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14 weeks old, Longer naps =shorter night sleep?

4 replies

Msl1980s · 13/07/2021 07:47

Hi all, I have a now 14 week old who recently was sleeping between 7 to even 10 hours sleep each night for a couple of weeks.
But her nap time is only half an hour and her wake time is an hour and a half so she is having 5 naps a day including one around 7pm (I can't stop her she just falls asleep at that time for half an hour) then her bed time is about 10 to 10.30pm. At which point I go bed as well. She doesn't wake up until 9am, again great for me as I'm not a very early riser and don't go back to work for months yet. Even when i do I won't have to get out of bed until 8am.
But the last few days she has done a longer nap of 2 and half hours in the day sleeping on me (I was having a lazy day so just let her sleep) as well as some small half hour ones, but then woken up at 2am then 6am and is wide awake at 6am until going back to sleep at 7.30.
Are the longer naps affecting her night time sleep? I thought if babies had better naps they slept more at night?

OP posts:
LakeShoreD · 13/07/2021 08:47

I think it’s a balancing act. It’s true that sleep begets sleep in that an overtired baby can really fight sleep but there’s also a maximum amount of sleep that they need in a 24 hour period. If the shorter naps are resulting in a solid block of sleep from 10pm-ish to 9am then that’s great for her age and I’d keep doing what works! Just be prepared to have to change things up when she gets older and her sleep cycles mature.

Msl1980s · 13/07/2021 10:43

Thank you @LakeShoreD I'm glad you didn't just say "it's a sleep regression" as that's all everyone ever says and I don't think I quite believe in sleep regressions. I think there's always a reason why babies sleep will suddenly change and would rather find the issue than just believing its just what happens

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FATEdestiny · 13/07/2021 14:17

I'd suggest increased calories are needed. If she was previously sleeping 10pm-9am without a feed and is now waking twice in that time, it's likely hunger related.

Make daytime feeds closer together so that she has an extra bottle or two between 7am and 11pm

Msl1980s · 14/07/2021 09:21

Hi @FATEdestiny I do some breastfeeding and some bottle feeding. She had more milk from a bottle on the night she woke up loads. And she didn't take much breath milk when she did wake up the 2 times in the night.
She had less from the bottle last night and I let her nap as she usually does yesterday so she had 3 x half hour naps, put her down at 10 and she had 7 hours sleep. Then a feed at 4 and she's still asleep now at 9.20.
So I don't think feeds have anything to do with it. I think some babies just only need a certain amount of sleep in a 24 hour period.
But annoying she only has a few half hour naps but I'd rather get the longer night sleep!

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