As the king of 4 x 30 minute naps I made a decision last week to try and get my 7 1/2 month old into the habit of sleeping longer so he moves to 3 longer naps a day. (We're also getting to that stage where the third nap might be dropped but that isn't happening atm.)
He is rarely content upon waking after 30 mins. He whimpers, fusses or full on cries and always rubs his eyes. He yawns pretty quick after being awake too. So I just want him to sleep better in the day so he's more rested and I hope that will also lead to better night (more on that below). Also I really can't cope any longer with him having 30 minute naps. I just need some time in the day to get life admin done and have a proper break. I'm at my wits' end with his rubbish sleeping!
So now when he wakes after 30 mins I'm settling him back to sleep using the shhh pat method. He is not a self soother and needs shhhing and patting to sleep 99% of the time for day and night sleeps.
Has anyone else tried extending baby's nap times like this with any success - as in has your LO then gone on to sleep longer for naps?
Sometimes after that settling 30 mins in LO will sleep beautifully for an hour or even longer. Current example - he went to sleep at 11.40am, woke at 12.10pm, I settled him back to sleep and he woke at 1pm. Rather than be immediately grizzly he babbled and gurgled for a bit.
At times I have woken him, so that he's not oversleeping in the day so it doesn't affect his nighttime sleep. Night sleep is exhausting (3 wakings for formula approx every 3 hours and sometimes way more wakes than that but we don't feed him).
I'm hoping he'll get into the habit of daytime sleeping longer at some point, but what isn't helping at the moment is teething and, now, after last night's fiasco, I definitely think he's into the dreaded sleep regression. So day and night sleep is massively unsettled anyway! Which makes me wonder whether I should be trying to change the nap routine in the first place?