Napping problems

I'm so glad to have found this forum! I'm at my wits end here trying to get my 4 month old girls to take longer naps. Most of the time their naps are just 40 mins long. 50 mins if we are lucky, and only on rare, and I mean rare, occasion that they nap for more than 1 hour. Needless to say, most of the time they wake up crabby and by late afternoon, none of us are having a good time! Do you ladies have any advice on how to get your babies to take longer naps? I separate them in different rooms for naps most of the time, and I always put them down before the two hour wakeful limit. Nothing seems to work.

 

First of all, welcome to TS!

I suggest reading a bit about sleep cycles (I like the No Cry Sleep series but there are many good explanations). For longer naps I think you need to teach your babies to stay asleep when switching from one sleep cycle to the next. Sleep is a lot lighter at the beginning and at the end of each sleep cycle and many babies wake up at the slightest disturbance (such as moving their own arm or leg, a noise etc.) at the time when they need to shift into the next sllep cycle in order to get a 1.5 to 2 hour nap. I would try watching them a few minutes before they usually wake up and to be right there to smooth over the transition, patting their backs a little, shushing them etc. to prevent them from fully waking up at the end of the sleep cycle so they can move into the next one. If you can avoid picking them up. You will need to experiment a bit what helps your babies, some people use white noise machines, draw the blinds for naps etc. What ever method you try, be consistent with it for a few days to see if it really works.

 

In addition to the great advice Happy June gave you...I also wanted to add that it took my kids until they were 6 months old to get on a consistent nap schedule. I found at that time what worked best was the 2-3-4 nap schedule (first nap 2 hours after waking for the day, 2nd nap 3 hours after the first nap, and third nap or bedtime 4 hours after waking from the second). I also would do quiet time for about a half hour before the kids went down for a nap: low lights, low voice, soothing noises. Good luck!

 

We had that problem for many, many months. It wasn't until we got onto two naps that they started going about an hour for a nap. Now on one nap, they often sleep 2 hours. I wish I had some great advice, but nothing much helped us. We tried the 2-3-4 schedule, we tried the 90 minute rule, we tried going by sleepy signs, etc. The only thing that seemed to help much was keeping their room VERY dark, and time and maturity. Maybe someone else will have some good suggestions for you, but if not or nothing works, hang in there - it will get better at some point and I have been there! :grouphug:

 

I am really not sure how to make it happen. Mine have just transitioned to it on their own at around the 4 month mark. I do put them to sleep in separate cribs and I always have white noise with a box fan. I do not have the room dark at all. I have never heard of the 2-3-4 rule but mine do kind of do this. My only problem is that on the last nap/bedtime, they kind of fall in this pattern of a nap an hour or two before bedtime... sometimes so close to bed time I don't want to let them nap but it is really difficult to get them to make it to bedtime. I am not sure if at 6 mos I should be trying to do the 3 naps or get to 2. Any one with advice?