Naps for a 5 month old

[bloodywhitecat]

How many/how long should a 5 month old nap for? My baby sleeps 7-7 (wakes for 3 feeds in that time) but only naps for 40-75 minutes during the day, that doesn't seem enough of day time sleep to me. How can I encourage more sleep?

Hi! Yeah, from my research it seems a 5 month old should have around 3-4 hours day time sleep on top of 12 hour nights, spaced between 3/4 naps, depending on nap length. Have you been thinking about 'awake windows'? my 5.5 month old's sleep drastically improved when I started looking at how long he should be awake for his age. I think at 5 months awake time should be around 2 hours, then try putting him/her down for a nap. So my DS wakes at 7am, goes for a nap 9-10, another nap 12-1.30ish, then last nap 3.30-4.30ish for bedtime at 7ish (I keep him up for 2.5 hours from his last nap to bedtime). It's all 'ish' because when they wake up from each nap obviously affects when they go down for the next nap if that makes sense!

That being said, all babies are different! And also as soon as you get the hang of it it all changes again - wake windows obviously stretch as the baby gets older and then you've got to work it out all over again!

Mine used to do this. 45 minute naps in the day until they got to 7/8 months and then they started to lengthen out. The average is just that - an average but of course babies have their own ideas. It's hard when they don't nap for very long but you may find it improves as they get more physically active.

My almost 5mo generally has a nap every 2 hours after waking but in the morning might need a nap earlier and can easily go 3 hours before 'bed time'.
He often wakes up after 15 or 30 mins of napping wide eyed and seems really awake but if I play white noise and walk him around a little he generally goes back to sleep for another 30 mins or so.

He has only having one nap a day of 45 minutes, although today he fell asleep on me this morning, napped for about 40 mins, then fell asleep with his 2.30 feed and is still sleeping now so hopefully he's getting back into the habit. He was in a very similar pattern to the one described by Gabbbbbbby but since hitting the 5 month mark a couple of weeks ago all naps seemed to go out the window.

Could be getting close to weaning or a milestone. That's when mine all starting getting mucked up but my youngest of 3 is now 11 so advice may now be a bit out of date. I do remember the frustration op. Hang in there

At 5 months most babies are on 3 naps a day, something like this:
9-10
12.30-2.30
5-5.15
You are aiming to drop that little evening nap in the next month or so.
The lunchtime nap can take ages to click into place. If that happens then you can keep the catnap in the afternoon for a while.

My daughter just turned 6 months old and she takes a nap for about 10 minutes every 2 hours or so throughout the day. She does, however, sleep through the night - so swings and roundabouts!

My son, on the orher hand, used to nap for hours but he also used to wake up every 3 hours during the night and wake up for the day at 5am until just recently (he’s nearly 2). It was murder!

Consider yourself lucky that you have a good night sleeper!

*other

@GenevaMaybe none of mine did that. OP's are not doing that so there's no nap to drop!!