12 week old waking up crying after 30 mins

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Can anyone give me any tips on how to extend my baby’s naps? He is 12 weeks old and used to nap for up to 1.5 hours in a sling, with shorter naps of 30-40 minutes in the pram.

However for the last couple of weeks his naps are getting shorter- they are pretty much always 30 minutes no matter where he is- pram, sling or crib.

I wouldn’t mind the short naps if I thought he was happy and getting enough sleep, however he wakes up crying and starts yawning soon after waking. I have tried shhhing and rhythmically patting his chest/back as soon as he starts to stir in the hope of trying to encourage him to drift back off to sleep but it doesn’t work, he just gets upset and wider awake.

Does anyone have any experience/advice about this? I am desperate for my baby to get enough sleep and wake up from his naps well rested.

I am putting my baby down for naps as soon as I catch yawning and also keep an eye on how long he’s been awake from his last nap in order to try to avoid him being up for too long before I put him down.

Have no advice but placemarking as I am in EXACTLY the same boat. 12 week old naps for 45 minutes at a time, no more and usually no less. Luckily he's an ok sleeper at night.

From what I've heard it's about their sleep cycles adapting from newborn stage but that they haven't learned to link the cycles yet. I figure it's one to ride out...

Oh no, sorry to hear that you’re in the same boat! Does your DS wake up happily from his naps?

Dare I ask how much he’s sleeping at night then or will I die of envy? my baby was down to two wake ups a night until recently, which I was pretty happy with, but we seem to be going back to wake ups every 1-3 hours for some reason

With DS1 I had this for a bit. Sleep books etc all said to jump in and soothe back to sleep. Never, ever worked! His sleep did settle down.

3-4 months ish is awful for sleep. (As I am finding with DS2... but that's for another thread). I am finding that 'sleep begets sleep' does seem to be true. (Although not helpful really!)

I'm also keen to watch this thread - I'm in a similar boat, albeit my little one is 19 weeks. Like a pp's little one, he's pretty fab at night. However, in the daytime he needs help falling asleep (bf/pram/car). He only usually stays asleep for one single sleep cycle now. Until fairly recently he'd do two or three.

They go through a leap at around 11 weeks which can affect sleep and feeding etc but it usually passes :) Download the wonder weeks app and it tells you when the leaps happen. My daughter is 13 weeks and has only napped for 30 mins at a time since 4 weeks old

I started a few threads like this about dc3 ( who is now 1 and naps for 2 hours!). I used to settle him for naps at home by patting him. And when he was around 4 months I did have some luck keeping him asleep if I was there patting around the time he usually woke. I have to say it took a lot of time and effort and patting! I never got him back to sleep if he woke properly though. It was weaning that really sorted his naps out at about 6 to 7 months, sorry as I know that's depressing to read!

OP - my DS usually sleeps 7pm - 5.30ish with a dreamfeed at 10pm plus one other waking around 4am. We've had occasional wonderful nights where he hasn't woken in the wee hours but very rare. So yes, nights are pretty good (or at least in comparison with 6 weeks ago!). The payoff though is that he only catnaps through the day. He is calm when he wakes, but I need to get there sharpish to pick him up otherwise he makes his displeasure known to all my neighbours! I've tried shushing and patting but no use, so for now I'm letting him sleep little and (not very) often.

A PP mentioned the wonder weeks app, I'd second that recommendation. You get a tailored calendar of when to expect growth and developmental spurts which equals rough sleep. Just don't look too hard at the long highlighted rough patch coming up at 4 months...

MrsMcW I am very jealous of your night time sleep! Last night we had four wake ups.

Only short naps again today- two weren’t even a full half an hour as he got woken up by the front door going.

PerfectPAnda reassuring to hear that patting sometimes worked to get your baby back off to sleep. Haven’t had any success with that myself so far but I’ll persevere.

Some babies just take short naps, my 8mo has only recently started extending her naps (though she's still far from predictable and I'm never sure if it'll be 30 minutes or 2 hours). I found just accepting that 30 minutes is the norm helped. She is also still up between 3 and 4 times a night. Babies' sleep changes all the time, just when you think it's improving, it turns to shit again!