longer naps?!?!

My boys are just over 8 months actual, just under 6 months adjusted. Let me start by saying they are awesome sleepers at night. Down at 6:30 or 7, fall asleep right away on their own, and sleep until 6:30 or 7 in the morning. No nighttime feeds. My boys rock!!

Now naps are another story altogether. We've read Weissbluth and try to follow it, but after at least a month we still cannot get consistent naps out of them. We put them down after a couple of hours awake, or at first signs of sleepiness, and they pretty quickly get to sleep on their own. BUT they usually wake up after about 20 minutes and will not go back to sleep until the next naptime, and then it's the same story. Maybe about once or twice a week, they'll have a good, long 2 hour nap, or longer. We do everything the same when they sleep 2 hours as when they sleep 20 minutes, so we're at a complete loss about what we can do to get them to sleep longer consistently.

Thankfully, despite what Weissbluth says, their naps don't seem to affect their nighttime sleep. They always sleep well at night, regardless of whether they get good naps or not. But of course they're super fussy on the short nap days, so we really need some help. Help!

 

I wish I could offer help or wisdom but mine seem to do this as well. They are also good nite sleepers but naps are most days a big big waste. They are usually about 20 minutes than awake and expecting to play..... The odd day they go down for longer but no matter what I try there does not seem to be a solution. Sorry no help from me just wanted to say I had the same problem

 

Sorry no help from me just wanted to say I had the same problem
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I'd like to join the club

I'll go with whatever just to keep them asleep at night.

Menna

 

my son had that same problem, and luckily just grew into better naps, at least i think that is what happened. he's been really good since probably june (7 months at that point)
i mainly followed HSHHC, but my sister had also given me the no-cry sleep solution, and it talked about cycles during sleep, and that usually at 20 mins., we hit a point where we start to wake up. most people will automatically cycle into deeper sleep at that point, but some babies don't know how to do it and so wake up and think they are ready to go! of course, we KNOW they AREN'T (but do they ever listen?!?!? nooo....)
anyway, that book suggested to set your watch/timer and about 5 mins. before they usually start to wake up, to go to their room quietly, and as they start to stir, to do WHATEVER it takes to get them RIGHT back to sleep- give them the paci or lovey, sing quietly, etc. I tried to do this without picking him up though. it did work a fair amount of the time.
I also had them napping in seperate areas at that time, as DD would nap pretty well but when DS woke, he would often wake her up. they were always fine at night, but not naps. so that might be an option too, if you can put one in their crib in their room and another in a pnp or something like that.
of course, mine would always (and still do) take >2 hr. naps at the sitters! never for momma though!!!! little boogers.
good luck. i know it is frustrating and no one solution works for everyone. maybe try that quick attention thing. sometimes i still need to do it (primarily if someone has thrown their paci out of the crib, a fun new game these days). but i justgo in, give the paci, teddy, lay them down and walk out. no talking or smiling,e tc.

 

Are they still acting tired after just 20 mins or are they fully alert and ready to start over?

 

When you put them down for that first nap, do they seem really tired and ready to knock out? Perhaps you could try pushing their nap a little further? My girls went through this phase and it was simply AWFUL because they were NOT good nighttime sleepers so I was the cranky one all day. Did they just learn any major milestone skills? How long before you go in their room do you give them to possibly fall back asleep? If you feel that you really need the time to relax and get things done then I'll share with you what someone once suggested to me. Even if they don't fall asleep or they wake up sooner than you feel they should, as long as they are not screaming/crying (like something is wrong) then let them stay there for a set amount of time whether they sleep or not. Kind of like giving them (and you) some down time. Although I had a hard time always adhereing to this (I can do it so much better now than then) you could give it a try. I put a couple of toys and books for them to look at and play with. (For that age, maybe some teething toys and things that light up or play music?) Wish I had the "right" answer for you. My girls finally started to nap really well and consistently around a year and Lorien FINALLY started to sleep through the night when she was 14 months old :wacko: (although lately she has woken up several times in the middle of the night and just plays in her crib for an hour and then falls back asleep. Just wait for the major teething phase. Lots of fun times :crazy: )

 

QUOTE(KYsweetheart @ Sep 13 2007, 07:21 PM) [snapback]406857[/snapback]
Are they still acting tired after just 20 mins or are they fully alert and ready to start over?


