When (if ever) did your baby start getting "organized" re: napping?

[jsh7809]

My girl is almost 12 weeks and her naps are still super weird... she'll take a ton of short ones in the morning (to the point that I still can't really tell when we actually wake up, if that makes sense - everything from sunrise to about 9am seems like a short nap). Then throughout the day she'll nap in the car or on a walk, but only for as long as we're moving. She wakes up the minute I take her out of the car (still in the carseat) or stop walking. She'll sometimes go down easily for a nap in the afternoons, but mostly I have to lie down with her and give her the nipple or pinky to suck on every 10 minutes for her to get a rest at all. She never seems to get into a good, deep sleep in the afternoons, and is obviously tired/ crabby/ fussy. She also has a hard time going down for the night and won't get into a deep sleep until the sun is down (no matter what I try to block out light, etc).
Anyway, I am trying not to compare but know that the books (ha!) all seem to indicate that she should be consolidating her naps into longer chunks... and I see that she gets really grouchy in the afternoons and evenings but gets WAY harder to get to sleep... I feel like I've tried everything, hopefully I just need to give it time?

[Snapdragon]

have you tried a baby swing? I got this advice from someone on good ole mothering.com- and also someone IRL around the same time.
They said- get a baby swing. Make sure the baby is swaddled (except not the legs/feet as that would interfere with the buckle thing in the sing) and turn the swing to the highest speed. It helps some people to give their baby a good sustained nap. good luck! (btw some say that some babies like the swing and some don't but it is worth a try!)
In my experience so far I think it is worth it to prioritize figuring out ways to get the baby to sleep more- (though I guess those ways can be different for different families ) as opposed to just waiting till the baby figures it out.

[Alisse]

My son was having difficulty with naps until i realized that i had to wear him or walk him in a stroller in order for him to have longer naps. Even then he wouldn't sleep longer than like 30-45mins. That went on until he learned how to crawl well (~8.5months of age). Now he takes solid 1-1.5hour naps, three times a day, at consistent times and is overall in much better spirits.

[Tway]

I didn't figure out DD's nap patterns until she was about 3 months old. Before that, I was living in a panicked sleep blur! At three months, I realized I could get her down for 1 nap in the morning in her swing, one in the afternoon in the stroller, and one on me just before supper. (She's only ever napped 40 minutes at a time, though--and now she's down to just 2 naps).

I found it hard to figure out just what she needed, and when, and the baby books all made me feel like a lousy mother. So I'd suggest you look for sleep signs in your baby, and try her in the swing or take her for a walk then, or carry her around in a baby sling and see when she nods off.

Don't worry--you'll figure it out!

[jsh7809]

Thanks, guys! That does make me feel better... right now I have figured out that she'll take one nap very soon after we get out of bed (and for the past few days, this weird thing happens - I lay her down in her crib, she wiggles around, and then falls asleep on her own. WHOA! Won't do it any other time of day, though), then another one later in the morning in her swing. These are usually only 30-45 minutes but still good deep sleeps.
But then it kind of falls apart in the afternoons. I guess I will have to try going on longer walks, or drives, or working on my patience. She hates the swing, vibrating chair, pacifier, carrier, anything but just ME at this time of day - which of course seems to coincide with me starting to feel touched out.
I've noticed my mom seems to have better luck with getting her to nap in the afternoons - whether that's because she's more patient at the rocking and singing and walking than I am, or because she's less interesting (no milky breasts!) than me, I don't know. She did say that the baby needed resettling for the first 20 minutes of her hour long nap the other day, which is my experience - except often I can NEVER get her to settle all the way.
Silly babies - why don't you sleep when you're tired?!

[treeoflife3]

my kiddo didn't have any sleep patterns that were down for longer than a week (two once she got to about 4 months) til 9 months old. Every day was usually a new surprise as to what she would do.

[jsh7809]

I'm also thinking of trying to make a certain part of the afternoon (say 3-5pm) a "mellow" time where we lay down together every day, or as much as possible... so she starts putting together that that's naptime. But she is only 3 months, so maybe I'm jumping the gun. I read the No Cry Sleep Solution and have to keep reminding myself it's still too early to expect any degree of predictability.

[waiting2bemommy]

I haven't read all the replies but my first thought was that she is overtired and can't wind down sufficiently. I am having scheduling issues too with dd's naps but it is mainly because I have other kids in the house to deal with (my toddler and the chidlren I babysit) as well as a weird work schedule (I work graveyard shift 4 nights a week)

I would try, for keeping her asleep:
swaddling, just the arms/torso
laying her on her belly to sleep (obviously not around pillows or anything)
white noise or a cd of gentle classical music or ocean sounds--you can turn it up pretty loud and it is pretty effective
wearing her in the sling, and dancing around to some music until she falls asleep, then laying down with her still in the sling, and gently easing the sling off your body. Leave her there, still in the sling, for a few minutes, before gently working it off her, and leave her to sleep on her side or belly.

Also both of my kids have had phases as newborns where nothing was acceptable except me. tonight for instance, every time dd was with daddy she kept crying until he handed her to me. she wasn't hungry either, just wanted me to hold her. And heaven forbid I dare to sit down.

Another thing to try if you are laying her in a crib to sleep, is setting a warm heating pad in there and taking it out right before you lay her down. Sometimes the shock of going from mommy's warm cuddly arms to flat, cool surface is just too drastic....warming it up a little can make it less stimulating when you want her to stay asleep.

