Nap frustration. Lo only naps like 20-30 mins at a time

Stowne101

LO is 2 months and stinks at napping. He sleeps like 20-30 mins. I feel like I spend longer than that trying to get him to nap. He sleeps well at night. Anyone else? Any tips?

erinsullivan427

Mine didn't start taking good naps until we got on a schedule. 1 1/2 hours awake. 1 1/2 hours asleep. He is 9 weeks and we've been doing this for almost two weeks. Before I was waiting too long to put him down and he was overtired. I know some aren't into schedules so young but this was the only thing that worked. I tried all sorts of things, swaddled, unswaddled, swing, rnp, crib, on me... The only thing that's helped is the schedule.

VanessaBee

erinsullivan427 said:

Mine didn't start taking good naps until we got on a schedule. 1 1/2 hours awake. 1 1/2 hours asleep. He is 9 weeks and we've been doing this for almost two weeks. Before I was waiting too long to put him down and he was overtired. I know some aren't into schedules so young but this was the only thing that worked. I tried all sorts of things, swaddled, unswaddled, swing, rnp, crib, on me... The only thing that's helped is the schedule.

This. Baby was getting way overtired which made it hard for him to go down and hard for him to stay asleep. Now we do a "schedule" of eat, play, sleep and start rocking or cuddling to start the next nap after he's been up for about 90 minutes. The whole thing ends up looking approximately like: eat (30 mins), play (45-60 mins), rock/cuddle (10-15 mins), nap (45-75 mins), begin again!! It's helped a ton and he's still sleeping so well at night.

Stowne101

Thanks I'll try

KariB509

I have the exact same problem. Unless I rock her for an hour, she doesn't nap for longer than 10-30 minutes. And with DS, I dont have time to rock her for an hour. So she only sleeps MAYBE an hour (not all together) until DS takes his nap and I have time. I know she's tired too, she just won't go to sleep and stay asleep. :-S

Eta for typo

mfarmer0811

VanessaBee said:

erinsullivan427 said:

Mine didn't start taking good naps until we got on a schedule. 1 1/2 hours awake. 1 1/2 hours asleep. He is 9 weeks and we've been doing this for almost two weeks. Before I was waiting too long to put him down and he was overtired. I know some aren't into schedules so young but this was the only thing that worked. I tried all sorts of things, swaddled, unswaddled, swing, rnp, crib, on me... The only thing that's helped is the schedule.

This. Baby was getting way overtired which made it hard for him to go down and hard for him to stay asleep. Now we do a "schedule" of eat, play, sleep and start rocking or cuddling to start the next nap after he's been up for about 90 minutes. The whole thing ends up looking approximately like: eat (30 mins), play (45-60 mins), rock/cuddle (10-15 mins), nap (45-75 mins), begin again!! It's helped a ton and he's still sleeping so well at night.

This is what we do..sometimes I have to nurse him to sleep, but it only takes 10-15 minutes. And I don't mind cause I get extra snuggles!!

kls33145

jforsythia said:

Oh, also, do you wear LO? I do and she always sleeps longer when she's on me as opposed to when she's in her bed (PNP).

This exactly!!!!! He takes 2-3 hour naps in the Moby!!

novelblessings

I've considered the EASY method everyone talks about but does it not work for anyone? My LO won't sleep or nap without being fed first (I EBF), even if she was only awake an hour or so.

Eta: I am also having issues with DD napping. She only napped when I when grocery shopping today and I basically forced her to becuase she was in the moby.

fish8412

LO sleeps great at night. Some days her naps are short and some days they are long. I'm not worried. I just make sure that I reduce stimulation/dim the lights/rock her after 2 hours of wakefulness so she does not get overtired.

erinsullivan427

babycaps said:

VanessaBee said:

@erinsullivan427 said:

Mine didn't start taking good naps until we got on a schedule. 1 1/2 hours awake. 1 1/2 hours asleep. He is 9 weeks and we've been doing this for almost two weeks. Before I was waiting too long to put him down and he was overtired. I know some aren't into schedules so young but this was the only thing that worked. I tried all sorts of things, swaddled, unswaddled, swing, rnp, crib, on me... The only thing that's helped is the schedule.

This. Baby was getting way overtired which made it hard for him to go down and hard for him to stay asleep. Now we do a "schedule" of eat, play, sleep and start rocking or cuddling to start the next nap after he's been up for about 90 minutes. The whole thing ends up looking approximately like: eat (30 mins), play (45-60 mins), rock/cuddle (10-15 mins), nap (45-75 mins), begin again!! It's helped a ton and he's still sleeping so well at night.

Do you wake up your LO at that 75mon mark? I have found now, at 9 weeks that if I let him, he will sleep almost 3hr naps and eat every 4 to 41/2 hrs. But with that, he stopped having his long night stretch!!
We have a great 2-2.5hr morning nap, a solid afternoon nap but then we FIGHT to get him down for one more nap or bedtime!

Mine is 9 wks too and I wake him up to make sure he eats every 3 hrs so a 90 min nap every 90 mins is how it works out. I got an example of a schedule from a blog called delightful mom stuff (I don't know how to link from the app but you could google) and we do the 3 hour cycle all day and keep him up the last one so when he wakes at 7 or 8 it's eat/play/eat then put him down 3 hours later. He starts wanting to fall asleep a bit and then we give him a bath and do his little night routine before I feed him and put him down. He goes five hours until his next feeding but that is his one and only long stretch.

VanessaBee

@babycaps‌ yikes!! I haven't run into that issue yet, but now I'm afraid! He'll be eight weeks tomorrow and he's had a couple of 2-ish hour day naps here and there that haven't thrown off his nights. If his nights start to get wonky, I will likely adjust his day naps.

pepperedmoth

novelblessings said:

I've considered the EASY method everyone talks about but does it not work for anyone? My LO won't sleep or nap without being fed first (I EBF), even if she was only awake an hour or so.

Eta: I am also having issues with DD napping. She only napped when I when grocery shopping today and I basically forced her to becuase she was in the moby.

Yeah, he doesn't nurse to sleep, but he needs to nurse right before. We're EAESY over here (by his cues! I didn't try to do the EASY thing --- it just happened.)

Stephout

Bad mom that I am I haven't really had "naps," just lucky times where he is suddenly asleep. I couldn't get Drew to sleep no matter what the first 6 weeks. Now if I am lucky I might get him to sleep for 30 minutes to an hour in his swing in the afternoon. He has some sleep when we walk for an hour and when I baby wear to make dinner. Overall I feel like I am behind the curve on getting a routine of any sort.