How to get a tired baby to sleep longer in the morning/have longer naps?

[LaDameAuxLicornes]

DS (nearly 8 months) wakes up around 4.45 or 5AM every day but is clearly still very tired at that point. But it's hard to get him to go back to sleep, and even then he only seems to sleep for another 50 minutes or so, when we sometimes give up even though he still doesn't seem fully rested. Similarly, we've recently had success getting him to go down for naps in his cot during the day, anywhere up to 4 times a day, but only for 30 minutes at a time. Is there any way of nudging him to extend these catnaps? When I go in and try to resettle him he won't go back to sleep and eventually starts to fret. Any tips?

What does a typical daily nap "schedule" look like for you? I realise I'm not too sure what is standard for babies this age.

I don't know either OP. DD is also 8 months and she only naps for 45 mins in the day. She sleeps well at night though and wakes about 7.30am.

In my/DD’s case it just gradually improved. I didn’t find anything to make it happen. (Fwiw she did what yours does but now at 21 months wakes at 7pm and has a 2h nap at noon.)

8 months my dd routine was

8am wake up
10:30-12:00pm nap
2:30-5:00pm nap
7:30 bedtime

Blimey Lazy that’s a lot of sleep! Did you ever see her?! I’m just jealous, my 8 month old naps once a day at lunchtime, average an hour

My 6 month old does exactly the same as yours OP. The only way I can get him to nap for longer is if I cosleep with him and breastfeed him back to sleep as soon as he stirs. It’s not practical at all but I’ve not found anything else that works

Longer naps naturally started emerging at 5 months for my son, when he learnt to fall asleep by himself (with us comforting him next to cot), had blackout blinds, and putting him down for naps at the right awake window for his age. We left him 15 mins after each nap (not if he cried, but if he was just happy awake) and that soon gave him the opportunity to fall back asleep if needed

@Rainycloudyday i just made the most of it as knew it wouldn't last.18months now and she's down to 1 90min nap a day.

It was only about an hour extra a day than they're 'supposed' to sleep at that age so not actually that much.

Thanks all!

@CkFa, did you do anything differently for nap time/bedtime? I've got a nervous feeling that as DS learns to go down for naps more easily his nighttime sleep (ability to connect his sleep cycles by himself) is regressing slightly, at least earlier in the evening. At the moment we're doing blackout blinds and sleeping bag on for naps as well as nighttime, but I wonder if that might be confusing for him.

I really like the idea of leaving him for 15 minutes if he's happy, in case he can work out how to go back to sleep, thanks. What does the "right awake window" mean?

We had the same routine for all sleep times. So our nap time routine is 5 mins - story, into sleep bag while singing twinkle twinkle, then in cot, light off, white noise on. Bed time is exactly the same, just a bath first. This helps to get him sleepy! But if baby's skin doesn't cope well with a daily bath, just a splash of water while sat in an empty bath helped.

Awake windows are a rough guide for how long a baby can effectively last awake before needing a nap. It's just a guide and every baby is different. But before I learnt about these windows I was putting my baby down to sleep too early for a nap and he screamed and screamed because he wasn't tired. So for a 5 month old, they can roughly stay awake for 2 hours, give or take. So after that time, they should be more readily able to sleep without too much of a fight. And the awake window roughly increases by 15 mins with every month of age. So 6 month old could go 2 hours 15 mins awake before needing a sleep. At 8/9 months, then it tends to just follow a two nap schedule if they are doing long naps. Of course this isn't right or wrong, it's just what I've learnt worked for my baby after I read a lot of books! Every baby is different. My friend follows a 2,3,4 nap schedule. So the first awake window of the day is 2 hours, then after the first nap of the day, her baby stays awake for 3 hours, then naps. Then he is awake for 4 hours approx before bed. Hope this is useful x

My DS does 8-2am, 2.30-6ish, then I feed him back to sleep in our bed and we co-sleep til about 8. Unfortunately daytime naps can be at any time - 11, 12.30 and/or 2pm, sometimes on me or in the pram but never in his cot as he won't in the daytime even with blinds. Traffic noise I think. Today I was pushing him round the garden at 4 as he skipped both earlier naps. I don't really want to get him too regimented as I have baby classes at different times of the day!

At 8 months I did
7am wake and bottle
8am breakfast
9.20-10am nap
11.30 lunch
12.30-3pm nap
3pm bottle
5pm dinner
6pm bath
6.30pm bottle
7pm bed

This is all so helpful, thank you!