Yet another nap question

Well, our guys are finally sleeping in their cribs in their room for naps :clapping: ! We are doing the rock and cuddle until drowsy and then lay down; and for the most part they are doing really well at going down. But we can't seem to get past the 30-40 min. nap with either kiddo. They were born at 36 weeks, so I know they're really on the 4.5 month schedule, but when are we going to start stretching the naps a bit? They take 3 naps a day (morning, noon, and afternoon) and sleep about 12 hours each night. For the most part, they seem to be surviving on these short spurt naps, but I know it's going to catch up with us at some point. Any advice??

Laura

 

I am in the same boat...30 minute naps in their cribs and hour naps in bouncies/swing.......cant figure it out!!

 

Same here :headbang: by 5pm my guys are so cranky its not a pretty picture at all.

 

Our naps started getting longer around 6-7 months, and I've read that this is a common time for "nap consolidation" to happen. I was getting soooo frustrated at 4-5 months because they would not sleep longer than 45 minutes (ETA: unless we were pushing them in the stroller, which we did whenever possible!). But it just happened on its own when they got a little older -- we didn't really do anything differently.

 

Ditto this! I remember being so frustrated at the 4-6 mo mark, because they would nap for 45 minutes tops, and need 3 or 4 naps a day. I thought they would never start taking fewer, longer naps. But without help from me, it just started happening between 6-8 mos. Went to 3 naps first, now to 2 longer 1-2 hour naps.

 

Us too, sometimes my baby girl only does 20 minutes :gah: I definitely hope it gets better soon!

 

I used to just kind of deal with it with a little milk top up, more rocking and either back in the crib or swing. Sometimes they can just wake up and still be tired so just needed that extra little help to get back to sleep. It's annoying but worth it as they are happier after a longer nap, and now at 8 months old they take two 2-hour naps. Worked for us with all four boys.

 

How long are they up for the day before you are putting them down. At that age we put them back down for first nap 60-90 mins from wake up. They are sleeping 12 hours straight...it is possible they don't need much more sleep if they are not cranky, but not likely. At that age I also just started kissing them and laying them straight down (for naps only - at night we still rocked.) They would fuss for 5-10 mins and pass out. Are you seeing tired signs? If they rub their eyes or yawn you most likely have mere mins to get them to bed if you are not too late. If you are seeing tired signs for first nap, try the next day laying them down earlier when they seem quite awake and happy. Good luck. You are entering a very "interesting" time developmentally and that is not going to help your cause. It is so good to hear they are STTN though!

 

I made myself crazy with this same dilemma! Mine are 7 months old, and finally for the past 3-4 weeks they started napping 1.5-2 hours twice a day, and a third cat nap in the evening for about 30 min. I think it is just an age thing. :friends:

 

Well, I'm glad to hear it just seems to be an age thing. I'm sure we went through this with our 6 yr. old, but I just can't remember (and there was only one and he was the only child, so it didn't bother us as much : ).

Betsy, their first nap is about 60-90 min. after they get up, and the other two are 90-120 min. after they get up from the previous naps. We are definitely watching for sleepy cues and catch them as soon as we see them, or before if possible. Unfortunately, one of my guys goes from smiling and cooing to screaming in about 30 sec. so we can't depend on him for sleep cues :headbang: And I should clarify the nighttime sleep. They are still getting a dream feed at 11 and then they're usually up around 3:30-4:30 for one more feed. So no SSTN yet.

Thanks ladies, it's nice to hear you're not alone sometimes!
Laura

 

This thread makes me feel so much better! My husband was home for lunch and I was just telling him that I cannot figure out what I'm doing wrong on the nap schedule. Our nights are great, for the most part, but the napping is making me crazy!! I thought we'd turned the corner last week, but now, not so much. It seems so much easier to just stick them in their swings, where I know they'll nap for hours, but I know that's heading down the bad path ...

And my other problem is that I didn't really have a nap "method" with my other two. I didn't work on a nap schedule with my oldest until she was 10 months old (I was much more footloose and fancy free with just one baby!), and my second child fell into a great nap schedule on his own very early on.

Speaking of naps, one of my boys is up ... ugh ... at least I got an hour out of him!

 

Laura - I feel like I live in breathe to figure out their sleep patterns...LOL. You are working really hard - hopefully soon it will just click. My DD Jude had a horrible time between 4-7 mos...learning to sit up, crawl, etc...sometimes it just has to run its course. She just started STTN about 3 weeks ago.