How long are your babies staying awake? « Back to Group Discussions

[callieollie]

Emma is like clockwork - once she is up for 1 hour and 15 minutes. she's fussy and ready to sleep again.  My SIL was saying how nice that sounds, but it's actually hard to have to keep putting her to sleep every hour or so. I have two other kids that want to play and do stuff and I feel like I'm constantly trying to get her to sleep!  I tend to wear her during nap time or else she'll wake up. I can put her down at bedtime at night, but not nap time.  She typically takes a morning nap that is maybe 30-60 minutes, then a longer afternoon nap (2-3 hours) and then another short evening nap for 30-60 minutes and then asleep for the night at 8ish.  She wakes up 2-3 times to nurse at night and then starts again. Overall, her sleep is fine (MUCH better than my ds was so I'm not complaining!), but I feel like my other kids could stay up longer.  Shouldn't she be able to stay up more than 1h15m at 3 months?  Maybe I'm just forgetting.... When do they start to stay up longer and when do they switch to 2 naps a day?  

[maryamrose]

it's variable for Kusha (he just turned 12 weeks). sometimes, he's awake for 30 minutes and he'll be fussy for a nap, sometimes he can go for 3 hours. he's nowhere near the 2 naps a day phase, or so it seems.

[spitrof]

My son sounds like he is on the same schedule (he is 3 months). He rarely can be awake and happy for more than 1.5 hrs. If I can get him to nap, he takes great ones, but it has been challenge, especially since I have a toddler also. He usually is up at 7am, back down for a nap by 8:30, up again around 10, back down around 12 or 1 (I have to stretch his awake time here usually to get errands done), naps til 3 or 3:30, (sometimes takes a small nap in the late afternoon, around 4:30 or 5), bedtime around 6:30 and he gets up twice to nurse at night (usually 2am and 5am).

My issue with getting him to nap is that he falls asleep almost every time I nurse him and up until recently I have just been able to put him in his crib and he had stayed asleep. Sometimes that still works but about half of the time his eyes pop open as soon as he hits the mattress. Until about a week ago, we would then pick him up and hold him til he was asleep again and try the process again (it sometimes took 3 or more cycles of this). It was driving us crazy since we felt like we spent all day trying to get him to nap, and also felt like we were neglecting our 3 year old. It really was taking a toll on our family life.

So, we are trying to help him learn to fall alseep on his own. It has involved some crying, which is hard, and may not be for everyone, but I think we are making progress. Sometimes he just opens his eyes and squirms for a second and then drifts off. Sometimes he really wakes up when I am putting him down, so I kiss him and tell him it is time for nap, turn his mobile on and leave. If I have the timing just right and he is in the very tired zone, he will just drift off, if not, he cries.

I am hoping that as he gets older this gets a little easier but I think only time will tell. Hang in there!

[Ruby2]

Same here, Callie! Ds is 13 weeks and after about an hour, he needs to nap. He hasn't fallen asleep on his own for over a month now and gets overstimulated very easily. He seems to need to scream before he sleeps and it's horrible. We've tried everything - nursing, swaddling, shushing, bouncing, jiggling, etc, but he still cries no matter what. AND he will only sleep for 40 minutes at a time. Sometimes we can get him back to sleep easily, others not. It's so sad and exhausting. I feel like my entire day is spent either putting him to sleep or dreading having to do it. I went back to work last week and was secretly relieved to get a break from the constant sleep drama. I don't remember it being this hard with dd. She didn't fuss at all and went to sleep easily...I think? Maybe I blocked it out? ;-)

[Kamiro]

It varies here. DD been able to be awake for 3 hours, and has taken 2 good naps a day plus a couple small ones. By 10pm shes usually asleep or being nursed to sleep.

 I am pretty lucky in that she is mostly sleeping through the night (4 hours+ a few times 7 hours without waking)..Shes up between 9-10am and awake until about 1 or 2..than naps whenever she feels like it until bedtime about 10. I am nursing atleast every hour it seems unless shes nappy. Constantly nursing still.

She has been busy rolling over from tummy position so thats probably some of the reason her sleep time is not super scheduled..Shes got new things to learn! I love it.

[BubbleMa]

Layla goes about 1.5 hrs between naps.  She used to sleep about 2 hrs at a time, but lately she's been taking shorter naps (an hr. or less) in the morning/afternoon and a longer nap (2 hrs) in the evening.  She's sleeping about 4-5 hr. stretches at night almost regularly.  When she wakes up in the middle of the night I bring her to bed and nurse her.  She usually dreamfeeds for the rest of the night/morning.