How did you get your babies to take long naps?

I am going crazy with naps. Evan's morning nap lasts 30 minutes before he sqeaks. He won't go back to sleep so I run in and rock him back to sleep - it works 80% of the time and I can get an hour and a half out of him. James sleeps anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours on a good day, which is great. Afternoon naps are a disaster. Evan sleeps 30 minutes max. James has gone from an hour and a half to 1/2 an hour the last two days. They are both in their beds crying now...after 30 minutes! I've put them in different rooms and I thought that was helping...guess not.

Any tips would be appreciated. I'm going crazy. Bad naps = cranky babies. Their waking up way early in the morning too - any suggestions?

 

My girls' naps started stretching out around 6-7 months. They are at daycare M-F and we mostly napped them in the stroller on weekends, so it wasn't such a big deal for us, but it was still a huge relief when we started getting at least 45 minutes out of them on a fairly reliable basis.

Keep soothing back to sleep if you can -- eventually they will get into the habit of sleeping longer.

If James's nap has just gone downhill in the past couple of days, try not to panic yet. He may be having a growth spurt or teething or some sort of developmental milestone -- there are all kinds of things that can affect sleep, but most of them usually pass in a week. If he was a good napper before, he will be again.

ETA: I never figured out a way to fix the early waking -- sorry! Amy woke between 5 and 6 a.m. from about 9-13 months, but she did eventually grow out of it. That seems to be one of the most inborn things about babies, and it's very hard to get an early waker to sleep longer. The best thing to do is arrange the rest of the day around it.

 

Mine are taking a bit longer naps now. But still my DD wakes a lot of the time after 45 minutes. And she never goes back to sleep, so I just get her. Well my wonderful DH watched the babes most of the day Saturday while mommy went to the mall, and he told me later, that when she woke, he let her cry 15 minutes (not screaming mad, just fussy) and she went back to sleep for another 45 minutes.

See, mommies take note : even though we sometimes think DH doesn't do it the 'right' way, sometimes we learn really good things from them

So...maybe let them fuss without going in,for awhile and see if they go back to sleep. I think once they are past six months, not soothing them so much actually makes them much better sleepers. That has been my experience, anyways.

Oh, and when they wake up at 5:30 in the morning, we um, turn the monitors off. They are safe in their cribs. We go back to sleep, and so do they! (Really, they do, without much fussing) I don't actually turn my monitor off, although DH does, but I turn it really low, so that if they were to get hysterical I would hear it....

 

Have you tried letting them CIO. Per HSHHC (if you buy into his theory that is) he says let them cry for up to an hour if their morning nap is less than (I think) 45 minutes. I did this with one of my boys and it did work. We are having the same issue in the afternoon for one as well. It used to be a good 1.5 hours and now it is sometimes 45 minutes. I have tried the CIO for that and he does not go back to sleep but is not that cranky, but I make sure he goes to bed a bit earlier than the other baby.

Maybe the schedule needs tweaking??? Just a suggestion.

As for the am waking, I dont go in right away. The boys have finally gotten out the screaming when they wake phase so they will sit and play for a bit and sometimes even go back to sleep for a quick cat nap.

Rachel

 

Mine are a few days younger than yours and our nap schedule is horrible... but we are CIO at the moment (at night... read my posts for details!) and it seems to be making our naps stretch out a little... I too am going crazy with 20 min. nappers!!! UGH very frustrating! But I assume it will get better.

 

Are they sleeping through? Our naps fell into place once they started sleeping through. Naptimes were 9,1230, and 330(catnap).

 

Yeah, in theory they're both sleeping through the night (about 6:30 until 6:00) although James' has been having problems with waking up in the middle of the night.

Has anyone ever turned poor sleepers into good ones without CIO? I feel like I am running out of options. Between Baby Wise, HSHHC, The Baby Whisperer...I wonder if there's anything haven't tried.

 

I almost hate to say this, but I figure I might as well tell the truth -- I've never managed to get my short nappers to be regular long nappers. Sometimes they surprise me with a long one (1-1.5 hours) but usually it's 45 minutes to an hour tops. And sometimes, yeah, 35 minutes. No amount of juggling nap times and situations has seemed to change that. Even in a moving car (the super napmaker in our family) they don't sleep long. People told me "when they start sleeping through the night, they will nap better - sleep begets sleep!" Or not. They said "when they start crawling/walking/running they will tired out and sleep more!" Or not. They just are who they are. Luckily, they are very cute.

The upside is mine fall asleep very quickly, without protest. And we never did CIO or any of the other "expert" methods. You could try looking at The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, or Sleepless in America (I think it applies to Canadians, too! ) by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka. The first is more of a "method" book and the second is more a discussion of children's sleeping patterns/issues, with some advice thrown in. I found it very informative.

 

The napping situation turned around for us at about 6-7mo. Until then I used to make myself crazy trying to get them to sleep a minute longer than 45mins. We followed HSHHC pretty religiously in terms of the sleep scheduling, but never had to do full out CIO. There were definitely some times when they didn't want to take a nap, and I just let them fuss themselves to sleep. I think you might find that in the next month they will naturally start to stretch their naps. I agree with the pp, that you should continue soothing back to sleep if you can. As annoying as it was to pop in there right at 45mins, I think it eventually helped them learn to go longer.

 

I hope you're right. I'm getting desperate, especially with Evan. I'm to the point where I find myself wondering if I should just give up and try harder with the next baby (who hasn't even been conceived yet...and won't be for quite a while at this rate)! Thanks for the support, ladies. What would I do without you?

 

It could be stage. My boys are almost 6 months and they're doing this as well. They have one long nap (but would wake several times) for 2 hours and the other two naps are 30 minutes long. They used to be such great nappers. I wonder if this is just a phase?

 

My girls just turned one but they were 29 weekers. I get one nice nap, 1 hr or more out of them and then 1 or 2 cat naps. I guess I have so much going on that I don't have tiime to soothe back to sleep. I get them up and go on. I don't do CIO. Not for naps anyway, maybe 10 minutes or so at night but they are such great night sleepers I just roll with them on the nap thing.
Just curious what is HSHHC?

 

there is HOPE!!! We are just now getting our babies to nap. I seriously thought I was going to go out of my mind. We did HSSHC for almost 2 weeks and I'll be honest---it was not for the faint of heart! There was so much crying everyday I hated it. They rarely cried before falling asleep...they would wake up 15 minutes after falling asleep. HSSHC suggests leaving them in their crib to see if they go back to sleep. my DS sometimes would, and my DD never did! So she cried for almost 45 minutes several times a day. I just felt like I had no other choice. Well, lo and behold---they are now NAPPERS!!! WOO-HOO!! Today was the best day yet. Not a tear was shed by my children today and they took three naps (two 1-hour naps, and an 1 1/2 hour nap). I'm serious---just when I thought it couldn't get worse...they started sleeping like champs. And they are sooooo much happier during the day now. All smiles and little to no fussing. I gotta say...I'm a believer!!

Reyna