Day time naps

Danicali

Please tell me I'm not alone. LO sleeps in his crib at night fine. But during the day only sleeps on me well. If I lay him down he will MAYBE sleep 20 min. Or he just wakes up immediately. I'm not sure how to fix it. Do you guys treat naps like nighttime? And put him in a dark room? Or should he be able to sleep on his own in the living room?

MissyC979

We're also struggling with naps, even though he sleeps well at night. I've been swaddling him, putting him to sleep, and using the sound machine the same as night sleep. He averages 30-60 minutes, even though he'll go 2+ hours if I'm holding him. At daycare, he naps for about an hour in the crib in the main room, with light and noises.

Danicali

Ya that's how Archer is. He can sleep 2+ hours on me in the afternoon but no where near that if he's on his own. Maybe I'll try the nighttime thing this afternoon: swaddle, sound machine, crib.

myeverything1203

DD has trouble with naps in general. If they aren't naps where she is laying with me forget it...I've tried the whole night time thing during the day for naps and it doesn't help. She will maybe sleep 30 min. Where as if I take a nap with her laying with me in bed she will sleep maybe 2 hrs. She just doesn't like napping and I really wished she did Bc then she gets so cranky, it's bad

lynngotts

LO seems to be napping well at daycare, despite the noise. But at home on the weekend, he struggles with napping and doesnt want to be put in the swing or crib. So far he will only nap while being held or in his carseat if we go out.

Ltpugs

I have the same problem. If I put him in the crib he wakes up immediately. Sometimes I can get away with putting him down in the napper or the swing but he'll only sleep for maybe 20 minutes.

I think if I swaddle him he may sleep longer but I've been avoiding that because of what @osajia said. I'm curious to hear what others think about this as well.

Danicali

@SweetSouthernMomma08‌ he's on his side with me. I'm not sure how to prop him in a playpen. It's weird because he sleeps on his back fine at night and does a 5-6 hr stretch

thetheisens

She naps great now that I have transitioned her to napping in her crib in her room. I think she is too aware now to sleep very long in the living room. So she naps the same as she sleeps at night- sound machine, low lights, and in here room.

imrachellea

My LO is an excellent night sleeper. We're talking about 10-11 hours, with 1 wake up after around 8.5 hours to eat. She never fights going down at night and when she's up for the day I often don't even realize it right away because she'll be content to just be awake in her crib for a bit. Daytime? Forget it. She WILL NOT sleep in her crib and I tried making it different and the same as night to no avail. She will sleep in her swing sometimes (better for DH than me) for 30-60 mins. She always falls asleep while nursing and to avoid the crankiness of not napping well I have just given up and let her sleep on me. It's not an ideal napping situation but she is so much happier now. I go back to work on the 31st (with a quick half day this Friday) and I'm hoping she naps at daycare or the hours she's home after work will either be random power napping or cranky. I've made them aware that I really want them to work on naps as I've had little luck.

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KFiori1

LO is still in the rnp at night. Half her naps are crib and half rnp. With my other 2, they slept in the crib much earlier but didn't nap in their til maybe 5 months or so. They'd only nap in the swing before 5 months. I didn't mind it.

BoothBaby

I WISH my kid would fall asleep on me, but no such luck. I put him in his crib for naps. Blinds closed but curtains open so it's dim but not super dark. I swaddle him too, so same as night (but no bath). Sometimes he naps for 30 mins, sometimes for a couple hours...sometimes not at all. No issues with confusing day and night at this point, although I will wake him if we get to 4 hours since the last feed (at the direction of our Pedi, to make sure he gets enough calories during the day)....although I've only had to wake him a couple times, its very rare for him to sleep that long during the day.

lilypienmessimy

My LO is the same as many PP. She only naps on me or in the carseat out somewhere. If I put her in the bassinet she sleeps tops 40 min...usually 20. Hopefully with time she will nap better, right?? I gotta be able to put her down to do things eventually!

Danicali

That's what I'm hoping! Is that with time he will start to nap better! At least we've had progress with the nighttime crib sleep. Thanks guys! I don't feel so alone now. I thought I was being a bad mom by letting him nap on me. I just think him getting enough sleep is important so I've been letting it go! Time will tell..

Danicali

Oh! And another question - how many naps does your LO have. Mine tends to get grumpy after about an hour of being awake. So he has been having 2 morning naps, a long afternoon nap, and sometimes a shorter nap around supper. I read somewhere that by 3 months they should only be having 3 naps.. But I'm way over that..

KFiori1

Danicali said:

Oh! And another question - how many naps does your LO have. Mine tends to get grumpy after about an hour of being awake. So he has been having 2 morning naps, a long afternoon nap, and sometimes a shorter nap around supper. I read somewhere that by 3 months they should only be having 3 naps.. But I'm way over that..

I really like this site. It gave me great insite on napping

https://www.troublesometots.com/are-you-keeping-baby-awake-too-long/

LO takes 3-4 naps a day, depending on what time she wakes up that morning and how long each nap is. She is rarely awake more than 2 hours at a time, sometimes she's only up 1-1.5 hours between naps.

