When Will Naps Lengthen?!

[Rowlie]

Just that really… when/if/how… how normal is this?

5 month old ds has done 40 min (to the dot) naps since around 6 weeks old, so this isn’t part of any kind of regression. He has been having 4/5 naps a day as a result but still seems grouchy and tired. Night sleep is ok, 1/2 wakings on a good night for feeding, which I’ve been told is fairly good for an EBF baby. No four month regression yet…

He self settles in his cot, white noise, black out, etc. He can also sleep in pram/car/sling. Occasionally can get him into another sleep cycle in the car/sling if we are driving for long enough but not pram, his eyes ping open at 40 mins. Fairly recently his 1st nap of day has started extending to two sleep cycles (1hr 20ish). But not always.

Just looking for reassurance really as a FTM. I’m sure his night sleep would be better if he linked his day sleeps (randomly one day he had 2x 2hr naps and then slept through that night for the first time). Do they do it in their own time? I don’t think there is much more I can do to encourage him - I’ve tried leaving him but he he gets worked up and not keen to consider any formal sleep training until 6m. He starts childminder’s next week for 2x half days and I’m just worried about how he is going to cope when still catnapping!

You can hasten along the learning process, so that they learn to link sleep cycles sooner.

The idea would be to add in extra help at the end of one sleep cycle, to sooth baby into the next one. If baby is asleep in something that moves (pram, bouncy chair etc) this is most easily done since you just need to rock the pram or bounce the bouncer for 15 minutes from about 30 minutes into the nap. If baby is napping stationary (ie in a cot) try patting and shushing from 30 minutes.

You need to be consistent too - do it every single nap, every day, all naps. The more baby practices linking naps, the quicker they learn.

Thanks @FATEdestiny . And if I do nothing, will he eventually learn anyway (if he can self settle)? He is now fairly consistently linking his first nap of the day. So he’s currently having one 1hr30nap followed by 3x 30-40 minute naps throughout the day, still seems overtired though by bedtime! If I’m walking with the pram, he’ll wake after 30 minutes but won’t go back if I carry on walking.

In my experience they only lengthen when they start to drop naps to 3x a day then 2x a day, and you get a lovely few weeks of long naps before you have to start cutting them short so they go to bed on time 😭

@Rowlie

Thanks *@FATEdestiny* . And if I do nothing, will he eventually learn anyway (if he can self settle)? He is now fairly consistently linking his first nap of the day. So he’s currently having one 1hr30nap followed by 3x 30-40 minute naps throughout the day, still seems overtired though by bedtime! If I’m walking with the pram, he’ll wake after 30 minutes but won’t go back if I carry on walking.

You are unlikely to have a 16 year old who cannot link sleep cycles.

As with many skills, children do, generally, need to go through a process of learning. First nap of the day is always easiest and they usually get more challenging as the day goes on.

My DC1 used to do exactly the same, everything was pretty much identical to what you describe even down to the eyes pinging open in the pram! I found that the naps lengthened randomly at around 7/8 months, now that I think about it, I think at around the same time was when they went to 3 naps like a PP said. I didn’t have to do anything, it just happened by itself!

It was just over 2 years for us when she started sleeping for more than 30 mins at a nap.
She would do it before that but only if breastfeeding and even then, no guarantee.
Yours sounds like a much better sleeper than mine though!

My DS was like this, he’d only ever sleep for me 30 minutes in his cot (nowhere else) and up until about 9 months he had four 30 minute naps a day, when magically at about 10 months he lengthened his morning nap and went to one longer morning nap and one short afternoon nap.

Since about 15 months he’s slept for two hours at lunchtime (he has about and hour now at almost 3)

I thought I would never see the day when he would have a long lunchtime nap but lo and behold it happened! I remember when he was a baby seeing babies napping for hours in their prams while mine was usually fussing and wriggling on my knee. But he’s always slept at night so I used to just think it was just swings and roundabouts!