[holothuroidea]

My baby's napping schedule makes no sense.

I had this idea that I was just going to follow baby's cues for sleep. So, when DD shows signs of tiredness (fussy, rubbing eyes, yawning) I rock her to sleep and put her in her crib for a nap.

Said nap usually only lasts 20-30 minutes. When I go to her she's all smiles and ready to play. Then, a half hour later, she starts showing signs of tiredness again.

She's 3 months old. She's also teething. We cosleep at night.

This is exhausting for me, and I feel like I spend more than half the day rocking her to sleep. She used to go to sleep on her own, but since the teeth started she really needs to be rocked/snuggled for 10 minutes before she falls asleep. You can imagine how 10 minutes of rocking every half hour is just getting to be tiresome for me.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get her to nap longer or less often? Does anyone else have a baby that naps like this?

 

[hrsmom]

My baby napped kind of like that. About a month ago she started taking longer naps (at least an hour, often longer) when in the carrier. I don't know if it was a developmental thing, or coincidence, or she likes the carrier. but you could try putting your babe in a wrap or sling or something and see if the nap is any longer? I put her in, then take a walk around the neighborhood, or if I'm tired, then I bounce up and down on the bouncy ball.

I remember reading on here a mom saying that she missed her baby's hour-long naps, and thinking to myself, "we missed them altogether!"

 

[Belia]

My LO is often the same way. I am just as

as you are.

 

[joshs_girl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hrsmom My baby napped kind of like that. About a month ago she started taking longer naps (at least an hour, often longer) when in the carrier. I don't know if it was a developmental thing, or coincidence, or she likes the carrier. but you could try putting your babe in a wrap or sling or something and see if the nap is any longer? I put her in, then take a walk around the neighborhood, or if I'm tired, then I bounce up and down on the bouncy ball.

My LO is a terrible napper - she's 10.5 weeks old today. Sometimes, we get lucky and she'll put herself to sleep in the swing with no fussing. But 90% of the time, she has to nap in the sling/wrap (around our house the Moby wrap is our preferred sleeping device.) Even with using the wrap, we normally have a good fifteen to thirty minutes of screaming before she'll fall asleep. I've also learned that once she falls asleep, I need to be still for the next fourty five minutes to an hour. Then if I get up to do housework etc and she wakes up, I know she's at least gotten somewhat of a nap under her belt.

Even on days when she'll go to sleep outside of the wrap, I find myself glued to her side so I can respond. I've found that she can wake herself fairly easily - if the dogs bark or she flails her arms or my phone rings. Being close to me, I can instantly soothe her before she even knows shes awake. Her naps in the carrier are always a good deal longer and deeper than naps in the swing or in the bed.

 

[DoulaLMT]

Sorry...my 11 month old STILL takes 1/2 hour naps most of the time, though he only does TWO PER DAY now. Occasionally I'll get an hour or hour and a half nap out of him, but that didnt' start until he was 7 months old!!!! It's rough, but some babies are just like that....goodluck.

 

[njbeachgirl]

I don't really have any advice, just wanted to let you know that my DD was like this for a long while. Then around 8 months she started taking awesome naps and sleeping well at night too. I don't know what caused the change but maybe it had to do with crawling and tiring herself out more. Anyway she is still a great sleeper to this day!

 

[Code Name Mama]

ds (12 months old next week) has never slept well on his own. I'm still lucky to get an hour from him when I lay him down on the bed, but if I have him on my lap or in a carrier he can sleep forever. I think it's pretty natural, I'd recommend looking into a couple of good carriers.

 

[angelinuta]

We are experiencing this right now, too - DD is almost 4 months and beginning to teeth. In the last week or so, she has started waking up from her once 1-2 hour naps after 20 or 30 minutes. I am pretty sure that it is at least partly excitement, since she is much more aware now - it's like she is sleeping, wakes slightly, and realizes that she's missing something. The result was a very tired baby by evening, so I was also spending most of the afternoon trying to get her to sleep more. My solution the past few days was to feed her laying next to me in bed, let her fall asleep in my arms, then slowly move and get up after a little while by herself. It has worked for us, maybe it would for you!

 

[Thing1Thing2]

I am having the same problem right now. I finally figured out that it boils down to my 5.5 month old son not wanting to be away from me. He's teething now too and I think he feels more dependent on me at this particular time in his development. When I put him to bed, he wakes up every 15 minutes or so to make sure Im there and then will fall back asleep if he sees me. If he doesn't see me, he will wake up fully and cry for me. What I do is wear him in the sling - or if I really need some time alone I go and stand by him every 15 minutes or so to make sure that when he rouses, I am standing there - then I go back to my work or activity.

 

[ChristyH]

My 7 month old is the same way, she catnaps throughout the day unless I lay down with her. I rarely am able to get anything done anyway during the day anyway because she is very high needs so I lay down with her and we nap together, this way I get a good 2 hour nap out of her and she's much more rested.

 

[battymama]

The only thing that worked for us was swaddling, she goes to sleep and stays asleep so much better. We actually have to do a triple swaddle at the moment (small stretchy wrap, cot sheet, wrap around legs) or she will escape and wake her self up.