Danicali

Great link @KFiori1‌ That made me feel better!!

lifesaverz

my LO has always taken pretty short naps, usually 40 minutes or so, but ranging from 30min-1hr, except for her morning nap, which is around 3 hrs. (I think it's really just an extension of night-time sleep).  Counting her morning nap she takes 4 naps a day.  I've always wished they were longer, but she gets great nighttime sleep & is always happy, so I think that's just what works for her!  Plus she IS getting the recommended daily amount all together so I guess it works!  

P.S. I liked that link too!  Looks like LO falls right in the guidelines.

ETA: oops, forgot to add we DO treat naps the same as bed-time - she is swaddled, the fan is on for white noise, & she sleeps in her crib with lights off.

stacers33

We play the "train ride" sound on the White Noise app (by TMSoft) and she falls asleep/stops fighting like nothing else. It is so weird, but that particular sound does the trick for her. When it is playing she will wake up and go right back to sleep. She is down for a nap now (going on almost 2 hours) and I have been able to clean the disaster of a kitchen that DH left when we went out on a work trip (thanks DH!). It worked for one of our friends which is how we found out about it... Sometimes its about finding the right thing for them to soothe with...

eggmankate

osajia said:

DS is at daycare during the weekdays and doesn't seem to sleep well there. During the weekends he naps with me and sometimes I can move him to his swing and he'll stay asleep for an hour or so there. I'm nervous to do his nighttime routine during the day because I feel like then he won't be able to recognize nighttime. That's probably really naive of me but now that we've got him STTN and going down without fussing I'm so scared to risk messing with it.

Hope your LO's napping improves!!!

I wondered about this nighttime routine confusion during the day so I asked our sleep class instructor and she said once babies figure out day-night then you don't need to worry about that. A cool dark room with a noise machine for daytime naps is ideal. I learned at the 8 week mark that my baby would no longer be able to sleep just anywhere and needed a quiet dark environment to sleep otherwise she would not sleep longer than 20 minutes.

I just went to a baby sleep class last night and thought it was really informative so I thought I'd pass it on. Some interesting take-aways I got from it are that when babies sleep the first cycle of sleep it is typically 45 minutes. So when you notice your baby calling out at roughly the 45 minute point they are transitioning to the next sleep cycle and sometimes aren't even awake even though they may even have their eyes open. Have you ever heard your baby call out from a nap and you go in to check on DS or DD and they got themselves back to sleep? It's because they were moving to the next sleep cycle. As parents we often mistake this crying out as them waking up so we go pick them up thinking they are done sleeping. Her suggestion is that if the baby indeed does wake up after 45 minutes they can usually be put back to sleep if you catch it in time before baby cries escalate to them waking up so the trick is to time when the wake-up happens, creep into their room a few minutes before that so when it happens you can quickly do whatever you need to do to soothe them immediately back into the next cycle of sleep whether it be a pacifier, placing a gentle hand on them, etc.

One other interesting take-away I learned is that the first nap of the day sets the stage for the rest of the day. The first nap usually takes place about 60-90 minutes after they first wake up for the morning. The rule is to "protect the morning nap" meaning try not to schedule errands or other tasks that would potentially interfere with the baby being able to take this nap.

notkateanymore

Where else do babies nap if not in the crib or bedroom? I've never considered anything else.

Anyway, DS sleeps in his crib, same routine including swaddling as nighttime. He sleeps in his carseat for his morning nap usually since we're out running errands. In the afternoon after his "lunch" bottle, he sleeps in the crib...sometimes for an hour and sometimes {like today} for 3 hours. Just depends. I'm actually about to go wake him up, so I can feed him before DH gets home with dinner.

bty19

When in her crib my LO naps for 45 min exactly. Every time. And fights the sleep., evvvvery time.
I try to get her back to a sleep after she wakes up with her eyes wide open and smiling up at me... but doesn't happen.
Of course she'll sleep in carrier or her car seat for hours though (but I don't put her in them for naps, just if we happen to be out)..

I've tried every thing and every suggestion I've read (swaddle/unswaddled , drowsy/asleep , soother/no soother , my clothes in crib , catching her before she wakes etc etc... It's just how she rolls I guess. But I wish she'd nap longer when we're at home.

cammyisagirlsname

There are no daytime naps here. LO will cat nap here and there on me or on my bed. But if I put him down in the crib during the day he just doesn't sleep. He sleeps just fine in his crib at night now for 3 weeks. So I don't get it.

Danicali

I put a big sheet over his window yesterday afternoon. It's super dark in his room now. So far, it seems to be helping. I'm guessing he needs it dark! He's had 3 naps in there already. Even if they've only lasted 30-40 min it's progress!! Hoping if I continue doing it consistently he will sleep a little longer at a time. Now let's hope this isn't a fluke... My kid likes to throw those at me to keep me on my toes lol

Hmvbaby14

@KFiori1‌ Thank you for posting that link! It really reassured me that even though L's naps are all over the place, he's still doing what normal for his age!

ChiAmy

same here. Anya will only nap for a short time in her bed, but she will nap long in the swing.  I am trying not to put her in the swing but I want her to nap!

bty19

sounds like most of us are in the same boat....i'll stop thinking my babe is the only one who doesn't like napping at such a young age.