30 minute nap nightmare

[Vicky1989x]

Hi, my DD is 7 months old but is still only taking 30 minute naps. On the odd occasion she’s slept for 1.5-2 hours but it’s not consistent. I don’t do anything different.

She self settles for naps (with a dummy) and her wake windows are around 2-2.5 hours. She is constantly whingy and moaning all day long and I’ve been putting this down to being overtired. I’ve tried keeping her up for longer in the hopes she’ll nap for longer but this doesn’t work either.

She still has 3 naps a day and will usually sleep 7:30pm - 5am at night (although I’ve been working on this and stretching her to 7am for the last week).

I’ve tried wake to sleep, rocking her back to sleep when she wakes after 30 minutes but nothing seems to work.

Any suggestions? Desperate here

I was coming on here to post a similar issue! No ideas, sorry!

My DS sleeps well at night - from 6.30pm till about 7am. But he only naps for 30 minutes at a time during the day! He was having a longer lunch time nap but the last few days that's gone down to 30 mins also.

I hope someone comes on here who knows how to help us!

@SantasDayOff It’s rough isn’t it! My DD also done 1.5 hours at lunchtime for a couple of days then it stopped. I wouldn’t care so much but she’s miserable as hell because she’s tired!

Hopefully someone can help us!

I’m exactly the same with my 7 month old. She was doing a 1.5 hour nap at lunch but it’s really hit or miss when she does it! I sometimes leave her for 15-20 mins and she’ll go back to sleep but that’s a rarity! she sleeps very well at night though. I’ve read that by 6 months naps lengthen but I don’t think so with my little one. Well not reliably so anyway! Unfortunately I think there are some babies that are short nappers and we’ve got them! I think as they get older and start to crawl etc there’ll sleep a bit longer!! We can only hope!! I think we need to look at overall sleep and my little one clocks around 11-12 at night so her naps will always be on the short side as a result...

I have one of these babies too! Sleeps 12 hours at night but each day nap is 38 minutes 😂
Last week, without doing anything different, she napped 1.5 hours over lunch for 5 days in a row - and was so much happier for it. Now we are back to 38 minutes 🤦‍♀️

@MoorGirl at least we get a decent night sleep! We really can’t complain!

Since I’ve posted this she’s been taking longer naps but now her night time sleep has gone to hell... can’t win

Hi I'm the same, my 6-month-old son only ever takes 30-minute naps. I could put money on it that he will wake bang on 30 minutes after I put him down. He has 4, 30 minute naps a day but isn't sleeping through the night. He's still awake three to four times only to be settled by the breast. I do think that if his naps were longer he would sleep better at night. Does anybody please have any advice on how to lengthen the naps? I have tried awake to sleep, rocking, singing, patting, a dummy. when he knocks his sleep conditions are exactly the same as the evening. The room is completely dark, the white noise machine is on and his sleep suit is on etc etc. He can go to sleep independently. Whether he sleeps on me or in his cot he will still only have 30 minutes at a time, it's really frustrating!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

If I remember correctly my DD dropped to 2 naps by 7 months. One nap around 9-10am (usually a short one, 45mins) and then another nap around 12-12:30ish which would be a longer nap.

It was getting harder to put her down and keep her asleep, also all that combined with teething was a bloody nightmare.

Maybe try dropping a nap.

We were in a mess with sleep, honestly it was worse than your little one so you might not want to be so drastic but DC was waking every 40 minutes day and night wouldn’t sleep in his cot and would only be fed to sleep. We paid for a sleep consultant and within 3 nights in he’s doing 2-3 hour stretches, sleeping in cot, not feeding to sleep and does 1 1.5 hour nap and 2 40 minute ones now.

Worth every penny, we still have a long way to go.. there’s no point me giving you the advice we got because it depends on your situation entirely. If you can spare it, it’s worth the money imo, been life changing for us.

@elliejane91 In the end I dropped to 2 naps a day.. 1st at 9/9:30 and the 2nd at 1/1:30. I had to bring bedtime forward for a few days to help her adjust but after a couple of days she started lengthening her naps.. now she does 45-60 mins in the morning and 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon.

I also started doing ‘crib hour’ so regardless if she wakes after 30 minutes, she stays in her cot for an hour and I believe this has helped.

Hope that helps!

Thank you! Definitely worth a try!

@Vicky1989x Yep exactly the same here - phew!

How old were yours when you started this @Vicky1989x @MoorGirl? Thanks

Randomly his first nap today was 1hr 45 mins!!! This has never happened before!! I had to keep checking he was breathing!!

Then another 30 min nap at 12.30 and a 40 minute one just!! I might not add a forth this evening then.

I hope this continues and isn't a fluke!!

@elliejane91 DD is nearly 9 months now, been doing this for a week or two. She was 6 weeks early if that makes any odds!

My DD1 did 30 min naps. We called them the magic 30. You could time anything using them. It didn't matter if we were out walking in the buggy, in her crib, in the car, after 30 mins her eyes would ping open.

This was for a good few months - maybe 4-7 months? It then started to happen at night, so we did sleep training to sort the night and I think the day improved and she dropped naps too (initially 4x30mjns, then 3x30, then when it was 2 naps the second one started getting longer).

She's 8.5 now and never naps!!!

@elliejane91 I started the 2 naps a day when she was 2 weeks shy of 8 months, so about a month ago! My DD was also 4 weeks early.

Moving to two naps also helped to lengthen my DS's naps who was similar