5 mo. olds and naps

It's amazing how you forget what things were like with your 1st. My DS was and is still an excellent sleeper after his period of colic. The girls are 5 1/2 mo. and I guess maybe I am expecting too much, I don't know. Plus I wasn't home with my DS and now I am with the girls. It seems when they get up in the am if it is after 6:30 they stay up rather than go back to bed. They got up this am at 6:45 and ate and played and at 8:45 I tried putting them back down and all they do is squeal and smile at me. Come on girls it's been 2 hours. So during the day they usually only take 2 naps which are a total of about 3-3 1/2 for Emerson and 3 1/2-4 for Quinn. Sometimes less sometimes a little more. It also seems that if I try to put them down after being up for 2 hours they aren't ready until more like 3 hours. Am I expecting too much? Also they go to bed around 8:30 and sometimes sleep till' 7 but alot of times it is 6 or 6:30. Shouldn't they be able to sleep longer?

Thanks for all of your responses!

 

I was always trying to get mine to sleep after and hour and a half...but they werent always ready, it was more like two and a half hours then they would take a good nap (2 hours or more) but if I forced them to sleep any earlier they only took cat naps. I think all babies are a little different in the sleep department.
Mine take two good naps and one little cat nap in the early evening and then go to bed around 7:30 and only sleep until 6:30 most days. If they arent fussy and irritable I dont worry too much about it...although, sometimes I get a little fussy

 

Maybe they are over-tired?? Just a thought. What if you try and get them to nap before 2 hours? Like start at 1.5 hours with the soothing or routine.

At that age, mine were taking at least 3 if not 4 naps during the day and I was trying to get them down by 8. If they are only taking 2 maybe see if you can squeeze in a cat nap in the late afternoon and then maybe they will go down longer at night.

On a side note, I cant believe they are 5 1.2 months old

ETA: bedtime was incorrect.

 

What about an earlier bedtime? I know that seems weird, but oddly if we wait til after 8, they wanna stay up even later and then get up earlier (overtired)...At that age, mine were taking 2 2and 1/2 hr naps and an evening nap, which we woke them from after an hour...Then they went to bed around 7....FWIW. Mine still like the 730 bedtime and sleep til 7 or 730...sometimes later if I'd let them...but that throws off our schedule too much, so i don't let them.

 

QUOTE(DATJMom @ Jul 30 2008, 11:28 AM) [snapback]904304[/snapback]
Maybe they are over-tired?? Just a thought. What if you try and get them to nap before 2 hours? Like start at 1.5 hours with the soothing or routine.


I would also try putting them down after 1.5 hours. This worked really well for us. Maybe you can try putting them down at 7pm at night. This is a great bedtime for a lot of babies.

 

If you try the earlier bedtime and naptimes and it seems to do the trick, can you let us know? I've tried this on and off without much luck as far as the earlier bedtime goes...but maybe I didn't give it enough time.

 

My babies just simply can not stay up more then 1.5hrs at a time. With the exception of the last nap of the day, once they get up from that one they are up for 2hrs before bedtime (we only get 2hrs out of them because we do a bath and that seems to help them stretch it out a bit). But, then again mine go to bed at 530pm everynight too, so perhaps an earlier bedtime might do them some good?