FTM troubles with naptime.

Ripcupid99

Hi all, FTM here. My LO is about to turn 3 months on the 17th & I cannot get her past the 1 hour mark for her afternoon naps. As soon as she wakes up from her sleep cycle she cries until I get her out of her crib. She is really good (knock on wood) at self soothing overnight, but cant seem to do it during nap time. Any moms have any tips for getting past this? Thanks!! 

satuttle1014

My daughter only does cat naps throughout the date but sleeps through the night. She randomly will sleep for 2 hours but it's rare. It's just something I have accepted that she is not a good napper, thankfully she is easy when she is awake. Maybe one day it will click as they grow up.

ladylolly89

DS did this from 2-3.5 months, only he couldn't make it past 45 minutes! It was awful, because he needed about 5-6 hours worth of naps and he was getting about 3.

He was (and is!) a good nighttime sleeper as well.
 
I tried so many things - longer waketimes, shorter waketimes, napping with him, naps in different places. The only thing that sort of worked was the "wake to sleep" method (google it if you aren't familiar). The idea is that you rouse them a little before they reach the dreaded sleep cycle transition, and then they sleep through it.

It's so time consuming though; I only could stand to do it for two of DS's naps each day and I had to just let him take short naps the other two times.

The idea is that you do this for a few days to a week and then the problem should be fixed. Well, that didn't work for us - he just kept waking up if I didn't do wake to sleep. Eventually I just gave up, and a few weeks later he suddenly started taking multiple full-length naps every day! 

 It will get better, but it would be nice if there was some magical timeline.  

Ceridwen77

My 9 month old to this day rarely sleeps for an hour and still naps 3x a day. As long as she gets through a sleep cycle (40-45min) I consider it a win.

Some babies are just short nappers. I learned a while ago to stop stressing about her naps. This nap schedule works for her so we just go with it. Good luck. 

delujm0

My kid took long naps from birth to 3 weeks old, and then not again until she was about 8 months old.  She took more frequent short (30-45 minute) naps rather than fewer long ones.  Up until the 4 month mark, i considered it a victory if she would take any portion of that 30 minute nap in her crib instead of on top of me.  She didn't drop her third nap until 9 months because that's when they started getting longer.  Sorry for the bad news...but this sounds completely normal.  Was it super annoying to have to deal with constant short naps?  Yup.  Was there anything we could do to stop it?  Nope.  It will pass.  At 14 months now we're finally starting to transition from 2 naps to 1 and it is glorious.

ebk1020

I had this issue with my 11 week old and have just gotten it straightened out. I am putting him down about an hour after he finishes eating and it's the same time every day. A tight swaddle combined with a white noise machine and a dim room calm him down. He might cry for 5 minutes and I then go in and do a quick soothe. The longest it takes him to fall asleep is 15 minutes.

saladflambe

My 7 month old never takes naps longer than 45 minutes unless she's sick. 
It's just how she is.
I pretty much let her dictate how long nap time lasts. I gauge when she needs another nap by either tiredness cues or time passed (at 3 months, I'd put her down for another nap after 90 minutes of awake time).

At 7 months old, she still takes 3 naps a day most days. oooh children