Breaking the 30 minute barrier!!!

[4candlesforkhandles]

Hello,

I'm sorry if this has been covered before. I am new to MN and very reassured that I'm not the only one with a troublesome 3 month old

I was just wondering if any of you had any tips for breaking the 30 minute barrier. My DD is a terrible daytime napper. We do manage to get her to go to sleep reasonably easily but the problem is she wakes up after 30 mins or 40 min, sometimes 20 mins and then doesn't go back to sleep . By 3pm or 4 pm she is really grumpy .

Do you have any tips?

Thanks

Tips??? Yes please! My 15 week old only has a decent lunch time nap of a few hours when she is in her pram, if she is in her cot it is only 40 mins. She seems so much more refreshed after a longer sleep, I would love to encourage it!

I wear a moby wrap during the day when I feel she needs a longer rest then put her in it. And alternate between putting her in our bed and using the sling for naps so that she's hopefully not going to get acclimatised to sleeping in the sling.

This lets me get some good exercise as well, I've found my leg and bum muscles are much stronger and have lost almost all my pregnancy weight gain after 10 weeks!

This article also explains why it's beneficial... hope it helps:

www.bellybelly.com.au/articles/baby/babywearing-the-benefits

At this age, they nap little and often. My DS was on 3 naps and they never went beyond an hour until he dropped down to 2 naps around 15 months.

DS until this morning (!) would only nap in his bouncy chair - he's currently flat out on his play mat. I found that if I watched for any signs of him stirring at about the 30-40 min mark and v gently rocked him, he would fall back into the next sleep cycle without waking in between. HTH.

DS2 11 months, still only naps for 40 mins at a time....GRRRR.

DS1 began to nap for longer when he went down to one sleep a day at around 14 months so I'm hoping that will be the same with DS2.

I agree with sunangel. I have a [[http://www.closeparent.com/Default.aspx?tabid=163&txtSearch=CLBC180&SortField=ProductName Close baby carrier] which is the only way that DS (13 weeks) will sleep for more than 45 mins at a time. Until recently it was the only way he'd nap at all in the daytime. And I too was suddenly back in my pre-pregnancy jeans after a few weeks of using the sling for naps.

If more than one method of getting DC to sleep works for you, keep trying them all - it is a real pain being stuck with only one way of getting them to sleep during the day.

IIRC, the No-Cry Sleep Solution recommends getting to them shortly before they wake up andsoote them by whatever method you usually use (rocking, patting, breastfeed etc) to help them stay asleep from one sleep cycle to another.

Static radio saved my life (and the cleanliness of my house!!)

DS was exactly like this, at 4mo I read somewhere (probably MN!) about using white noise as it creates a constant background noise which makes them fall back to sleep easier when they come into a lighter sleep (around 30 - 40 mins). Rather than setting the house on fire using a hairdryer I put the radio on a static setting and put it on loud enough so you could hear it if DS was crying IYSWIM. From the very first day his nap extended from 45 mins to me waking him after 2.5 hours!!

We weaned DS off the static radio (by putting it on quieter and quieter) from 7 months and by 8 it was gone completely but he still naps for 2-3 hours now.

Sounds strange but IMO worth a try!

Good luck!

Oops, a duff link in my post above : it should have been Close baby carrier