Anyone else struggling with short day naps?

Luciana - posted on 12/14/2009

Quoting Kristi:

Oh goodness yes! It seems if we are on the go, he will sleep longer, but when we are at home, it's a short nap. Plus, my 3 year old DD has a bad habit of waking him up!!! Drives me insane!

Same here... MY busy body 3 yr old wakes him up,, Hes naps have gotten shorter but more frequent... He sleeps through the nite till bout 6am he eats and diaper change then hes out for a couple more hrs. but during the day, It varys.

Claudia - posted on 12/14/2009

my little guy (who is four months) sleeps pretty well at night..sure, he wakes a few times & i just have to replace the soother, but for the most part i get b/ 9-11 hours from him depending, with mainly just one, sometimes two feeds.

during the day though, i swear its like he has an internal clock that wakes him up specifically after 30 minutes! its amazing.. not so amazing when the poor little guy's still tired, but i cant really make him sleep.. sure i tried letting him cry for a bit, but that didnt work..

sometimes.. if I'M also tired.. i will go & lay down with him, and then he has no problem napping for longer (i dont mind.. i like the cuddling anyway ;)

or if we're out & about sometimes he will sleep longer as well in the car seat/stroller.

i read sooo many things about naps & i know sleep begets sleep, etc & all these books are great (if you have a baby that fits their mould), but honestly, every baby is different.. i think i FINALLY just accepted that. and you know what, if it takes you to lay with him or rock with him or whatever, just do it.. as a friend of mine pointed out.. they are only little for so long so just cherish & enjoy every minute. :)

Desiree - posted on 12/14/2009

My little man has very sporadic sleep during the day, often 15 to 45 minute naps. But he is currently 3 and 1/3 months old and sleeping through the night. And he entertains himself by looking at his mobile or sitting in his swing long enought for mommy to get the house clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Megan - posted on 12/11/2009

Yes my son is also taking power naps....He has started this week taking longer hour to 2 hour naps and eating more but I believe that just means he is growing because he does this every so often and I love it because I get so much more done!

Marquita - posted on 12/10/2009

Power naps!!!! Yes, they are killing me, but he is starting to sleep longer at night so I guess it balances.

Kelly - posted on 12/10/2009

My 4 month old Evie will sleep pretty well at night getting up to feed once or twice. But the daytime is completely different! I am lucky if she takes one half hour- 45 minute nap after I get the older ones to school but after that she only naps for 10-15 minutes maybe every few hours! She has a routine because we are so structure will all of her sisters but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

Janelle - posted on 12/09/2009

Yes i do and have since my son turn about 12 weeks old. The Dr told me it was normal and to try as hard as possible to be consistent with his routines everyday and he will eventually get used to "nap" time. He said that this stage is hard because they are starting to learn to put themselves to sleep and that i need to be patient with him. So i listened to his advice. Started putting him in his crib at night, created a routine and have tried like heck to stick with it. Now that he is 18 weeks old, he is on much more of a schedule and his late morning nap is about 60-90 minutes. Then in the later afternoon he sleeps for about an hour. Hope that helps :-) good luck

Danika - posted on 12/08/2009

i have the same problem...once my son hit 2 months (oct 15) he started fighting sleep...during the day he will not sleep more than 10 minutes at a time and he will stay up until midnight every night then go to sleep...sleep for about 5-6 hours then get up for the day and then it starts all over...he just doesnt sleep

Genevieve - posted on 12/08/2009

If we are at home my baby girl will maybe sleep in 30 minute increments, or she might wake up when we try to put her down for a nap after holding her. However, she'll sleep for up to two hours if I'm walking with her in the bjorn. I just try to get things done very little at a time

Dawn - posted on 12/08/2009

I agree with Elissa, as long as your child is rested and happy, does it matter. My sons "routine" (above) is set by himself and not me, just last night he woke every three hours again for a bottle.......

Jessica - posted on 12/07/2009

My son is 3 months and takes several short naps a day, but lately I just go back into the room and I pat his little butt and he falls back to sleep and for a longer period of time. I always go in when he is whining, try to go in before it is a full cry. I hope this helps because it just started working for me.

Elissa - posted on 12/07/2009

Maybe I'm dense but why does it matter?



Struan catnaps during day. That way he doesnt get over tired and we get good quality time. I take him around the house while doing housework and the rest of the time we play and cuddle. Routine will come when he is ready, not when I am, as long as he is hapy, I'm happy. Plus he sleeps well at night so I do too.



