Need Help Getting My 4 Month Old to Nap

Hi J.. I used to give him a little cereal before he was scheduled to nap and def. no fruit, the sugar might keep him up.

just leave it alone. He will sleep when he needs sleep. Do you really want to mess up the fact that he sleeps pretty good at night? You are not doing anything wrong, so let him nap when he is tired... babies grow when they sleep. Seriously, ask the doc (maybe not the one who is trying to get you to change the babes sleep habits) so dont tamper!

The fact that your baby sleeps good at night is great. I have a 7 month old daughter and her naps vary as well. They are different everyday. Sometimes she naps 2 ties a day, and sometimes its 3. Sometimes they are an hour sometimes they are longer, or shorter. You are doing a great job, because at least your baby is napping. When I do put my daughter down, I make sure I have an air filter going for some white noise, and she has a favorite blankey. Give it time, I am sure your baby's nap schedule will change.

I've had the same issues with my 5 1/2 month old daughter, but she'll take 20 minute naps here or there. I really think it's an individual baby thing, and while there are things you can try to do to make the naps longer, ultimately that is just how some of them are. However, it can change, and I think it often gets better as they get older.

Hi J., Is your son sleeping in a nice quiet place? Does he wake up hungry? If so maybe he needs to drink more before sleeping. They do need sleep for growth. Grandma Mary

Read the book Good Night Sleep Tight. It helped me get my twins on a GREAT napping routine and taught me the improtance of sleep. We began at 5 months with the napping and it was a breeze. Even with 2!!!! It will be helpful to read this book before you begin. I loved it because it is as the author says "the gentle approach to getting your child to sleep better and longer without the tears". It makes you feel comfortable with what you are doing, and gives you confidence and support. At around 7 months the routine was solid and looked like this...
7:00 am wake-up and get a bottle, then play
8:00 am breakfast, then play
9:00 am nap (1-1.5 hrs)
noon lunch
1:30 pm bottle
2:00 pm nap (1-1.5 hrs)
4:00 pm dinner
6:00 pm begin bedtime routine...asleep BY 7:00!!!
Then you have some adult time and can actually talk to your husband! :) I highly recommend this book. CHeck her out and good luck. http://www.sleeplady.com/

Environment can play a large role in your baby's nap habits. I found that a darkened room with limited ambient noise (or soothing sounds) was very helpful in keeping my baby asleep longer. She was also REALLY into being swaddled, so she would stay asleep longer when swaddled than she did when her arms were free (her arm movements in her sleep would actually wake her up!).

I also put her to sleep in her swing when she was having trouble staying asleep. If she started to come out of her sleep, the soothing motion would lull her back to sleep.

Lots of luck and don't worry, this will pass!!

Dear J.,
My daughter was not a good napper either; in fact, she would only sleep for 20 min at a time. I needed to rejuvenate myself and have time to get something done. My pediatrician informed me that she needed exercise and stimulation. At 4 months old, I began taking her to the YMCA for swimming "lessons". Basically it was movement in the water, which wore her out. Interaction with other neighborhood kids and family members, trips to the mall, and other forms of stimulation also increased her nap times. Once she started crawling at 6 months, she was happy to take longer naps also.
You have an active child and it is best to direct his energy. It won't last forever.
Good luck, W.

Best advice I can give, and it really was a life saver for me and getting my son to take naps was the book "healthy Sleep habits, happy baby" by Dr. Marc Weisbluth
I have posted this book as a respomse to a lot of questions on this site regarding sleep issues because it truly was the best thing/book I read regarding sleep and issues with babies who don't want to.
Hope you find it as helpful as I did
A.

I think your beautiful 4 month old is doing exactly what a baby of 4 months should do. If you read Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, that is pretty much what s/he should be doing (Flipping the morning and afternoon nap). My 2nd child who is 5 months is not even on a schedule like that. I am lucky if I get a nap in the afternoon. I was so regimented with my 1st daughter that I would force her to take a nap at the time my doc/book said. If your baby is sleeping well and is content, there is nothing to change. I think you should let your baby take the lead with naps. It is really only a problem if they do not nap and are tired/cranky/fussy from being over tired or are going to bed too late. Good luck!

Well I know what the doctors say - but my son at that age took three 1/2 hour naps a day. THat's it!! He is now down to one nap at day (at 16 months) & it can range from 1/2 hour to 1 & 1/2 hours. That's it! Some babies need less sleep or only need a power nap to get them through the day. To me the most important this was the consistancy of his naps (what time he went down) I wouldn't worry - sleeping at night was ALWAYS to me the most important sleep!

I agree with the moms who say there is nothing wrong with your baby's sleep pattern. He's only 4 months. You're very lucky to have breaks!! The only thing that may be nice is to have him sleep for one full hour in the morning instead of two half hours (then you can either take a long nap yourself or get some chores/work done). If you do want to make that switch, just keep him entertained for the first nap by actively playing with him. He will likely adjust to 1 longer morning nap.

