Extending a nap

[Bobbys]

My 3.5 old month old baby takes very short naps. His morning nap is only 45 minutes long and I know he should sleep longer to eek out the benefits of sleep. I have read the No-Cry Nap Solution, but I am wondering what works for you all. Any tips or tricks? We swaddle, he'll sleep in my bed or his crib or in the wrap. But it all ends in 45 minutes. As the day progresses, the naps gets shorter until he is a cranky mess. Even in my arms, he doesn't sleep long. Has anyone tried the Wake-to-Sleep method? He falls asleep no problem, it's just how do I keep him sleeping?

[Truckerdoo]

[Addie]

I'd like to know, too. DS's naps tend to be almost exactly 45 minutes - I swear, you could set a clock by them. If he naps in my arms, I can sometimes rock and sshh him hen he wakes up and get him to fall back asleep for another 45 minutes, but that's not a very sustainable solution.

PS - Our DS's middle name is Leo. I love it!

[tzs]

i have a 45 minute napper as well. firstly, although i read a different sleep book and was also obsessed with getting longer naps and more benefit, i think it said that 45 minutes was on the border of being beneficial whereas 30 minutes was not.

also, i have more recently (after 6 months of this!) noticed that sometimes she wakes from her naps cranky and apparently still tired. if i can get there in time i can put her back to sleep by giving her the nuk and leaving her. sometimes i might have to do this after two sleep cycles of waking up cranky but at a certain point she will wake up happy. i know there are other ways to extend naps if you get them at the right moment but the nuk works for us.

so now if she wakes up cranky and bleary-eyed the nap continues. this weekend the nuk wasn;t working but she was mad. i even had to take her downstairs and rock her in the stroller but unless she's happy the nap must go on!!!

[tzs]

oh also...as she's gotten older (7 months) we've had some "naturally occurring" longer naps of 1.5 hours or so. it might be something they grow into?

[hakeber]

I keep my little one in her stroller or her bucket car seat near me while she naps, so that when she stirs I can give her a rocking jiggle with my toe to try and get her to go back to sleep.

How is your ds sleeping at night? I find dd sleeps in shorter stretches during the day now but then will sleep a solid 8 or 9 hours at night.

I also resort to wearing her and being active myself, if I pop her in the carrier and go for a long walk or do housework, she'll drift off, and sleep the whole time, as long as I am moving.

[cristeen]

Well, 45 minutes is one REM cycle for a baby (for adults it's 90 minutes). So it sounds like he comes back into the light phase of sleep and something's waking him up. What's different between how he goes to sleep and how he wakes up? Have you tried wearing him through a nap?

For my guy, when he makes his first cry, if his eyes are still closed I have a chance to get him back to sleep - but I have to feed him immediately and without disturbing him (I can't pick him up). It works about 80% of the time. But if his eyes are completely open, then he's not going to go back to sleep, period.

But, if he's screaming, then nothing will get him back to sleep - I have to pick him up to calm him down.

[akind1]

right now DS is in the middle of a 2 hour + nap . . . he doesn't get these every day, and often not more than one. He sleeps best swaddled (arms free), under a fan, with the door shut in a room that is dim but not dark. during the weekends when we are not home much during the day, he just cat naps when he can catch them, usually in the car.

when he was taking short naps, it was usually because we weren't laying him down for naps - nothing official - just allowing him to fall asleep when and where he wanted - on his playmat, in his bouncy seat, in arms, etc. Once we made more of an effort to lay him down for a nap, they got longer.

Is your LO cranky when he awakes, or is he happy and content? if he is happy, then I think I would let it be. if he's cranky, then maybe one of the back to sleep fixes PP suggested may work.

[maptome]

Originally Posted by tzs

oh also...as she's gotten older (7 months) we've had some "naturally occurring" longer naps of 1.5 hours or so. it might be something they grow into?

