sleep sleep sleep--I have no idea what i'm doing!

randcbaby

There is probably not a right or wrong way to do sleep, but I'm still convinced there is--and convinced that I'm doing it the wrong way!

 My son is almost 5 months old. He has always been a good sleeper--or so I thought. Now I feel like I might have screwed him up! 

His "schedule," up until recently, was as follows: We usually start bedtime around 6:30, and he is asleep by 7 on most nights. He sleeps till about 3 a.m., I nurse him, he goes right back down. He is up again at 6 a.m., we play for an hour and nurse, then he goes back down (usually in bed with me), for an hour or two. That gets us to 8 or 9 a.m. From there, I was nursing him about every 2.5 hours, and he was sleeping for about 45 minutes ever 1.5 hours.

It was easy to get him to nap, either in his swing or his crib. Every now and then he'd resist, and sometimes his nap would only last 20 minutes or so, but I was confident that he would be tired again about an hour and a half after waking.

 I don't know if it's because he's getting older, or because he's teething, or because I let him sleep in my arms on weekends or with me in bed in the morning, but naps are SO much more challenging now! He still goes down like a dream at night, but now he is waking up more often--usually at 1 a.m., 3 or 4 a.m., and 5 or 6 a.m. He will then skip naps during the day, or take an hour to go down and then sleep for just 10 minutes. Recently he started rolling onto his tummy in his crib. At night, he will do this in his sleep, and I'll only notice when he wakes up a few hours later. But for naps, he'll roll as soon as I put him down, and then he won't be able to fall asleep on his tummy.

We do the same routine for naps that we do for bed: white noise, sleep sack, story, songs, crib with pacifier. We sometimes forget a step, but it is for the most part consistent. If he skips a nap or takes just a 10 minute nap, he is not noticeably more fussy afterwards--he really only fusses when we try to get him t nap!

 What should my goals be at this point? Should I be forcing him to nap? Should I just give up and let him nap with me (he will sleep easily if I hold him, and always for at least 45 minutes)?  Should I expect a certain number of naps from him? Should I worry that he is getting up more at night?

I guess I just don't really know what I'm aiming for, even, so it's impossible for me to know if what's happening now is even a problem.

 Any advice is welcome. Thank you!

mben1119

DS went through a phase from like 4-7 months where he only cat napped. Like, I was lucky if he took 2 30 minute naps a day. It sounds like it could be the 4 month wakeful, but you should start weaning him from napping in your arms. Try swaddling in the cr

ThatWasAHoot

Both of my kids started napping easier when we got rid of all night time feedings.  For us, with my son it was 4 months and with my daughter it was one month.  They decided, though, so there's what I have to say about that :]

pb_bride

It's a bit hard to tell how your son goes to sleep (or naps).  Is he rocked to sleep first and then placed in the crib, or is it put int he crib drowsy and he falls asleep on his own?

My son is just over 5 months, and he was having the worst

gladygirlca

My 5 month old LO goes down at about 7:30-8.  He used to wake up once or twice, but 95% or the time now, he'll put himself back to sleep which is AWESOME!  Then he is usually wide awake at 5am when I bring him to bed to nurse and nap for an hour