Are some babies just catnappers?!

[Laura1609]

Anyone else feeling exhausted with a baby who will only catnap? My 8.5 month old still has 3 naps a day because more often than not he’ll only nap for 30-45 mins at a time. He has thrown me a few curveballs and once every few weeks he’ll sleep for 1.5 hours in the afternoon 🤷‍♀️ He falls asleep by himself, he’s not rocked, stroked or fed to sleep. Will they naturally lengthen or are some little ones destined to only catnap?

Yes me I’m exhausted 🙋🏻‍♀️ Ds is 7 months, We’re currently in a bit of a curveball as actually this week he has napped for an hour at a time 3x a day, but before this it was half an hour and he woke up ratty but wouldn’t go back down.

To be honest though it’s the nighttime’s that are killing me...for the past 4 months he’s got up on the hour every hour

You probably don't want to hear this but... my DD is 14 months and has only had 30-45 min naps since around 5 months. She's now in the transition between two and one nap per day and she still only does up to 45 mins! Total catnapper. She'll only go longer if being pushed in the buggy.

Just thank your lucky stars that he'll go to sleep without rocking etc I nearly lost my marbles last summer when DD still had 4 naps a day and I had to take her for a walk for every.single.one.of.them.

I've had two and neither one of them ever slept more than 40 mins at a time.

Apparently a baby's sleep cycle is 40 mins. They were just such light sleepers that they never managed to stay down to get going with a 2nd cycle.

Once you accept it, it's not so bad. You just feel a bit resentful that you can't do any of that "nap when the baby naps" stuff. You've barely put them down but they're awake again.

But I have to say, it didn't do either of them any harm.

Oh and she could totally do one nap per day if she would actually do 2+ hours like my friends babies,.. but no! She's stuck on two naps because she can't make it past 4pm on only 40 mins of sleep!

I will say though that being light sleepers/catnappers meant they were brutal night time sleepers until 2.5. Then their sleep seemed to get naturally a lot heavier and hurray! they started sleeping through.

My 1 year old dd is down to one nap.

She fought every nap so decided to remove the afternoon one. She has a long nap just after lunch until the afternoon so I get a good couple of hours to catch up on Netflix housework.

I notice a few people mentioning they are light sleepers, I think this is the ‘problem’ with ds. He is a really light sleeper, and any tiny noise will wake him up.
Dd is a really heavy sleeper and has always napped and slept through the night from a tiny age.
I don’t mind him hardly napping, I just get miffed when my mum says “do it while he naps” I’ve barely even boiled a kettle and he’s awake again.

On a serious note, does anyone know how I can help ds stop waking up hourly through the night? He wakes up in the morning still exhausted!

It's developmental sometimes too. DD was a 45-min napper until about 11 months when she randomly decided to have just one two-hour nap instead. I did nothing different! Now she goes down for 2-2.5 hours in the afternoon. And it's glorious!

@Chinks123 have you tried white noise? I pop rain noise on the google home and it’s good to drown out any external noise that would usually wake him!

My three had 2 x 27 minute naps a day between 2 months and 10 months. I could set my watch to it. I did not get to catch up on any DVD boxsets like my friends said I would.

At 10 months, literally overnight, DS started one 3 hour nap a day and DD1 and DD2 started one 1.5 to 2 hour naps a day.

Sleep terrorists... there are many of them out there!

Thank you @Tulio yes, well actually we use pink noise and I leave it playing while he naps, and then I have it on all night. It definitely helps block out sounds but he’s still up every hour..It will be a phase (a very long phase)

As much as I wish all of our babies would sleep for a hearty 2 hours in the afternoon I must admit I’m glad I’m not alone.
He’s a really light sleeper too but white noise doesn’t seem to make a blind bit of difference. I’m just holding out a glimmer of hope that in the not so distant future he might realise how great it is to be expected to nap in the day and give in to a long snooze regularly so I can eat my lunch and maybe finish a cup of tea!

@Chinks123 I remember you from the due in July thread! My DS also wakes every hour (sometimes more) during the night. Are you BF? I think mines for comfort/habit not necessarily for food

Hi @Giraffe888!!! Wow that feels like forever ago. We’ve just stopped bf because my milk completely dried up, and his sleep has been terrible for months now! Newborn-3 months he was amazing, and I stupidly said “I haven’t even been tired.”
How does your ds nap during the day?

@Chinks123 doesn’t it just!!! He only naps for 30 mins at a time. If I catch him straightaway I can usually get him back down at his lunchtime nap. I try make that one between 1-2 hours. He needs to nap after 2-2.5hr awake time. What about yours? X

@Giraffe888 literally just this week he has been napping for about an hour, but before that he was just catnapping. I’d just boil the kettle and he’d be awake again.
They’re 100% worth it aren’t they, but it is a shock to the system after dd who always slept through. She had terrible colic though so it’s swings and roundabouts.

Repeated myself many times on this thread, can you tell I’m exhausted