5 month old daytime naps

[Hrp86]

Hi everyone. Our 5 month old son is a good sleeper at night time but only naps for a total of 2 hours in the day and still seems tired when awake. He seems to only nap for 40 minutes and can't get himself back to sleep after that sleep cycle. He gets himself to sleep in the first place and gets himself back to sleep during the night but can't seem to manage it in the day. We have a dark room and white noise which we use at all
Sleeps. I just know he could do with an extra bit in the day even if it is only 30 minutes more. Any tips greatly appreciated.

Would you consider having him nap on you?

I would rather not because it took us ages to stop that in the first place. He is now only napping in his cot. He doesn't even like napping in his pushchair (unlike every other baby I know).

It's always going to be harder for him to get himself back to sleep unless he has learnt that. I'll be honest if my lo woke up and I knew he was still tired I'd let him nap on me for the rest of the time so probably not helpful for you.

Mrsed1987 how would you get him to go back to sleep to nap for longer? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Thank you

My wee one does the same thing during the day (and most nights). What I have noticed helps during the day is to go in a couple of minutes before he usually wakes up (he is like a clock and always wakes up after 41 minutes) and make a little bit of noice. This seems to rouse him enough without quite waking him up. He then falls back into a deep sleep and sleeps for another 41 minutes. It sounds really strange that it would work but it was my sister who advised my to try it and weirdly enough, most times it actually does do the trick! This might not be a long time solution but it works for us :)

Thank you LexyMcG I will give it a go. Fingers crossed!

@Hrp86 my friend is a trained infant sleep consultant (www.babysleepstarzzz.com) and advised me to do the same thing as mentioned by @LexyMcG it worked a treat for us as my daughter napped at the most 40 mins. It is to do with there sleep cycles and restarting that cycle.

If you have anymore questions I'm sure she would be more than happy to help you! She is on social media.

Hi @Hrp86, I'm having a similar issue with my 4 1/2 month old and over the last few days I've been trying the slightly waking approach others have mentioned. So far I'm only getting an extra 10 minutes (from 30 to 40 mins), but it's a bit hit and miss! Have you had any success yet?

@gbee99 sadly no success. He is going to be 6 months old tomorrow and we are stuck with 30 minute naps and he is so grumpy all day because he is still so tired. Wakes screaming from some naps but cannot get back to sleep. We have tried going in just before he wakes, making a slight noise outside his room, white noise, leaving him in his cot for half an hour after he wakes to see if he will go back to sleep and sadly still no success. It wouldn't bother me if he didn't need the sleep but he so clearly does. It's now impacting on his night sleep and he is waking earlier in the morning!

Any other advice out there?

Not really advice but hopefully a bit of reassurance. My son was very similar and then just after he turned 6 months his naps did lengthen. Before that I used to get him out of his cot and lay down on our bed with him next to me (still in a dark room with white noise) rub his back and half the time he would go back off to sleep after the first half of his nap.

The improvement in nap length coincided with him rolling over and sleeping on his front so it may of been that. Also started weaning so that may of helped. I also looked at his awake windows and used an adapted 2-3-4 awake window going for 2-2.5-3 when he was 6 months. He is now 10 months and wakes at 6, first nap 8.30-10 and second nap 1.30-3 and bedtime at 7.30.

Please try not to worry too much about it. I used to stress lots about my baby’s sleep but honestly he did just grow out of it with very little intervention from me.

Thank you @timekeepspassing that is nice to hear. I am finding it really tough as he is just so tired and grizzly all day long as isn't getting the sleep he clearly needs. We seem to be having four smaller naps rather than the desired two longer ones. Even the four 30 minutes isn't proving to be enough sleep for him. I feel like I'm stuck at home as the thought of going out and doing things with him when he is grizzly isn't exciting. He also only naps in his cot and won't nap when out and about so when that two hour awake window is over he just starts crying if he doesn't get put to sleep. Lockdown babies! How is anyone else managing getting out with their 6 month olds?

Hi, we have a similar problem. Our nearly 5 month old naps for up to 30 minutes at a time (sometimes just 10 minutes). It takes us a lot of effort to put him to sleep, sometimes even 45 minutes to an hour of crying, rocking and white noise. My partner is getting desperate and this takes away all her energy.

@M4rv1n I just wanted to say I sympathize a lot. Whilst I try not to stress too much about my LOs lack of sleep in the day, I can't help it because she gets progressively grumpy and hard to deal with. Sometimes I feel like I've spent my whole day just either looking for sleepy cues, trying to get her to sleep or trying to keep her asleep longer than 30 mins! It's rubbish and I know it's not healthy but it can be hard to just go with the flow and accept she may be in a terrible mood at the end of the day. A friend did suggest she may not be tired enough at nap times and to perhaps keep her awake for longer but I've not been brave enough to try yet. The only times she has slept longer is in the car (not consistently though) or a couple of times in the bouncy chair with me watching like a hawk and gently bouncing at any sign of starting to wake