What exactly is CC and

[Bena1]

DS is 13 weeks and EBF. He wakes at night to feed about 3/4 times and that's fine because I think he's genuinely hungry but nap time - that's another matter! A baby his age should need/want at least 4 to 4.5 hours of day sleep. DS just fights sleep. We use to rock, walk, shake, sing - basically whatever it took to put him to sleep in the afternoons and then hold him while he slept as he would wake up the minute we put him down. The funny thing is at night he happily goes in this cot. That's probably because we have a bed time routine and we only put him in his cot AFTER he falls asleep . Now I've started nap time in his cot as well but when he's awake and after a feed. He only manages 30mins at a time. WHY OH WHY?! For the afternoon nap he does 30mins, wakes up, cries his eyes out, I feel bad and feed him (seems like he's genuinely hungry) and then put him back in. He cries for at least an hour or so while I hold his hand (walk away occasionally thinking it's my face that's making him cry!) and finally he sleeps. But he only really falls asleep as I hold his hand. Of course I think yes, now he'll sleep longer as he's so tired - nope after a long cry I only get a 38mins rest maximum. We do a morning nap and then an afternoon nap. By the time we finish our ordeal and he does his last 30mins we're at 3:00 and then we do bath and bed at 5:30 pm.

Isn't what I'm doing a form of CC or have I just invented this? What am I doing wrong that he doesn't fall asleep for longer than 30mins without me having to hold him? Or am I just completely not getting the point here? Sorry for the long rant. Please please please help!

Bena1 honestly I would let him try & find his own napping routine rather than trying to create one when he's still quite tiny. DD never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time at first. I always found that if I went to bed with DD she would sleep better and it gave me a chance to get an hour or so of sleep in the bank as well. She only went longer in one stint when she was 5 or 6 months old. Don't get overly bogged down with how many hours the book says they need - they will get it one way or another.

Really don't worry about the 30 minutes problem. My DD did that at every nap time (and screamed every time I put her down) at that age but now at 20 weeks she'll sometimes nap for 2 1/2 hours. I hardly know what to do with myself!

I always got DD up from her nap when she woke after 30 minutes rather than trying to force her to have more sleep as it just left both of us in tears. Now however I sometimes leave her to cry a bit, going in to reassure her (as a form of CC) if she's only had a tiny amount of sleep all day i.e. an hour and it's the afternoon. And generally she'll sleep again...

So it seems they do just get better at it. Not that that helps when you're being screamed at and a week seems like a long time let alone waiting until a few months for less screaming!

By the way, I did as many 30 minute naps as I could leaving DD only awake for a max of 2 hours at a time before putting her in the cot, rather than a schedule or morning and afternoon naps. I would have liked a schedule to be fair, but I was more bothered that she got some regular rest!

My ds does this and I've never had success resettling him so now when he wakes from his short nap I often pop him in the sling to get another half hour or forty minutes out of him. Not ideal- I'd obviously love a two hour stint (we had one out of the blue once and I didn't know what to do with myself) but I'll take anythingvi can get! It's good to have littlestlass' reassurance.

My DD was a serial short napper 30 mins on the dot tried many things - wake to sleep, driving, pram, cot, black out blinds, nothing made an iota of a difference. When she turned 10 months, all of a sudden she started doing 1.5-2hours. I wish now I had just accepted that was all she needed at that stage. It will pass, they all end up so active that they need a longer sleep at some point. Easy to say now but try not to stress about it, it is tiring as you don't get a real break but it's not forever...

Every baby is different but 30 minutes, maybe three or four times a day is not all that unusual at this age and settling back during day time naps is more difficult and may well come easier later. There is often a chicken and egg situation, a bit more activity during the day (age related), makes them a bit more tired, they sleep a bit more, sleep better at night and it all snowballs. (until you have a bad day / night when it all goes pete tong and you start all over again!)

Sounds like he is doing well at night for this age.

Over the next few weeks / months think about doing bedtime while he is still awake and think about reducing the amount of settling he needs.

If you both accepted that a 30 minute nap was OK for you now, you would probably both be more chilled out and longer naps might just follow.

only some babies read GF in the womb and buy into the 2.5 hour mid day nap for Mummy to clean the house, paint her nails and do her PhD. My middle one did but one and three were watching telly instead and opted for the 45 minute nap instead.

Read the No Cry Sleep Solution book, its got some great ideas and explains sleep patterns etc..

Thanks ladies! MISTYB - you are right, babies haven't read GF and I think I should stop paying attention to her as well. It's easier when you're not expecting them to do something a book says works for all babies.

Will try this book WRENSMUM - a few mums seem to have mentioned it.

The No-Cry Nap Solution is good too.

I agree with not worrying about short naps - DS (20 weeks) used to have 3 or 4 30-45 minute naps a day. I never ever managed to resettle him once he'd woken up from a nap. But he seems to be gradually developing the ability to sleep for longer and he has at least one long nap at least every couple of days or so. This morning, for example, he slept for 2 hours.

I've spoken to / read about lots of babies with serial short nappers who grow into longer naps, some at 4/5 months, some much later.

Littlestlass's system of awake for 2 hours before getting them off to sleep again worked for us too - except ours was up for 1.5 hours. Now DS sleeps better, he can stay awake for longer. If you see any sleepy signs, that is the signal that a nap is due now!