Tackling 5 month old naps

[bearhugs22]

My 5 and a bit month old is still struggling to nap for long enough during the day. The thing I’m confused about is that she self settles perfectly at the beginning of her nap, goes down in her cot wide awake and falls asleep within 10 mins or so, but she ALWAYS wakes after 30 mins or less, usually crying and rubbing her eyes still tired. She will sometimes sleep longer in the pram if I’m constantly moving, but not always. Does anyone know how I can fix this? Is it just a case of waiting it out or should I try some for of nap training? All the advice says the key is to get her to fall asleep by herself but she can already do this!? She sleeps fairly well at night, down at 7pm and wakes twice for a feed (EBF) then up for the day about 6:30am.

My five month old is the same, but sleeps worse at Night! Hopefully someone will come along with a suggestion to help us both!

At the moment I’m making sure at least one nap is on the move in the car or buggy so that he gets one longer sleep.

@RockAndRollerskate it’s so frustrating isn’t it, must be even harder for you if your LO isn’t sleeping well at night either! Hopefully we get some good advice here 🤞🏻

Think I recall reading about babies coming out of sleep about 34-37 minutes into nap and if not picked up / disturbed they fall back into their deeper restorative sleep. Baby might be used to always being picked up interacted with at this time so worth trying to settle again for that good long snooze. Definitely this was the case for a couple of mine.

@Sontagsleere i have wondered if it’s partly out of habit. I often try leaving her but even after 5 mins she’s still wide awake and crying, then I usually just get her up. Should I be leaving her longer, or going in to reassure then leaving again? Don’t know what to do for the best!

The best is to trust your instinct - is she fed, clean nappy and tired? Work through it in your mind, trust yourself and give it more than five minutes. It may take a few days but so worth it when they take delicious long naps!

Thanks @Sontagsleere, I am going to try leaving her longer to settle when she wakes from her morning nap tomorrow and see how we get on

Does she have a dummy? Have you tried contact naps?

I don't have advice but just to reassure you that both of mine did this as babies and they gradually started napping better as they got older without me doing anything about it really.My youngest is 7 months and does still do this a lot but we do often get longer naps if they're contact naps, or in the pram or car. He's been asleep on me for 1.5 hrs as I type and did a 2hr nap on me at the cinema this morning too.

@SecondhandTable no she has never taken a dummy (or a bottle) despite my hardest efforts! She’s not great at contact napping either annoyingly, she’s never been the kind of baby that would just drift off in your arms. On the odd occasion that she does fall asleep being held then it will sometimes result in a longer nap but more often than not it’s just the usual 30 minutes. She can usually nap longer in the carrier but I have to be moving and she’s quite easily disturbed in it if for example if I have to answer the phone or go from indoors to outdoors she will wake up. I would love just one decent nap a day that I didn’t have to ‘work’ for the entire time iyswim! Hopefully she will get there in time like yours did