Sleep training and naps

[amy1313]

Just wondering, those of you who sleep trained, did naps improve too? My DS still only ever does 20-40 minute long naps and it's driving me mad and he's very tired too. I tried so many things and nothing helps. He used to do a fairly reliable 40 minutes but recently it's often only 20 minutes and he won't resettle. He's nearly 5 months, and I'm considering sleep training when he's 6 months. His night sleep is pretty bad too, waking at least 4 times on a good night but I can cope with that better than the day sleep as I just don't get a break at all in the day and it's exhausting. He'll sometimes do a longer nap in the sling but obviously that's not a break for me.

sleep trained around 5 months and now 6 months , naps are a lot better. Goes down great and on a good day, first two naps can be 1.5hours or 45mins+2hours then a short third nap.

It's been great and a real turning point as he was taking ages to settle then sometimes down to just 30 minutes and whingey!

he still wakes 2 times a night (on a good night - one settle and one feed) but way better then before!

@Wingingitmum11 thanks that's really encouraging to hear! Do you put him down at the same time for naps or follow wake windows? I'm trying to follow wake windows for the time being but it's a struggle with the short naps.
Also, can I ask what method did you use to sleep train?

You're in the trenches of the 4 month sleep regression and leap 4. It gets better. Then it gets worse, because leap 5 is coming, we're in it now, it's my own personal hell 😂

@amy1313 we follow wake windows roughly, we get out and about a lot so not always perfect but I need to get out and do activities to keep sane haha!

personally we wouldn't be able to stick to dead set times as wake times and naps do still vary and I'm not sure our lifestyle would suit being that rigid.

To sleep train we did a bedtime routine, bath, feed, sleep sack, book (not in the bedroom)
took in the room with white noise, sang a song and cuddled in arms for a few moments, give dummy. Lay down and say a sleepy phrase , we say 'sleep time, mummy and daddy love you'
stroke his nose a few times and leave.

then we left to soothe, if he cried , we went in after 2 minutes and said 'shh , your ok, we love you, time to sleep' and stroked his nose. No longer then 30 seconds and left.
repeated this and we didn't feel comfortable increasing the length of time so stuck around 2 minutes , 3 max.

same for naps with bath and book (feeds also in waking so no bottle)

if he was ever upset for two long, we picked up, cuddled for a few minutes and placed back down.

Thanks @Wingingitmum11 that's very helpful!

Did you put the dummy back in when you went in to settle him every two minutes? My DS settles quite easily with a dummy at bedtime and sometimes for a nap too, but I wonder if it's contributing to our issues as he wakes when it falls out. I'm tempted to ditch the dummy when we sleep train, but it is a useful tool for helping him to settle so I'm torn...

@amy1313 yes popped the dummy in. I also did want to ditch as we went through a bad stage but I only lasted a day of trying as the crying was too much for me and I caved. It was a different kind of cry!! :(
He can replace himself now so it's much easier!