5 month old only naps for 30 mins at a time

[Pelly8]

Hello

My 5 month old only sleeps for 30 mins at a time and that is only after I have fed him to sleep/in the pram or sling. Any tips on how to get him to sleep for longer???

Very normal, both mine did this. They have a short sleep cycle and some babies will just wake up when it finishes after about 30 mins, others won't. We used to find that if we went in just before the 30 mins, we could actually resettle by shushing or putting a hand on them before they really woke up properly. Got another 30-40 minutes sometimes longer. Ours were never the '3 hour afternoon nap' type of baby though!

Does it matter? Sleep patterns change frequently in babies, it will be so for yours. Won't be long until you'll be having trouble getting him out of bed for school in the morning :-).

Thanks for the replies! He just seems so grumpy when he wakes ( usually wakes crying) that I thought a longer sleep might help him. It would also be lovely to get stuff done while he’s asleep!

Teenage years arent much help to OP right now and yes it does matter because catnapping isnt great if he is still tired!

OP once he is asleep what did you do? I used to do whatever it took to keep DS asleep i paced round the park for hours- then when he was about 8 months he started going into the cot more reliably - only then could I start getting stuff done.

It is normal. But it is also really hard. He will get there x