Napping help please- 5 months about 4 months adjusted

daniellecleasby

We finally have the feeding schedule, bedtime routine, and sleeping through the night down pat but now we need to work on our napping schedule. My main questions are on when do you have them nap and how do you get them to stay aleep for the nap?

The Dr said ideally 10-12 hours at night with 2-2hr naps. they sleep about 10 hours at night 9-9:30 to 7-7:30. But our naps suck! they cat nap throughout the day myabe 20-30 mins here and there.  We were doing babywise and it seems like they still want to nap inbetween everyfeeding but only for 20 mins and they seem to fall a sleep right before the next feeding. I can't get them to stay a sleep longer than 30 mins and sometimes their 30 mins arent at the same time.  I would love to get something better going so I can have a little time to myself during the day.

 Any help or advice would be great!

our feeding schedule is- UP at 7 feed-7:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:00 BED

TIA!!!

kafunder

I'm a huge believer that sleep begets sleep, and I think you're bedtime is too late. At that age, most babies, mine included, need an earlier bedtime. Around 3m, ours were going to bed at 7:30pm and at 4 months, they dropped a nap and needed a 6:30pm bedtime. If I were you, I'd keep your normal feeding schedule, and try to get them to nap in between each feeding but put them to bed after the 7pm feeding. Once they are sleeping longer at night (and they've dropped one nap during the day), you may find that they take better, longer naps.

cookiemonster03

I agree - we do bedtime at 7. They usually do a 2 hr morning and afternoon nap, and a catnap before dinner. On daycare days, they usually do an hour in the morning and late afternoon and 2 hrs at lunchtime, and a short catnap when we get home. Same total, different pattern.

megs_glo

I used the 2-3-4 nap/sleep philosophy, 2 hours after they wake up put them down for their first nap, 3 hours after they wake up from their morning nap put them down for their 2nd nap, and 4 hours after they wake up from their afternoon nap they go to bed. 

We are up at 7am, nap from 9am-10am, nap from 1pm-3pm and down for the night by 7pm.   My one daughter does this very well, but my other daughter sometimes does not sleep very well for the second nap, so she will get a 3rd nap around 4pm for half an hour just to make her happier, and it does not affect her going to sleep at night.

We were desperate for something to get them on more of a nap schedule and this was the easiest thing we could figure out.

I like this blog post about sleep:

https://asavvymom.com/?tag=2-3-4-nap-rule

jdancer5

5 months is a normal time to be regulating daytime sleep around 2-3 naps, instead of being a slave to the all-day feeding schedule. We also did a 2-3-4 schedule when we dropped our 3rd nap. Moving bedtime earlier is a good idea for making the change. Another idea is to back the last nap up (gradually) away from bedtime so you can experiment whether or not they can handle a longer awake time, eventually merging the last 2 naps into 1. I think you're right on track. Congrats on STTN. When you get some breaks in the day it's like *hea-ven*