Why are short naps a problem? I can recommend the Baby Sleep Book by William and Martha Sears to anyone - lots of different tricks rather than a 'system' so more flexible than most things.

Dawn - posted on 12/07/2009

My boy is 17 months and we have had him self soothing to sleep since he was born (learned the hard way with his older brother) He usually sleeps from about 8pm till 6.30 when we have to get up for work, he then has a feed and a play and then sleeps for about 30-45 minutes at about 10-11, he then wakes for another feed and has a play and then another 30-45 minute nap he then wakes and playes and might have a smaller feed/snack followed by more playing, by about 7pm he has another full feed and then sleep again by 8pm. It can be annoying when you are out shopping or have stuff to do because he gets bored and wants you to play with him, but when we have nothing to do it is great....

Krista - posted on 12/04/2009

Sam is the exact same way. He sleeps like a champ at night (usually from 8pm until 6am straight, then a feeding, and then right back to bed until around 9am.) However, his daytime naps tend to be short -- usually less than an hour. That's partly my fault, as I just let him nap wherever he fell asleep (in his swing, or his bouncy chair, or sometimes in my arms if it's after a feeding), so when he does wake up, he sees me right away and *BING* the eyes are wide open. It doesn't really bother me too much, so I haven't been trying to fix it, but I really should start getting him to nap in his crib.

I suppose, where he sleeps so great at night, I'm terrified of botching it up by messing with his naps. My parental philosophy tends to be, "If it's working, don't f**k with it."

Michelle Carpenter - posted on 12/04/2009

My son also takes very short naps 10-30 min...he's happy and easygoing after but the only way he naps longer to to nurse through a naptime which is hard to do with a toddler in the house...plus nothing else gets done then either...My daughter was the same and turned into a great napper around age 1...hoping it happens sooner this time!!

Milka - posted on 12/03/2009

It depends on what my son's activity. If he does alot of rolling, he usually can go to sleep for 1-2 hours.
When he was 3 months, he was learning how to get back to sleep from sleep cycle 40-45 minutes. And I should do pat pat pat or cuddle cuddle...Now he is 4 months and can get back to sleep by himself if he suddently wakes up. If he wakes up, I put his dummy on, and he can sooth him self and he can spit it out when he wants to sleep.

Sandie - posted on 12/03/2009

My son was taking extremely short naps--15 minutes or less. Thankfully, now he takes a 2-3 hour nap during the day now. It has been a life saver!

Jen - posted on 12/03/2009

I've just read in a book this week that a 3-4month old baby's sleep cycle is between 40 - 50 minutes. So around 45 minutes they will come into a light stage of sleep and wake up a bit, even if they haven't actually yet finished their sleep, if you know what I mean. If you can get them back off to sleep quickly at this point before they cry too much, they'll slip into a deeper stage of sleep and then sleep for another 'cycle'. In fact, they're probably likely to sleep for another 45 minutes (another sleep cycle) - that seems to be why their naps tend to be either 45 or 90 minutes. Apparently morning and afternoon sleeps are fine for them to go through one sleep cycle (or more if needed), but the lunch time nap does need to be longer. Anyway, I just thought I'd share that in case it's useful for some of you. When my little girl wakes up after 45 mins and I want her to sleep longer, I try to............ahem.......it's a bit embarrasing.....but I crawl into the room and without her seeing me and put my hand in the moses basket and put my hand on her chest to calm her back to sleep. If that doesn't work, I stick the dummy in and she does tend to go back off (although that's not ideal cos that's a sleep association or something but hey what's a girl to do!). I have found in my experience, that if my daughter wakes up after 45mins and I go into her room and she is able to see me, she tries to make eye contact and then smiles etc so then wakes up properly and would then definately not get back to sleep. So guys.....my advice is to crawl into their room (!), don't speak to them, don't give any eye contact and get the little blighters back off to the land of nod, ha ha!!!!!

Lacey - posted on 11/30/2009

Yes, this happened with my girl Skylar around the same age. The good news is that she sleeps through the night. I think its normal. You can't get much done around the house, though. I took her for walks when it was nice. Now I just try to get out and about. Seasame street helps, too. I also put her in the car seeat and she just watchs me do stuff. She is good as long as I talk to her, but she has a limit. I have a sitter if I need to do stuff. Just went back to work today so I hope Grandma, my babysitter, doesn't suffer with her short napping!