They seem fully alert and ready to start over. It doesn't seem to catch up to them until afternoon, and then on the 20 minute nap days, they have really cranky afternoons.

 

QUOTE(double-or-nothing @ Sep 13 2007, 07:46 PM) [snapback]406920[/snapback]
When you put them down for that first nap, do they seem really tired and ready to knock out? Perhaps you could try pushing their nap a little further? My girls went through this phase and it was simply AWFUL because they were NOT good nighttime sleepers so I was the cranky one all day. Did they just learn any major milestone skills? How long before you go in their room do you give them to possibly fall back asleep? If you feel that you really need the time to relax and get things done then I'll share with you what someone once suggested to me. Even if they don't fall asleep or they wake up sooner than you feel they should, as long as they are not screaming/crying (like something is wrong) then let them stay there for a set amount of time whether they sleep or not.



Now this raises another interesting part that I didn't mention before. When they wake up from their naps (especially the 20 minute ones), they wake up screaming, unlike anything I hear out of them any other time. It's almost like they had a bad dream or something. We can't leave them scream like that, so we go to comfort them, and as soon as they stop screaming, they're smiling and ready to go again...not willing to get back to sleep. Sometimes we put them back down right away after we get them settled down to let them finish their nap, but I've never once seen it work. They just cry and cry. It just seems that once they wake up, they're done...sleep time is over.

 

I have the same situation with my boys.

I did find that they nap better if I lay/nap with them in my bed but sometimes I just don't have the time.

Also, I did find when they wake up screaming, if I let them go for a couple minutes sometimes they find their way back to sleep. Sometimes their paci fell out of the crib when they wake up and they can't find it and all I need to do is get it for them and they go back to sleep. But then there's those days when they've had enough sleep after 20 minutes and decide to stay awake until next nap time.

I just enjoy every day they take a long nap!

Good luck in finding a solution!

 

I am so right there with you! It's just my DD, not my DS. She will fuss and squirm and fight sleep for 40 minutes, finally fall asleep for 20 minutes, and wake up crying again with no intention of going back to sleep. It is endlessly frustrating!!

Reyna

 

My twins are much younger than yours so I don't really know anything about it but I do remember reading on this forum that separation anxiety is common around 9 months. Could this be it??

I am sorry that I cannot be of much help.

I hope you get some longer naps soon.
Amy

 

I have an update after trying out all your tips this weekend, and the winner is.....putting them in different rooms!!! It's so obvious now, but it didn't occur to me before because they never wake each other up at night. Well I guess they don't sleep as deeply during the day, and maybe they were waking each other up. So we put one in his crib, and the other in another room in his pack-n-play. And we had two long nap days. We've never had two long nap days in a row before, so I'm sure it was separating them that did the trick.

The only thing we have to work on now is, it was always whichever boy was in the pack-n-play (we alternated to see how each of them would do) who woke up first. So the boy in the pack-n-play usually got about 30-45 minutes, but the boy in the crib got about 2 hours. They sleep all night in their pack-n-plays when we travel, so I know they're comfortable in them. I think we just need to make that room darker, so I'm working on new curtains. I think that, unlike their bedroom, the other room is too light, so when they start to wake up, the light keeps them up. Hopefully the dark will encourage them to go back to sleep, so we'll have two good long nappers.

Thanks for all the input. And hopefully this tip will help some of you who said you shared our pain!

 

We also have better naps since we've seperated them, I think they just don't get into as deep a sleep during the day and wake up easier. Another thing for you to think about is which one sleeps better at which nap where. After a lot of observation I discovered one DD took better a.m. naps in the crib and better p.m. naps in the pnp. We still don't have ideal nap times every day, but it's much better than it was. Good luck!