Nap help!

Our twins are almost five months old, and they still have no pattern of naps. They still seem to nap between every feed, but lately for not longer than 45 minutes. This is resulting in my son being so tired throughout the day. He is really fighting sleep lately...any tips?? When did yours start to really have a pattern for longer naps?? Anything you did to help this along?? Thanks!!!

 

Have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Weisbluth? That will give you some pointers about trying to get a nap routine and what you can expect at 5 months for naps. For us, around 4 months the morning nap started to come into play at about 1.5 hours after getting up for the day. So we started getting them into the crib about 1 hour and 15 minutes after they woke to soothe them to sleep. They couldnt stay awake longer that 1.5 hours between naps. At about 6 months the afternoon nap came to fruition. Keep being consistent about naps and they should come.

 

At about 5 months we got our nap routine established pretty good.

They wake around 9:30-10.
Down for nap about 11:30.
Up about 12:30.
Down again at 3 (and sometimes they are CRANKY by then, but it's getting better.)
It used to be up by 4, but lately it's 4:30-5.
When it was up at 4 they'd go back down by 6, up at 7. Then sometimes a catnap at 9 before final bottle and bed at 10pm.

But they've finally dropped that 4th nap, and so they get up at 4:30-5. Down at 7:30. Up by 8:30, in bed by 10.

We just recently dropped the fourth nap and are surviving on 3 naps a day! Yay!

 

At about the 4 month mark I started putting them in their cribs for naps (they were soothing themselves to sleep at night already) - morning and afternoon. The first week was a bit rocky, but now we are on a schedule. Morning nap around 9/9:30 (1.5-2 hours), afternoon nap 2 hours after they wake up from AM nap (1.5-2 hours), then a little catnap around 6:30pm. Last bottle is at 8/8:15 and then in bed by 9.

 

At that age the naps were still a bit all over the place around here, but definitely no longer than after 1.5 hours of being awake. We were at 3-4 naps at that age:

Awake at 6:30 am
Nap 8-9 am
Nap 10:30-11:30 am
Nap 1-2 pm
Nap 4-5 pm
Bed 6:30 pm

That's give or take. Then at 6 months we did Ferber sleep training and got them to sleep for 11-12 hours straight at night. And that actually helped with the naps too because they got used to falling asleep in their cribs in their sleepsacks by themselves as opposed to in bouncers or whatever.

Now at 8 months we are doing 2-3 naps because they are able to tolerate being awake longer and spacing out their feedings more.

We did Ferber with DS at 6 months as well (he is now 2 years old). He started sleeping 12 hours at night right away but the naps took longer to establish because he was with a nanny (I was working) and she had him sleeping outside in the stroller, in the bouncer, here and there, so it was much less structured than I have it now with the twins. I am so glad I got them to nap in the cribs. It did take some CIO but now it's awesome, I just toss them in their cribs and walk away. Sometimes they cry for a bit, not too long, just to let some steam out. Sometimes they don't make a peep. I didn't do any type of CIO until 6 months though because they need to be old enough to understand.

GL!

 

At 5 months we were taking 3-4 short naps per day, mostly 30-45 min. length. The morning nap came first, and we put them down 1.5 hrs. after they woke. We are still having some nap problems here, although the timing of the naps is more consistent. They are taking 3 naps a day, ranging from 30 min. to 1.5 hrs. in length.

Right now, at 7.5 months we are doing:

6 am - wake up
8 am - 1st nap
11 am - 2nd nap
2 or 3 pm - 3rd nap
6 or 6:30 pm - bedtime

 

I don't think my boys' naps really started to get into a schedule until they hit that 6 month mark. Until then we just kind of played it by ear, although, I do think watching for their sleep cues is huge! I truly think that if you start to get into a pattern where you are catching them before they are too tired, where they start to whine, cry, latch onto you, etc, then you are setting yourself up for success with naps! About 6 months is when we settled into a type of 2,3,4 schedule. I never read any books so I'm not sure if there is one for this method. I just learned it from other mommy's here on the site and it's worked well for us. It kind of works like this:

Our schedule at 6 months:

8 am - wake, bottle and cereal

1.5 hours after wake - nap ... we would just put them in their cribs and they would fall asleep for
about 1.5 hours

11-12ish - bottle and veggies

2 hours after wake from first nap - 2nd nap ... again, put them in crib and they would sleep for another 1.5-2 hours.

3pm - bottle

5-5:30 veg/fruit

Catnap

8 pm. bed

Anyways, the idea is they are up for 2 hours before first nap, up for 3 hours then 2nd nap and then up for 4 hours and down for bedtime. We've adjusted it to our boys' needs as you can see above .. when they were younger they could only stay up for about 1.5 hours in the a.m. and then 2 hours and a catnap before bed. Now that they are older they are able to stay up the full 2 hours in the morning, 3 hours in the afternoon and have dropped their catnap. I hope this helps! Good luck and hang in there! It will get easier!