Bronwyn - posted on 11/24/2009

Yes, I think that it's best not to stress about it. I tried all sorts of things (even a dummy) but nothing seemed to work. As long as he sleeps well at night, then I don't mind too much what his day naps are like. I just have to learn to let go. Today, he had two naps at my mum's while she was babysitting - 2 hours and 1 1/2 hours - but when we got home, he only had 45 mins. It's hard to know how long he'll sleep for each nap, but there's not much I can do about. I try to keep him in his cot as long as he'll tolerate it. I read that babies his age need 15 hours sleep in a 24 hour period. I worked out how long he was sleeping for and he was getting around this much sleep. When I realised this, I stopped stressing about it. He's getting enough sleep and he's happy.

Julia - posted on 11/24/2009

Jen (Williams) - that does sound exactly like what happens here - about 3-4 45 minute naps a day, depending on where we are and what we are doing. i have tried everything to extend her naps, following all the books (the No Cry Sleep Solution, the Baby Whisperer, 12 Hours Sleep By 12 Weeks, etc.) but i was just going nuts and getting frustrated. she is usually in good spirits after her cat nap, so i just let her get up and play and if she's fussy try to entertain her until her next nap... i wouldn't stress about cat naps. it's frustrating if you want to get anything done during the day - for instance, i am a consultant and i am also job hunting, so 45 minute naps don't really work well for that, but we manage. good luck!

Cami - posted on 11/24/2009

my son has been havin about 2 short naps (30mins) and two long naps (about an hour, maybe hour and 1/2) and sleeps about 9 hours a night

Jen - posted on 11/24/2009

My little girl, Abigail is 15 weeks old and she's pretty much the same as your little girl Julia (Campbell). She sleeps brilliantly at night and wakes at 6am-ish then exactly an hour and a half after she's been up, she goes back down for exactly 45mins! Then she's up for exactly an hour and then goes back down again for another 45mins!!! So it seems 45mins is all she really seems to have. I try to take her out around lunch time to get her a good sleep then but no matter what happens, she is usually pretty cranky by the end of the day too. Sounds normal to me. Not sure how to extend the sleep. Unless you try a dummy, it probably just comes with time when they mature a bit. But someone gave me a great tip....... Try not to let your baby stay awake longer than two hours, because that seems to be their cut off point - they might get overtired if awake longer than that and then their sleep can be disrupted and they jolt themselves awake. Maybe that is what can happen with their day naps???? I know Abigail's sleeps in the morning are better than her afternoon ones so there may be some truth in that because she's been stimulated so much during the day??? But hey, if your baby sleeps well at night, then we shouldn't complain too much ha ha!

Julia - posted on 11/24/2009

yes, i do! it drove me nuts for a while, but since my baby is a pretty good night sleeper, i realized that i shouldn't drive myself crazy over it. my baby Isabelle is almost 4 months and has no nap pattern - the only nap i can count on is in the morning, about an hour and a half after she wakes up. she'll get sleepy and go in the crib for 45 minutes exactly. the rest of her naps are very sporadic and none longer than 45 minutes. she gets cranky by the end of the day, but i can't really make her sleep. have you tried anything that might be useful? i am anxious to hear what others have to say.

Bronwyn - posted on 11/23/2009

I found a few suggestions that helped. The most helpful was the blog: http://babywisemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/...
My baby's not so bad now. But each nap is different, so I never know what to expect. Having a routine helped. Most of the time, I just went with it.

Lauren - posted on 11/23/2009

i have 14 week old twin boys who do this. they sleep beautifully at night but during the day its non stop napping. If im out and they are in the car etc they will sleep but at home i generally get 45 mins from them. even though clearly they are still tired with red eyes, yawning and grumpy. i have no idea what to do. suggestions?

Kristi - posted on 11/22/2009

Oh goodness yes! It seems if we are on the go, he will sleep longer, but when we are at home, it's a short nap. Plus, my 3 year old DD has a bad habit of waking him up!!! Drives me insane!

Jennifer - posted on 11/22/2009

I am - my little one even does only 20 min naps sometimes! I was told that "sleep begets sleep"! We are working to get him on a nighttime sleep schedule and if that works he should also sleep more during his naps! We shall see!