My babe used to only nap for 45 minutes until around 7 months. I did cut out dairy at around that time, which may or may not have contributed to longer naps now at 9 months. A 1.5 hours nap in the morning and a 30-45 minute nap in the evening. Or may be "naturally occurring."

[zenproof]

i had a 30min napper. and they are only JUST NOW beginning to get longer.

i really do think some babes just have to mature into longer napping.

and its totally random. he either goes past that 30/45mins into an 1hr+ nap, or he doesn't. i have tried EVERYTHING to extend.

so at 7months he is still getting 3 naps a day. i think it will be awhile before he can make it to bedtime without all three.

he is also eating twice a day on top of our BF'ing sessions. whether the extra calories and the longer naps are related or not - i dont know.

[Asparagus78]

I have a video monitor which I use to catch DS at the first sign he's waking up (usually after about 30-45 mins.). I can usually catch him just before he opens his eyes and nurse him back down. Sometimes it works and he'll sleep another hour or so. Sometimes he wakes up and wraps his fat fingers around the boob and gives me a huge smile - what a great way for him to wake up! We've just transitioned from taking naps in the Ergo to sleeping on my bed (which we do at night) so naps are still a little erratic...

[just_lily]

My DD slept for 45 minutes about every three hours all day long until she was about 10 months old. Then it started to consolodate into a morning and an afternoon nap of about 90 minutes. She dropped the morning nap at about 15 months and now at 21 months she naps for about 1.5 to 2.5 hours each afternoon. I never did anything to change her sleep, and just followed her lead.

I think that a 45 minute nap is a completely normal sleep pattern for a young infant. I found when DD was little and I started really getting frustrated with her sleep she would change things up on her own. Just hang in there, and it will get better!!

[Bobbys]

When he wakes from his 45 minute morning nap, he is generally content. But as the day progresses, he wakes up cranky and I can't seem to get him back down unless I wear him. As he gets heavier, it becomes increasingly hard to do things and he doesn't usually like it when I sit when he is in the moby.

He is a pretty good night sleeper. He goes to bed around 8pm. He does not STTN, but wakes frequently either to eat or let out a cry. He has been crying in his sleep, but he usually just needs a quick reassurance and then he goes back to sleep. We never intended to cosleep when I was pregnant, but found it works for us now.

If napping is our biggest problem, then I am not doing too badly.

Thanks mommies for your help.

[Just1More]

I need to go, and haven't read all the replies, but wanted to say that at that age, that length of nap sounds about right.

I can't remember which book talks about a 2 hour cycle? Something like they wake up, eat, play (including a diaper change), and then are back asleep. All within a two hour span. Even if they don't seem tired, try to get them to sleep around that 2 hour mark, and most the time, they'll go. (By the way, mine usually nursed to sleep, too. So it was wake, eat, play, eat, sleep, over and over.)

Two hours sounds like a long time, but it actually goes pretty fast. Say it's 8 in the morning, and look at it like this...

8-wake up and nurse
820-diaper change, look around, play with Mama, come with Mama to load the washer or whatever
8:45-get tired and fussy
9-nurse and fall asleep...
915-be put down
1000-wake up and nurse
1020-diaper change, look around, play with Mama, etc
1045-get fussy
1100-nurse and fall asleep
Etc.

You really get, in my experience, less than 30 minutes of "awake time" every other hour (not including basic care, like feeding and diaper changes).

Seems like around 6-9 months they stretch that routine out to about 3 hours, and then, slowly, to 4. Then around a year, they may be just napping in the morning and afternoon. Dd2 is 14 months and sleeps a little over an hour mid-morning, about 2 hours in the afternoon, and from 7 or 8p to 6 or 7a. But she was just ready to to do that and did it on her own.

Anyway, that's how my three have been. It is very important to watch that 2 hour mark. If you miss it, they can get cranky and over-stimulated, and harder to put down. And sleep poorly as a result. It can be a vicious cycle.