Longer Nap Suggestions?

I have read that there is very little you can do about this and that as long as they are waking well rested it is okay. When he gets older he probably will take longer naps though...

Hi D. -
I don't necessarily have advice, but wanted to let you know that my son went though a similar short napping stint around the same age (like your son, he was also sleeping well at night during this time). He went though a phase where he'd end up taking 3 or 4 short (30 mins) naps a day, rather than 2 longer naps. I was struggling to soothe him back to sleep thinking he *must* need more rest, but eventually I just gave up and decided that was just his natural sleep pattern. At one of his well visits I asked his dr. about it and she said that as long as he wasn't cranky (he wasn't)or noticeably tired, then he was getting the sleep he needed and that it was OK that it wasn't consolidated into longer stretches.

So, like you said, every kid is different and I decided personally what worked for our family was to allow my son to follow his own rhythm's. Of course I would have loved to have more than a 30 minute break to ohhhhh I don't know, eat something?? But he was obviously thriving doing fine with his little cat naps so I had to let it go.

That phase lasted for a while, and eventually his naps became consolidated into two 1-2 hour naps a day. Now he's 10 1/2 months and naps for an hour of less twice a day, and I can already see that he's getting to the point where he may drop one of the naps. Apparently he's just not a guy who needs a ton of sleep during the day.

good luck!

D.,

My first daughter took four 30 minute naps precisely for the first 5-6 months of her life. One day, they just changed. We could literally set a clock to her nap. It didn't matter where we were or what we were doing--30 minutes on the dot. I would (only slightly) joke that I would lose an entire day of naps when I had to do her nails. I wasn't good at it and it would take almost the entire 30 minutes to get one hand or foot done--using a file. Each nap I would do another one.

So your son will do this for a while, and then change his nap schedule again. As far as I know, there is nothing that you can do. Just rest assured that there are others of us who have been through it, too. :-)

I've heard that anything less then 20min doesn't count as a nap. My son is also 4mths and he seems to need a nap exactly an hour after he wakes and then again every 2-3hrs. You might want to try the soothing him an hour to an hour and a half after he wakes from each nap. Maybe he's overtired by the time he cat naps. I watch the clock and if it gets to be 2 hours after he woke up, then I know he's ready for another nap. Won't hurt to try. good luck!

D.,

At my daughter's 4 month check up the doctor asked how she was sleeping. I said she sleeps well at night - 8pm to 6 -7am getting up once to nurse during the night. The doctor then said "so she cat naps during the day for you?" I said "yes." Apparently this is "normal". Whatever that means but because they are sleeping well at night they seem to go thru a stage where they only sleep in these cap naps. My daughter is now 5 months and I'm hoping she goes to 2 longer naps instead of 2 short and 1 long nap but I'm still working on it. Good luck.

L. M.

Hi D.. My LO did this too until she was 6 months old - then her naps started to get longer. I too just let her sit in her crib for 20 min after she woke because I KNEW one day she would fall back asleep - and she did. She did this for a while and then finally started to take long naps.

30 min naps usually indicate an overtired baby, so you might be keeping him up too long. 45 minutes is one sleep cycle for babies, so you might notice he seems more refreshed after that nap.

I never did try the wake to sleep trick only because I found out about it too late. I wish I had known about it. My baby girl would sleep for 41 minutes on the nose EVERY single nap.
It drove me crazy. I would put her down for 4 naps a day, and many times she would refuse the last nap, so I took her for a car ride. UGH - when gas went up to $4 a gallon, I stopped her 4th nap and put her to bed early. She was then up early, but it was better than a cranky OT baby at night!

The wake to sleep method is good for those babies who wake at the exact same time from every nap. Stir them 5-10 mins before they tend to wake. You go in his room 5-10 mins before he tends to wake up and gently rub his cheek, head etc until he BARELY stirs and then you let go.

You are attempting to pull them from deep sleep to then start a new sleep cycle. You do not actually wake them up. If you are not totally sure if they moved, wait a min or two and do it again. This is better then doing it too much and waking them fully. A bare movement usually works. If your baby still wakes up you can try doing the wake to sleep a few minutes sooner. You may have to experiment with the timing.
After doing this for every nap for 4 or 5 days, he should start sleeping longer on his own.

I am part of another online Mom's group and I know several of them have had much luck with wake to sleep.

Good luck! I have been in nap hell, and it is not fun.

Hi D.,

My son is 8 months old and he was/is a cat napper. I was getting so anxious about it that I eventually decided to let him call the shots. I think some babies prefer to take several cat naps throughout the day. I think that a 45 minute nap is sufficient but not a 30 minute nap. My son has just started taking 1 hour and 1 and 1 half hour naps. His morning nap is about 45 mins. and his afternoon naps are longer. As your baby gets older and stays awake longer and as he starts sleeping on his belly he will sleep longer. I would also try to have him sleep in a pack n play in the main part of the house where there is noise to differentiate between daytime and nightime sleep. Oh, my son has always slept good at night but never napped that well. Good luck!

Hi D.
He's at about the age when children go through a growth spurt and their routine changes a little bit. Have you noticed that he wants to nurse more? He could be just getting hungrier and needing to eat more so that keeps him from napping longer. Maybe try nursing him longer before naps and see if that helps.

Hi D.,
I wish I had an answer for you, but I hve the exact same question!! Let me know if you find a solution b/c my little 4.5 month girl does the same thing. She's super happy and cheerful, but only needs 30-50 minute naps during the day...like 4 or 5 of them sometimes!! It's not a huge issue for me but I'd like to have her down for a longer stretch so I could actually accomplish something substantial around the house!! :-) Good luck and let me know what happens!
S.

Hi D.,
I have a one year old,and a 19 year old. The one year old I adopted when he was 8 months old, and he had sleeping issues that are to long to write about. Any way I also worked in childcare for 17 years, about half of those with infants. I had babies who would do the same thing as your son would do,sleep only 30-45 min.at a time. What I would do is find out what time they woke in the morning and had a bottle,(obviously you would know that already) Usually they have a bottle or breast fed right when they woke up. So at the 3(sometimes a breast fed baby eats every 2 hours, I would feed them and then let them play a little after I changed there diaper until it was 3 hours since last woke up.) hour mark I would give them a bottle and they would get drowsy from the bottle then I would change them and put them to bed, they would usually start taking longer naps after a week or so, I did this every three hours. so it was a set schedule, of course as they got older they were able to stay up longer and also have the bottles farther apart, but it helps them to have an organized day. they nap better and even sleep better at night that way. I know that it is harder when you are at home, you have errands to run and things that you need to do, but if even just until they get their schedule set, try to arrange things around his nap times. If you need to be away all day, it wont be the same that day, but go back to it the next day. You could try it for a week or so and see how it goes, maybe it will work for him, I do think that a 4 month old need more than a 3o min nap. But also It could just be how he is. I hope my suggestion helps you,
D.

I feel like with sleep I always want to say that every baby is different and sleep patterns are not linear and things are always changing...From my own experience and from what I have read napping sometimes does not truly fall into place until around 6 months for most babies. My son was also a cat napper and right around 6 months he fell into two good naps each day. Again, every baby is different and I have talked to some Moms whose babies are have always been cat nappers. Just like us as adults some babies just have different sleeping patterns. Hopefully in a short time your son will transition to longer naps. It does take patience as I know it can be exhausting during the day not to have a break for very long. Good luck!

Do you have a swing??My son (hes now one)used to love to nap in his swing,after like 3min he was out like a light and for at least an hour or more!!Im not sure if Jacob likes his but give it a try!!Good Luck...its prob just a little phase.