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How much should my baby be napping?

1 reply

Mamabear04 · 29/01/2020 22:19

My DD is 12 weeks old and finds it's really hard to go to sleep during the day and wakes up really easily (she's very sensitive to noise). If I'm having a good day I can get her to sleep for 2.5 hours - this usually entails a long walk in the pram and continued sleep when we get home. If I can't get out for a long walk then after 30-40 minutes she wakes herself up and is still really tired but can't get back to sleep.

I try to only keep her awake for no more than 1.5-2 hours but sometimes this just goes out the window if I can't get her to sleep and she can be awake for 3 or more hours which stresses me out. I'm worried this is making her overly tired. The evenings are the hardest time to get her to sleep but come bedtime once she finally does fall asleep she will stay asleep for around 5 hours before waking for a feed and then will settle back to sleep pretty easy before waking 2.5 hours later for another feed and then maybe for another couple of hours if I'm lucky before it's time to get up.

Does this sound normal? How much should babies this young be sleeping during the day? And any tips for helping her to sleep longer than 30-40 minutes? She will still wake up even if she is sleeping on me. On a blue moon she will nap in her cot but will still wake after this time period even if I shut the curtains and keep the house very quiet!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
crazychemist · 30/01/2020 17:48

12 weeks is an incredibly tough time for sleep. A lot of this will probably settle down in the next month or so.

You can get all kinds of sleep routine suggestions online. I drove myself absolutely potty trying to get my DD onto a “better” napping schedule. She didn’t lengthen her naps till she was 15 months old. I’m afraid some babies are just cat nappers at this age!

Try not to get too stressed about it. Yes, there are things you can try. The baby sleep site is a place to start (although I wouldn’t personally use the paid services). But it’s entirely possible none of it will work! My DD just magically started doing one long nap on her own one day. Once she’d dropped that nap (obviously about a year later) she also had great night time sleep and I have far less trouble with her at 3 yo than many seem to.

Sorry, it’s a very tough time. It gets better and will gradually improve.

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