Why won't she sleep more than 40 minutes...

Her brother takes great naps...in order for me to get her to sleep longer, I have to scoop her up when her yowling starts escalating and move her to the swing in the other room...she'll fall back asleep then.

Ugh...SLEEP will ya???

Vent.

 

Unfortunatelly I have two of those that are doing almost the same thing as your daughter, well almost they will take 30 mins naps once they are up they are up, they will not fall back asleep even in their swings. I just can't figure it out, and for the most part I stopped trying it just takes up too much energy out of me, yeah right like two cranky overtired babies don't. I am just praying its a phase and SOON they will take logner naps. Hang in there.

 

Let me know when you find the magic answer b/c mine are 9 mo. old and still take two 45 minute naps a day! Makes for very cranky evenings. I have tried eveything! CIO, white noise, lovies, swings. Nothing works anymore.

 

Ugh-mine too! It seems the naps are getting shorter and shorter, unless they are in swings! Does anyone know what any books have to say about this issue or any tips read? I have had no time to read up on it (wonder why?!!! LOL)I wonder if putting them in the swings will "train" them to crave longer sleep later or will just make them never go to sleep in their cribs later?

 

A typical sleep cycle is 40 to 45 minutes. A lot of infants tend to wake up as they cycle through that lighter sleep rather than hit the light sleep and cycle back down into deep sleep. At four months, I started putting them down and if they woke up, I'd go in and soothe them without picking up if possible but never taking them out of the room until I'd tried for at least 20 min to get them back to sleep. I basically treated it like a middle of the night waking. After about a week of being super consistent, they started sleeping through that cycle change. Pretty much everybody wakes up sometimes, it's our job to teach them how to go back to sleep without help when it isn't time to get up yet.

 

I agree with Meredith, if you can soothe them a bit so that they will go back to sleep, that is the best answer. Usually, if you can get them to fall back asleep for a few days, so that they can learn to soothe themselves & that it isn't time to wake up yet, you will get longer nap times. It's frustrating but some babies just need more help in learning to sleep through than others.

 

Ditto the PP. I had one at that age napping like a dream. The other never wanted to and woke exactly at that transitional 45 mins. I did the whole sooth but don't pick up. She got really mad and it was brutal for a few days, but then she started stretching it to 1 hour - 1 hour 15 mins. Today she still gives me 1 hour in the morning and 90 mins or so in the afternoon. Her sister does 90 min and 2.5 hours. She just needs more sleep. If only we could talk them in to napping exactly together.

 

Its been a long time since I had this issue... but I wanted to mention that several of the books (Baby Whisperer and Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child), talk about the "45 minute intruder" with naps, which is what the pp is talking about. even now sometimes I'll hear a wail and mine will end up going back to sleep for another 45 min or so...

I would recommend reading up on one of the sleep books for this type of sleep issue and trying to address it now. I did a lot of patting the kids back to sleep while they were in their cribs during this time. Baby Whisperer talks about doing one method for younger babies and one for older babies... at one point its too distracting to pick them up to hold them, but at another point it was the recommended way to soothe them. (I don't remember the specifics). The books are a great way to understand sleep in general and what the authors have spent years researching.

good luck.