[snoopy5386]

DD2 has sort of a nap schedule but nap length is very, very variable. Basically she wakes up and after an hour is ready for a nap, then another nap 2 hours after she wakes from the first, another 2 hours after she wakes from the second and another 2 hours after she wakes from the third and so on. Usually it is about 3 naps a day, sometimes 4. Naps vary in length from 20 mins to 2 hours with no predictablility. So if she wakes at 9 am, she'll be ready for her 1st nap by 10 am. If she naps until 10:45 then she'll be ready for her next nap at 12:45 and so on. DD1 was the same way. As she got older the time between naps got longer and followed the 2, 3, 4 rule that is part of the Happiest Baby on the Block book - basically a nap 2 hours after waking, then 3 hours after waking from the 1st nap and then 4 hours after waking from the 2nd nap.

[GuavaGirl]

For me, once mine was around 8 weeks he stopped just falling asleep when he was tired and needed a little more help from me. I found the book, "Happiest Baby on the Block" to be extremely helpful at that time. He's 4 1/2 months now and I'm still using techniques from the book.

The main things are swaddling, rocking/jiggling, white noise, and starting all of this before they get too tired, and just making sure they get enough hours of sleep in overall. I would still read the book though.

[moxygirl]

Originally Posted by treeoflife3

my kiddo didn't have any sleep patterns that were down for longer than a week (two once she got to about 4 months) til 9 months old. Every day was usually a new surprise as to what she would do.

except my son is only 7 months so I have no idea when/if we'll have an organized nap schedule. I'm actually shocked at how many people seem to have babies that sleep on a schedule! I thought DS was typical...

[sunnygir1]

Ds is my second, and I think he was at least 6 months before I found much of a reliable pattern to his napping. Now he's taking a morning and an afternoon nap fairly reliably.

[Lauren31]

It was CONSTANTLY changing depending on the needs of the baby and what milestones she was hitting. I have found that she just will not nap as long as she needs to unless she is swaddled. I am hoping she outgrows this bc it seems odd to swaddle a 5 month old... Also, I have begun to look for the double yawn. If I catch her at the right time it is very easy to put her down, nursing, patting, etc. If I get her too early or too late then it's like herding cats.

[SilverFish]

we had the same problem and still do, some days. i realized that often i was missing her early sleep cues and not helping her until she was too tired and cranky to function. we still get messed up on days when we're out and about, since swaddling and sleeping in a dark, quietish room seem pretty necessary.

basically, we seem to have two patterns. on some days, she takes two long, sustained naps, one just before lunch, and one in the later afternoon. these naps are often an hour to two hours long. we also have a couple cat naps in the morning... these days she doesn't go to bed until 9pm. the other sort of day tends to be lots more short naps, spaced about 2 hours apart, and usually not longer than 45 min. on these days, she definitely is ready for bed by 7pm. i prefer the 9pm days, because she is much more pleasant and calm throughout the day. but i really do have to watch her closely, and get her swaddled and in her crib BEFORE the melt down starts. it's like i need to anticipate the point where the giggles and smiles turn into whines, and get her in nap mode right before that point.

it did take me quite a while to clue in that i was missing the napping sweet spot. hopefully you find yours!

[Asiago]

At six months my son fell into a pattern of napping about one hour per every 2-3 waking hours but until then I did not see a pattern.

[jsh7809]

Originally Posted by SilverFish

we had the same problem and still do, some days. i realized that often i was missing her early sleep cues and not helping her until she was too tired and cranky to function. we still get messed up on days when we're out and about, since swaddling and sleeping in a dark, quietish room seem pretty necessary.
it did take me quite a while to clue in that i was missing the napping sweet spot. hopefully you find yours!

I had the opposite problem - I started trying to get her to sleep every time I found her yawning, getting tired, cranky, fussy, etc., right away. Then suddenly one day I realized I had been rocking her in the darkened room for like 5 hours in one day and it was making me lose it big time!
Now I am trying to ensure that she gets at least 2 1 hour naps if I can, but it's tough, since I have to either be there with her soothing her every few minutes or walking continuously. If we are lying down and I move at all, no matter how deep asleep she seems, she'll wake up.
I'm trying to look at it now like, okay, my baby takes a bunch of short naps throughout the day, fine. She does get pretty cranky by the later afternoon but I can't make her sleep, so I have to keep living my life even when she won't go down easily (most days). There were two times in the last week when I put her down to play happily in her crib and suddenly she drifted off on her own and I was SHOCKED. So maybe it will happen occasionally...
She also is a pretty good sleeper at night once I get her down, so I need to look on the bright side. AND realize that both situations (bad daytime sleep, good nighttime sleep) are going to change, often daily, from time to time - so maybe I can stop being such a control freak?

[1blueheron]

It seems like our 5 mo is going through some kind of nap transition. When NB, she slept 20 hours a day, anywhere, anytime, no help needed (how naive I was back then, to think that would continue . Then two 30 minute naps a day (ack!). Then a 30 minute nap every 2 hrs on the dot (sigh). Now morning naps seem to be consolidating into one longer nap.

A few weeks ago, a friend of mine loaned me the Ferber book, and while I'm not at all convinced that CIO would help us, I will say that I found one very useful and interesting thing in the book! There's a nifty graphical chart in which you color in blocks of sleep - seven horizontal bands (each one a day) stacked on top of one another, each band divided into twenty-four blocks (one for each hour of the day).

The cool thing is that it makes it easy to see nap blocks drift around, split, and consolidate over time. I may not be able to control the patterns that are emerging but it's neat to observe them. And I bet you could even make such a chart without having to get the book.

[Tattooed Hand]

dd is all over the place at 7 mos. no pattern or schedule. and it's not missed cues - i spent 3 weeks recently trying to get her to nap when ever she seemed tired and i almost drove myself crazy. now we just go w/the flow. it does make it hard to make plans tho...