Do I have to do anything about it? (Sleep, that is.)

[LittleBirdy]

DS has been waking up every 1 to 2 hours pretty much since 4 months of age (8 months now).  Sometimes he makes it through a whole nap on his own, and sometimes he doesn't.  We cosleep and I can pretty much sleep through the night nursing, and while it does kind of stink to have to hover near by during naps in case I need to nurse him back to sleep, I'm not terrible motivated to "fix" the problem.  I figure if it comes to that, I might try the Jay Gordon nightweaning thing but not for quite awhile.

Most of the time I'm pretty zen about all this but sometimes I see myself still having to nurse my 2 year old back to sleep once or twice during nap time and I worry that the future me will wish I hadn't been so lazy when he was a baby...

So reassure this first time mom that he will grow out of it... right?

(He goes to daycare 5 days a week; they rock him to sleep there and have to rock him back to sleep several times during the nap too, so it's not like he just wants mama/milk.)

[Knitting Mama]

From all I can glean from my mamas of more than one friends, yeah, they outgrow it eventually. Though I will say, I, as an adult pre-baby, still got up 1-2 times a night for a drink or a pee. Some people, I think, just don't do really long stretches well. I say if it's not bothering you, not to worry about it!

[RRMum]

   Hi - thanks for posting this. I have the same issue with naps, have to nurse off and on with rocking for about an hour just to get my DS down for a 20 to 30 min nap, i can alos only get him back down if i nurse the second he stirs.  I'm impressed you are so "zen" about it, this actually drives me crazy, I find it so emotionally draining to spend 3+ hours a day for my DS to only get about 1 hr of sleep.  I worry that he is not getting enough quality sleep, and he does act so tired.  But I have heard from lots of moms with 2 year olds that they do move on and start getting a 2+ hr nap once a day.  Hope that's the case for both of us.  Good luck, and I think you are doing yourself a favor not to stress  to much about it. :)

[P.J.]

Max is also a 30 minute napper. I have also wondered if I should "do" anything about it, but honestly I'm just too lazy and the way I see it: if it ain't broke don't fix it! If your boy doesn't seem overtired, I would just leave it for now. I agree with PP that most mamas of toddlers say their naps do consolidate after a year or so, and so I'm going with that.

It's just one of the many areas of parenting where "go with the flow" seems to keep us less stressed.

[Baby_Cakes]

Forum crashing a bit...

DD was a cat napper and never slept solid at night.  I was always so aggravated and trying to "fix" it but nothing I did helped.  Eventually I just listened to this advice from a mama friend.  If this was a 2nd or third baby, you wouldn't have the time or ability to hover and rock/shush back to sleep 2 or 3 times for every single nap.  Listen to your babies cues.  If they only nap for 20 min at a time and are happy to be awake, they're fine.  It really helped me to realize that it was ok, and that if it wasn't bothering *me* or causing the baby distress, that it would be just fine.

[TreeRose]

I've gone back and forth between stress and zen regarding naps. I'm happy to let DD (almost 7 mo) get up when she's done - anywhere from 35-100 minutes) but for a stretch there, her only naps were 35 minutes and it was getting exhausting and she was so tired and cranky. So I committed to help her midday nap be longer - thought I'd try for 1 week, 15 minutes of shushing, patting, etc. And her midday nap is now about 90 minutes which is great for me. I then started with her morning 30 minute nap and sometimes I only get a 5 minute extra sleep but today, with no interruption she slept a solid 90. So I think if you're okay with it and baby is happy, why not. But if you're not okay with it and can take a deep breath and make gradual subtle changes, go for it. :)

We still can't sleep through the night, but again, slow and gradual and trying to be zen in the process!

GL!