Is catnapping that bad if baby sleeps through the night?

[feijoo]

Hey mums (and dads),

My 10 week old sleeps from 7.30pm til 5am in one go and then has a feed and goes back to sleep until 7.30am when we start the day. She catnaps about 4 or 5 times during the day for about 45 mins each (which I understand is a baby sleep cycle). She's getting about 14 or 15 hours of sleep each 24 hours which seems to be within NHS guidelines.

I have read in sleep programs like Little Ones that catnapping is super bad and when baby reaches 4 months everything will change (I am not sure how to be honest, I can't work that out). Since baby is sleeping well and catnapping seems to be fine for her (she is a happy little thing) and me (I don't mind the short daytime naps to get a solid block of sleep each night) - is this really an issue or some kind of scaremongering to new parents who happen to have a happy sleeper?

"If it ain't broke don't fix it" springs to mind, but as a first time mom am I being naive?

Thanks for any advice or for sharing your experience xx

If your baby is getting enough sleep and you are not cracking up from sleep deprivation then nothing else matters.

She's only 10 weeks old, still a newborn. Most babies need an awful lot of sleep at this age and it's pointless even thinking about routines. My baby was still nodding off anywhere and everywhere at this age. The articles you're talking about refer to the 4 month sleep regression which was very bad for us but not all babies will be affected. Things will change as she reaches different ages and stages and sleep needs are constantly changing in the first 2-3 years until they drop all naps.

There's no point worrying about what's ahead, just do what's working well today. If your baby isn't developmentally ready to link sleep cycles together for naps then I don't know how you would do anything about it anyway.

All sleep counts, even the cat naps! I wouldn't change anything, she's doing brilliantly at the moment.

Congrats on getting relatively decent sleep this early in the game! Your baby’s dojng just fine!

That sounds like a dream sleep set up! I don’t think 45m counts as a cat nap at all fwiw - when mine were that tiny I’d count 45m as a proper nap. It was only if they did less than that (so not a full cycle) then I’d stress a bit. Of course that’s pointless as you can’t do much to change it!

At 10 weeks I wouldn’t even think about it, and wouldn’t consider it catnapping. It’s later on, when they start doing 20-minute naps after epic battles about it, that’s the issue.

That sounds like amazing sleep for a 10 week old. 45 minute nap cycles is good.

i know it’s really hard to do but try to deal with problems or things that need changing when they occur, rather than second guessing what might cause problems in the future. It’s much less stressful and it’s impossible to say what’s going to happen anyway.

Honestly amazing night sleep and just enjoy it!

I’m also lucky that my baby sleeps through the night, and have decided not to worry too much about nap schedules unless that changes. I just let her nap when she wants. I’d roll with it if I was you!

I always found the better they slept in the day the better they slept at night and at 10 weeks they should still be sleeping a lot.

Ahh thanks so much for the reassurance. Ok, I should stop worrying! It's hard when my friends with slightly older babies are always talking about their nightmare sleep (although in fairness, come to think of it they always had nightmare sleep from the beginning!).

Reality check for me then, just relax and enjoy this time. I'm going to avoid reading too much more about sleep because I think all the info is just winding me up for no reason. There is too much info out there.

It is also hard when everyone around me says 'Oh your baby is sleeping now but at day 100 that will all change and I hope you're ready for it'. I think that's a bit mean. Maybe things will change and that's ok, I'll deal with it when/if it happens - but seems a bit cruel when people predict your future for you.

Thanks everyone xx

My view is if it works for you, you and your baby are both getting sleep and you and your baby are both happy then it works… no need to change anything.
Having had more than one baby, I can tell you that each baby js different and no advice from “experts” is going to work for every baby.
My youngest (who is still under 1) is a real catnapper - has a tendency to nap for only 20 minutes at a time! But still sleeps through the night. I am sleeping, they are happy so I’m not going to do anything to try and force longer naps because there’s no “problem to be fixed”.
You’re doing great!

Around 4 months the way their brain processes sleep literally changes, they start to have sleep cycles more like adults. At 10 weeks that doesn’t happen yet, almost all of newborn sleep is REM sleep rather than cycles of different kinds of sleep.

Tbh there isn’t much point worrying about it now, be grateful that baby sleeps through the night and don’t worry about what the naps are doing at this stage. The current set up is obviously working for baby.

Reassess in a month or two as things start to change.

Tbh though from my experience with friends, if their babies did sleep through in the early days it didn’t take them too long to get back to sleeping through or close to it after 4 months.

Not sleeping through is also normal. It just depends on the baby you get.

I think make the most of this and get enough sleep, as much as you can manage. Because yes things will probably change. But the start is the most tiring time of all, so this is really good for you too.

my son didn’t sleep reliably at all until he was two and it was just so difficult

Definitely agree that if it's working for you, then that's what matters. I spent far too much time obsessing over my 3 year old's naps and sleep as a baby! Im now more relaxed with my 6 month old, she has anything from 1-3 naps a day of varying times, and sometimes sleeps as little as 45 mins in the days, but consistently sleeps 12 hours at night. I think some children just sleep better than others and have different sleep needs to what they 'should' do.

Don't do anything that might disrupt the night sleep!

So long as she's meeting her milestones if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Apparently I did this and am a fully functioning adult! 😆

(Basically, totally fine and don’t feel there are sleep rules)

This

Just do whatever works... mine was still having a 2.5 hour nap at age 3.5 which everyone said 'must ruin his night sleep' but it did the opposite he slept like a log with the nap and woke over tired without. Take the guides with a pinch of salt unless you're struggling with sleep issues and want to try some of the 'suggested' routines. They are just suggestions, but honestly if you have what works for now, then find another thing that works, you never need to try another sleep routine suggestion!

My two also slept though the night from weeks old (10pm-7am) and often napped in the day (I can’t remember how long - I was a long time ago!) and had no massive regression I can remember. Not all babies are nightmare sleepers!

Enjoy it, just don’t mention it too much to other mom friends. It seems to make them angry rather than pleased for you, which is understandable!

my little boy slept in pretty much the exact same pattern as your little one at that age and always had very short naps until he hit around 18 months and dropped to one nap of around 1 hour - occasionally 2 but usually just 1 hour. He's always been good sleeper at night and still the case now at 29 months (bar some sleep regressions and illness / teething etc). Yes their sleep changes as they mature and yes the 4 month regression happens for lots of babies (not all) but you're fully aware and prepared for changes. Best advice i could ever give about sleep (if your little one sleeps well based on you and what your family view as sleeping well and its not causing you issues) is to simply smile and say 'fine' whenever someone asks how your baby is sleeping. Never ever go into detail as people tend to push advice/ force opinions on you. These people aren't with that baby 24/7 and definitely won't be there in the middle of the night so their opinion isnt needed (unless you specifically asked for advice). Sounds like things are going well with sleep, try not to overthink it xx

Enjoy your sleep at night and don’t worry about naps. She’s way too young to be thinking about routines etc. You will probably find that things change at four months, if so you’ll be grateful that you’re at least going into it refreshed. And if things don’t change then brilliant!