My 7 weeks old won't nap for more than 45 mins!

[Suzi11]

I'm having real issues with getting my 7 week old to nap longer than 45 minutes. he generally always starts fussing between 20-45mins after being put down and very rarely can I get him back to sleep.

He goes down without too much fuss for naps and at night sleeps from 7pm to 7am at night, usually waking at around 3am for a feed and I wake him at 10pm for a sort of dream feed. I'm aware that sounds pretty good but I have a grumpy baby during the day because he just isn't napping long enough. I know he needs longer naps because on the rare occasion he has slept over an hour he wakes up without a fuss and just chills in has cot until i get him out, but with the shorter naps he screams when he wakes. I'm keeping him up for at least 1 hour 45 minutes between his sleeps, anymore time and he gets over tired and won't go down.

Anyone else have this problem and can give me tips? Nothing i do seems to settle him back to sleep!

Erm 1hr 45 is far too long for a 7week old

45 min is a normal sleep cycle and it takes a lot of time for them to learn to link them

You're very very lucky he goes downn.

Grumpy isn't just due to lack of sleep....

I think the problem is your expectations really, not your baby

That’s really not very helpful. I asked for advise not judgment.

The wake time between naps might be too long and he's overtired resulting in him waking after 1 sleep cycle (45 minutes). Google the baby whisperer - it should tell you how much time between naps by age. I followed this and saw huge improvements. I think 1 hour 45 mine is for a child a few months older. Worth a try maybe?

Just found this...

Very short naps at this age is very normal! I have 3 dc and none of them took longer naps of 1.5 hours or more until they were 10-12 months. Don’t stress your baby out by forcing him to have longer naps.
Babies this age do fuss a lot, do cry a lot and like to be held all the time. It’s entirely normal.
He sounds like he sleeps brilliantly at night (you’re lucky) so please do just go with it more. There’s nothing wrong with your baby

I did advise- said 1hr 45 was too long

And that you're lucky you can put your baby down- I really and TRULY meant that...

Oh my! I’m so envious. My lovely 9 week old DS sleeps in 2-3 hour bursts all night. Longest ever stint, 4 hours. Enjoy your sleep at night!

The advice I was given was to leave her for 5 mins if she woke up after 45 just to see if she went back down. 45 mins is a natural sleep cycle so if they can get themselves back into deeper sleep they'll do another 45. I'm not saying it'll work for yours but it really worked for my first. She was still tired after 45 which was why she was so grumpy when I got her up. Good luck!

If I remember right, my baby when she was 7 weeks would only nap for 45 mins at a time too and it’s onlu recently (at around 7 months) that she’s gone for longer, say 90 mins. She has always slept well at night tho too. All babies are different and I reckon they do what they want, just go with it.

Thanks everyone! I made sure he wasn't awake longer than 1 hour 15 mins at a time yesterday and he had 2 longer naps (1.5-2hrs each!). He was an absolute delight and even gave me a smile when I got him up! Let's not jinx it though as it's only been one day!

But let me say, him going down well and sleeping a good chunk of the night is no accident. The first 6 weeks have been hell for us all! My partner was very keen to get him on a routine (to early I know blablabla) and we followed the save our sleep method. It was horrible, I regret it and I've probably caused him lifelong trauma. However he does now sleep in his own crib and go down almost instantly plus sleeps so much better overnight. I have adapted the routine a lot now, given him his dummy back and don't let him CIO at all but I guess some of it stuck! I don't recommend it to babies this age at all though.

So glad a shorter wake time worked! Hopefully it continue. If he starts to have shorter naps in the future it might need tweaking again. Generally speaking though, following the recommended sleep times for each age worked well with my lo. Good luck!