20-30 minutes naps

[Morgie87]

Hey all, we have a 4 month old and since he was born he has only ever taken 30 minute naps during the day. It’s so frustrating as when it comes to the evening he either gets really grumpy or over tired. Have tried black out blinds, and wake to sleep technique and it just doesn’t seem to work. Will things get better or are we destined to have a sleepless baby? Do sleeps extend as he gets a bit older?

Anyone with similar issues or have experienced it?

My DD was a catnapper - 29 minutes like clockwork! I tried everything but didn't have any success. Suddenly at 13 months she started doing 2 hour naps, go figure.

Two suggestions I heard over and over again:
Wake to sleep
Continual soothing e.g if he feeds to sleep, keep feeding! If he nods off, keep walking! A habit takes 10 days to form, so if you can extend a nap by any method they get used to it.

As I said, nothing worked for us, but DD was perfectly happy providing she got enough sleep in total - she was on 4 naps a day until she was 7 months old, and that helped to avoid crabby moods.

At about your DS age she would get very upset if we deviated from routine at all near bedtime. She seemed to find repetition very comforting.

Hey CrazyChemist, thanks for replying. Yeah we have tried the wake to sleep, and it may have worked once or twice but not sure if it was a fluke!

That’s the thing, he is so happy and isn’t crabby at all it’s just frustrating I can’t get anything done in the space of half an hour! Hopefully he will grow into sleeping for longer.

Well, keep trying if you can bear to, but I'm afraid he's not the only catnapper out there and you may just have to wait it out. I know it's frustrating not to be able to get anything done, that eases enormously as they get older and entertain themselves more and more.

My son was exactly the same! He's 8 months now and has gotten better in the last couple of months.

Only thing that has worked for us is making sure he has the right amount of time in between naps, so for example at 4 months baby will only be awake for 1.30/2hours before sleeping again.
I also have my son sleeping in my arms for his naps (I don't need to hear how it's a 'bad habit')
Obviously that's not suitable for everyone but it's the only way he naps for longer! (Unless he's out in the pram/car)
And for us it hasn't caused any issues at all with bed time. He goes to bed perfectly and sleeps in his cot happily then, he just doesn't for his naps! You just have to do whatever you can to give yourself some rest time and keep baby happy!

tinykirst it's not a bad habit if it works! In my arms was how my DD eventually got the hang of longer naps, and once she'd got into the habit of doing it in my arms she then started doing it in other settings to.

Thanks again for the replies. Well maybe I should persevere with the wake to sleep method as I can understand how that can work. And he also does sleep longer in our arms than he does in the cot. I’m sure it will get better and like you say crazychemist he will start entertaining himself more and more. He does tend to sleep longer in the car as well.....costing a lot in petrol!

he also does sleep longer in our arms

He does tend to sleep longer in the car

In both these baby is held in a set position and has continual movement. So I'd suggest trying naps in a bouncy chair (but remove play arch and all toys).

The idea is you sit on the sofa, bouncer at your feet and foot bounce baby to sleep. You can stop bouncing once fully asleep (or keep going if baby is overtired, he'll sleep better). But again the very first to nhs sign of baby moving from deep to light sleep, start bouncing again. This is before baby wakes up. The sign might be a slight limb movement or it might be a face scrunch. A cry or eyes open is too late.

After a while you won't need to resettle after 30 minutes, baby will learn UK just stay asleep. At that point, that's when you move naps into the cot.

Have you tried using white noise? This really helps my baby sleep for long naps. No chance without it! You can download an app on your phone for free to try it and if it works invest in something a little more suitable to leave next to the cot x

Mine was like this. We tried everything. Sleep in cot, sling, pram, arms, dummy, no dummy, noise, no noise.... always awake after 30 mins on the dot. It was massively frustrating but in the end we just accepted it. Realised she napped best in her cot so persevered with that as at least I could sit down and have a cup of tea while she slept! Finally - finally! - at 8 months (as she was getting mobile) she started to sleep for longer and now has a good 1.5 hour sleep, then another hour in the afternoon. She won’t sleep in the pram now so we’re slightly confined to the house if we want a decent nap, but it’s worth it after those frustrating months.