xpost Cat napper

[epdeans]

I have a precious almost 5 month old son. We are a co-sleeping family which adore doing. It is so wonderful for me to be able to just breastfeed with minimal effort during the night and we love him being so close to us at night. The mornings are so special when he awakens us with his sweet sounds and snuggles. Needless to say, we are not willing to give that up at the moment.

Our current concern, is his daytime naps. They are cat naps that only last 30-45 minutes. He usually takes 3 a day. He goes to bed between 9-10pm when I do and wakes between 6:30-8am.

About once a week, I lay down with him in our family bed and he will nap well for 2.5-4 hours. I would love for him to be able to nap alone during the day for more than a cat nap.

By the way, he is not grouchy and does not seem that the cat naps bother him. He has already gotten his bottom two teeth and is eating banana and rice cereal upon waking up in the am.

Any suggestions?
Thanks for reading,
Elizabeth in NC

[omelette]

My son is a cat napper too although his cat naps range from 5-30 minutes. He's 10mos old and is napping 3-4 times a day still b/c he has such short little naps.
If you're son is not fussy about it maybe he doesn't need longer sleeps at this point. When he has a long nap with you does he still need his other daytime naps?

[memz]

My DD is also a cat napper and has always been. And she has to sleep on me on top of it. She takes 4x 30 minutes naps a day, unless she sleeps longer which happens once in a while. But she is happy, smiley kid, so I figure it's enough for her....

I'd love to invent a shot to make her sleep but I'm still working on that....

[Knitting Mama]

Does wearing him help? When Cecilia was littler, the only time she'd nap more than 30 minutes was either being worn by me or on me in some fashion. I would wrap her up in the wrap and do whatever I needed to do around the house like that, or go wander Target for an hour.

[Tway]

DD is almost 10 months and naps 2 X 40 minutes a day. That's down from 3 X 40-minute naps a day up until about 5 months. I've learned that it's just the way she is!

[epdeans]

Thanks for your replies.

After thinking more about naps Baby Jake is taking I relaxed some of my expectations. He is happy always and sleeps well at night.

I think I got ahead of myself and projected it would always be this way---like until he was 5 or something. Had alittle run away thinking.

Thanks for reading,
Elizabeth in NC

[Mawood]

As far as I know is the cat napping a common situation with co sleeping babies. We co sleep as well and my daughter also takes 30-45 minutes naps. I think after 3o minutes they have a light sleep phase before they enter the deep sleep. They awake easily and if they find the sleep situation different from what they are used to (lying in bed alone) they wake up all the way. If I lay down with Olivia we both sleep for 1-2 hours but she will nurse after 30-45 minutes. Nursing is the strongest sleep association for her and it helps her wind down for sleep. A very good book on that is the "No Cry Nap Solution". I learned to be quiet and nearby when she starts her nap and go in with her first stirring to nurse her right back. Sometimes that works and she sleeps another 30-60 minutes.

[epdeans]

My cat napper is getting a bit more consistent with his naps. He sleeps the longest in our family bed of course but has begun to sleep longer when he lays down for naps.

One thing I think helped is keeping him up a tad longer between naps and being a bit more active with him. I think that has made him more tired at nap times.

Elizabeth in NC