the house. I know that is totally against all the guidelines but I checked on him a lot. It was bliss, I had a leisurely peaceful breakfast and cleaned the bathroom! I think DS1 catnapped similarly but grew out of it by himself, so I am really hoping DS2 does too!

Mine was 5 months yesterday, also regularly has 4 x 30 min naps a day, and yesterday randomly slept in her car seat for ages when getting home. Didn’t even think of guidelines - just enjoyed the rest!!
Well, today, she had her second 30 min nap on her own, I picked her up cos she was grouchy and she has now been asleep on me for 2 HOURS!! For gods sake. Such extremes.
It’s so frustrating, waking at 5.20am clearly was too early for her, so here she is making up for it, and I’m awake! How about adding these 2 hours on at 5.20am instead?!
Bless them.... :-o
Why do my friends babies seem to sleep for 1.5 hours exactly, in their cot?

DS has been asleep for an hour now on me. Will probably go on for a lot longer and I'm starving 😔 I suspect also because 5am is too early for him. And I love car seat naps, heaven.

Well mine doesn’t sleep all night long either so some of you are doing wayyy better than me 😄
But seriously, we should just accept it rather than fight it, no? I can’t see the point in fighting it. My eldest two started sleeping like magic aged 2 and taking lovely long afternoon naps too.
I think it’s fairly brutal to try and force babies to do exactly what you want them to. Better to just ride it out and drink tea!!

Ah OP, commiserations, DD1 did this and as well as making it impossible to get much done I took it far too personally (felt a failure) that she wasn't following the books. Obviously 8 years on I can see that is just how she was but I had many sense of humour failures about it at the time. You're well within your rights to get frustrated at the unpredictability but don't lose sight of the fact it is no reflection on you - like you say, they haven't read the books 🙄

This might sound over the top but I'll die if this lasts until DS is two. I go back to work in a few months and will regularly be doing 60 hour weeks - if this is still happening I will have a nervous breakdown.

At this rate she’s going to end up having about 6 naps today!

This is exactly what should be happening in your situation. Why are you saying it in a tone that suggests it's bad?

The way to get more sleep from baby is to promote sleep.

Good sleep leads to better sleep
More sleep leads to better sleep

So if you have short naps, reduce awake time and have more naps per day. Over tiredness will perpetuate your problem. Avoid it by having more naps per day.

I would suggest starting the settling process about 1h15m after waking from last nap, so that baby is asleep after 90m awake time at most. Repeat sell day long.

So if you have a 5.30am wake up and 30m naps, my day would look like this:

5.30am wake
7am nap
9am nap
11am nap
1pm nap
3pm nap
5pm nap
7-8pm bedtime

That's 6 naps.

Ds is currently napping. This is nap no 2. He woke at 7 napped at 9 for about 40 minutes. He went down at around 1230-1245

He’ll probably nap again at around 430. Bedtime anywhere between 730-830. He sleeps through for the most part.

He’s 6m.

If she woke at 5.30am and naps were all 30 mins then of course, 6 naps are needed and 6 she would have. Like you say, it’s all about awake time in between naps. My issue is that that definitely isn’t how it “should” be according to perfect sleep schedules. She should be waking later, doubling the length of naps, and halving the amount of them.
But I know she hasn’t read the books, neither have most babies either. It’s just frustrating (and tiring!!!)

My issue is that that definitely isn’t how it “should” be...

Ah, I see.

Well that is your issue to resolve. Nothing to do with your baby's actual sleep.

There are ways you can help baby learn to extend naps, if that's your aim. Naps in something that moves is the easiest way to extend independant naps.

I would suggest a bouncy chair for daytime naps. Bounce to get to sleep. Watch baby closely while sleeping and at the very Hirst sign of moving from a deep sleep (usually a face scrunch) start bouncing again. Reinsert dummy if needed, it may not be. The u dear is to move baby film deep sleep to light sleep and back into deep sleep without baby actually waking up.