Daytime Naps for 4 Month Old

[mamanddad]

Hi,

We are first time parents. With the help of the Baby Whisperer book, we have recently managed to get our (breastfed) ds to sleep reasonably well at night. He still takes 20 minutes of rocking and singing to settle, but he manages to sleep for 4hr+ stretches.

The problem is with daytime naps, which are starting to drive us (and him) mad.

When he shows signs of tiredness, we take him up to his darkened room for his nap. Again, it takes 20 minutes to settle him (including the lullabies and rocking). However, he will only go down for 15 minutes maximum. He will then wake up tired and cranky.

Any tips from anyone?

hmm, does he have any sort of comforter? I think it was around this time we introduced a blanket & teddy for DS.

possibly he's associated the rocking with sleeping? - have you tried putting him in the cot and stroking his face (worked well with DS)

could he be slightly over tired by the time you take him up? I often found there was a v fine line between ready and over tired and over ment hard to put down then shorter than normal naps then cranky baby.

How many naps does he have at the mo? i'm assuming as you're doing BW you're aiming for the 3 hourly cycle?

also as well (sorry forgot to add) it was around this time DS started stiring after about 20 mins or so - if I was in the room ready I could soothe him back off again and he'd have another hour - not ideal I know but thankfully in our case it was only a phase. might help thou - can you potter in his room once he's asleep for 20 mins or so? I think with DS it was just the reassurance he wanted to know I was watching him.

Thanks for the replies.

We are going for three naps a day. You could be right about he over-tiredness. We have tried to put him down not long after a feed, but that felt too soon, and he screamed until he was brought downstairs.

I get the impression that he feels he is missing out on fun by going up to his room. The comforter is a good idea, but not sure whether he pays enough attention to objects; once they're dropped, he forgets about it.

Anyway, he is rolling around on his mat now; once he starts to yawn, I will head upstairs and try to get him down.

I know we should stop rocking.

Try to get him to sleep before he shows signs of tiredness. At this age they will not last much longer awake then 2 hours from when they last woke.

My current charge 4 months does this awakes around 7am, naps 9 - 11am, naps 1 -3pm and naps 4.30pmish for half an hour. He goes to bed at 7pm, has dream feed at 11pm and wakes again around 4am for small feed.

It made it much easier for me, him, mother and nurse that covers my off hours that he is able to fall asleep by self, and if he went to bed at 9am and woke half an hour later if he is left for 15 mins he will usually go back to sleep.

I would for a week or so, instead of getting him up after he's only been asleep for 15mins rock him back to sleep, when his naps have stabilised then it will be easier to get him off to sleep by self.

That sounds like heaven! Will give those time frames a go. Thanks for that.

Also do you think a mini routine would help ie having a dim light on in his room then singing a song and turning the light off and trying to settle him to sleep?

The reason we are thinking of this is the night time routine of bath, feed & song seems to do the trick.

Yes, definetly do a mini bed time routine.

I'm a type A person, hence the reason anything I do with children has to have a set order or plan(although I can be flexible). My little routine for day time is change nappy, swaddle underarms, walk around room while pulling curtains, sing a song, put babe in bed, say night night and play mobile. Also his last nap of the day he has in pram/car seat.

For previous charges they've had their longer naps in pram while we've been out and about.

Also sleep also has to work with the eating. eg my little one feeds when he awakes(7am,11am,3pm,6.30pm etc) he has been fully on formula for two weeks. As you are breast feeding and BM is digested faster perhaps feed him when he awakes(one side or both if you usually do this) and then half hour before time you want him to sleep offer him the other side, you could do this even if he has fed from both sides before. Make sure he does not fall asleep while BFing though. That way until his naps stabilise you know he is likely not sleeping due to hunger. Good luck, one day everything will all click into place and he'll nap as planned, of course the next day he'll start teething, get a cold etc..........

dd (14wks ish) will not nap upstairs during the day (think she thinks she is missing the action ) but happily drops off in bouncy chair or basket in the living room, or (as this morning) under the baby gym.

Personally this is fine by me, but then we are lazy hippy types and don't have much of a bedtime routine either, and certainly don't do the BW....