Daytime naps - how do you persude babies to sleep longer than 40 mins?

[Liff]

I am convinced that this is why my DD isn't sleeping well at night but every 90 mins she will go for a 40 m in sleep and then wake up so perky that there is no getting her back to sleep

Any tips? x

Hi Liff, my DS was exactly the same. He had 45 mins every 90 mins and woke up happy as Larry. I think that if they wake up happy, there's not much you can do. At around six months he dropped the last 45 min nap which was quite late in the day and then he stuck it onto his lunch time nap himself.

I do remember extending the second nap time by 5 mins every 2 days. So he'd go back down after 1.5 hours for 45 mins in the am. Then slowly I pushed on the second nap, making sure it wasn't too much for him. An easy way to shorten the afternoon nap is to make sure it's always in the buggy or car. So the lunch time one becomes the established long one if that makes sense.

Don't know what else you could try. How bad is the night time sleep? How does your DS get herself off to sleep before each nap and at night time?

x

Maybe try blacking out the windows?

I fed DD back to sleep when she stirred. It did work, especially if I caught her straight away.

Sorry, no tips other than "wait" from me! My two DSs both did this and in the end they seemed to grow out of it - I think when they were about 9mths to 1 year and could stay awake for a few hours at a time. DD is 8 mths and still doing it!

Put her in a ring sling and carry her. Babies stay asleep far better when they are held than when they are alone in a cot/crib etc. But, that said, all babies have thier own sleep pattern, so it may be that she is a cat-napper, not Rip-Van Winkle, so you may just have to learn to live with it!!

pick up put down worked for me once DS reached 4 months. Took a few days, persistence and patience but defitely worth it.

Thanks for all of your comments. I take it pick up/put down is what it says it is? i.e. pick them up when they cry then put them back down when they stop?

She was sleeping really well at night but since New Year she seems to have resolved to wake every 2 hours (I am rubbish with no sleep and also have a 3 yo to look after).

Oops, sorry Liff. Yes, that's it. If they start crying as you put them down then put them all the way down but then pick up again and repeat!

Here's how it went for us in a planned 2 hour nap (naps disturbed due to jet lag):

Day 1: DS wakes after one hour. PU/PD about 15 times over 20 minutes. DS went down and then slept for 30 mins. Then woke. PU/PD for last 10 minutes of nap

Day 2: DS wakes after one hour. PU/PD about 10 times (approx) over 10 minutes. Then slept for 50 minutes until I woke him at end of nap.

Day 3: DS wakes after one hour. I go up and put the dummy in, he goes back to sleep. Same again about 30 minutes later.

Day 4: DS wakes after one hour. I put dummy in. He sleeps until end of nap.

Day 5: DS sleeps for entire nap.

...so basically takes some persistence but it worked in the end.

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