Naps are SUCH a pleasure. ENJOY them while they last - they go away too quickly.

Ideally, a baby will take 2-3 good naps a day. But that probably won't develop well for another month or so! I'm not sure why your pediatrician gave you that advice- most sleep specialists say that all babies are different! They do agree that most babies shouldn't be up for more than 1.5-2 hours at a time, so perhaps put your kiddo down a little earlier?

My son developed his morning nap (between 8-9:00, depending on when he woke up) first, and slowly developed a good second and third nap. Now that he's a crawling 8 month old, he's slowly (and sometimes painfully) switching from three to two naps. His naps are also much longer now, but that took time to develop too! At 4 months, he was still doing 45 minute naps, and driving me crazy... :) The naps got longer and longer as he got older and more active, and I just kept at it until his body figured it out.

As long as he's sleeping well at night, and you're putting him down when he looks sleepy during the day, I think you'll find that he develops a good nap routine in time. It sounds like you're doing it just right to me!

Hi J.,
No disrespect to your ped, but if he sleeps good at night, he's doing fine on his own schedule. Imagine if someone told you "go to sleep"? Or at 2 a.m. said "I think you should be up now for a few hours." I think they sleep when they need to, and mother nature does a pretty good job at handling their schedules. Beware of baby trainers and schedulers. I stopped recording her sleeping patterns,when my daughter Em napped and for how long, and just watched her eyes. When they get glassy, it's time for a little nap. Sometimes she sleeps for 20 minutes, sometimes 3 hours. It never affects her night-time patterns. She's 5.5 months now, and it all works itself out. Then the teething starts and it gets all messed up again anyway. It's funny how these things work out. Enjoy him, and great job!

It sounds similar to what my DD did at that age. She slowly dropped naps to her now one midday nap. To help her sleep I used white noise and darkened her room. I would drop a nap when they get too short, less then a half hour. Babies need sleep, they grow in there sleep.

I remember these days, although mine is ony one. She was the same way. First, enjoy the 3 naps, even though they are mini. Second, about 6-8 months it will get better and there will be two naps, one in the am and one in the pm. A better pattern will happen. Third, you can get them to eat or sleep when we wnat them too, so do the best with what you got. The doctor may have good intention's but they will eat/sleep when they want.

I think you'd be happier for the consistency. But, aside from that I wouldn't worry about the regularity. Rather, I'd be going for length. At 4 months, my daughter was taking 2, 1.5 hour naps and one little catnap for 30 minutes in the early evening. We deliberately introduced that nap to help her cope through bedtime and to keep the evening crying at bay. It totally worked. you can do some sleep training methods for the naps. Check out: happy baby, healthy sleep habits, and Baby Whisperer Solves all Your Problems. But, one more thing I want to say...Is your baby generally happy all day? Do you have any problems with him? Because if not, then I'd say he's doing just fine. He's sleeping through the night, and that is great! Many babies are not doing that...even up to a year! If he's in a good mood most of the day, and eating well, sleeping through the night, playing and learning well, etc. I'd say he is just a cat napper. It definitely happens! It's not he same, but my daughter wakes up at 6:30/7am no matter waht time we put her down. We've tried every method suggested, and in the books to get her to sleep in later with NO luck. She's an early riser and that is that. Anyhow, good luck!!

babies naturally wake up after a 30 minute nap. hold off from going in when he wakes. he will learn to self sooth and lay back down to fall asleep for another hour or maybe even more. Eventually he'll do this automatically kinda like rolling over and falling back to sleep with us! Good luck!

I Think you are doing fine.All babies are different and so are their habits( as a mother of 4 I found this to be true.)Sometimes they are not ready to go for a nap.My 7 month old's naps range from 30 minutes to 2 hours.Let her be she will be fine.

Hi J.,

I sympathize with your son's short naps! No matter what I did, I couldn't get my son to sleep for more than 40 minutes at naptime until he was 6 months. I'm not a fan of letting him "cry it out", although I will let him fuss for a very long time before going to him, but when he REALLY cries in his crib, he screams so hard his face turns almost purple, so I'm not willing to let him just scream like that indefinitely. At about 6 months, I moved our son to 2 naps a day (10AM-ish and 2:30-ish), and they have eventually gotten to be 1-2 1/2 hours in length, which is wonderful. I think he's just much more tired during the day if I keep him up 3 1/2 to 4 hours before putting him down. The transition to 2 naps was somewhat difficult, though. You'll probably need to move to 3 naps for at least a week and then work to get it to 2. There were several days where I had to fight to keep him up despite his bad mood, and the other problem was that it took at least a week for him to start taking longer naps. So for a while, we had 2 40 minute naps. Not good for anyone! But I tried to have faith that he would get tired enough to start sleeping longer, and he did. His night sleep actually seemed to improve, as well. Good luck!