Talk to me about naps

Sep5Bride · August 2013

Hi all,

DD goes to daycare full-time, and for the past month or more has only been napping 10-25 minutes at a time, 2-3 times a day. I'm assuming this is because she sees and hears the other babies in the room and doesn't want to sleep if they are playing, but I really don't know. Just wondering what is typical at this age - how long are your LO's naps, how many times a day, and do they go down at the same time every day? I wish I could do more to help her nap schedule, but I feel like it is out of my control since they almost all take place at daycare. She seems so tired when I pick her up at the end of the day, and she's pretty fussy until she goes to bed. At night she is typically sleeping 7pm-5:30am, though she does wake a few times during the night, especially between 3am and 5:30am.

ambmama · August 2013

I don't know if we're typical, but DS still naps 4x a day, generally after being up 2 hours, for anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours. His evening nap seems to be getting harder, though, and today he skipped it, so I think he may go to 3x a day soon.

princessbmw · August 2013

DS does 2 naps, one around 9:30 and the other around 2. Usually 45 min to 1.5 hour. I've been following the 2-3-4 schedule and it has been working pretty well. First nap 2 hours after waking, then 3 hours after waking from that nap he goes down for his 2nd nap. His naps aren't always the same time but fairly close. I'm surprised daycare doesn't try to have all the babies on a similar nap schedule.

Stefibeth · August 2013

Yikes. Yeah, that's not nearly enough sleep and I would guess it's because she's not able to sleep with other things going on around her. A baby's sleep cycle is more like an hour at this point and I've always read that they need at least an hour to get a restorative nap in. Makes sense since that gives them time to complete at least a single cycle.

DD is pretty "textbook" for her age. Times aren't exact, but we have a pretty regular routine where she has predictable awake periods now. Nap lengths tend to vary, which is what throws off the actual timing. So, right now she takes her morning nap about 2 hours after she wakes in the morning. She sleeps for at least 40 mins (that's typically the shortest her naps are), usually more like an hour, sometimes a little longer. Then she's awake for about 3 hours and naps again, roughly about an hour. Sometimes she'll flip flop, if she took a long morning nap, her afternoon might be shorter or vice versa. Then, she'll sometimes take another short nap about 3 hours after she wakes from her afternoon nap, but that doesn't happen everyday. That depends on how long her 2nd nap was, what time she woke up, etc. Just depends on the day! Basically I just watch for signs of tiredness, but she's pretty predictable at this point.

So... I don't know much about daycare, how do they do naps? They're scheduled? Do all the babies not nap at the same time? My DD is pretty relaxed about sleep, but she's pretty wakeful at this point. I can't imagine her sleeping in a room with a lot going on. We just transitioned her from our room to her own because she seemed like she wasn't sleeping as well with us there. Not that I keep my house silent while she's sleeping, I have a small house and a 3 1/2 yo who doesn't nap, but yeah, she definitely wouldn't sleep well if he was playing right next to her!

Smiley-1980 · August 2013

DD takes a 2-3 hr nap 3 hours after waking and then a 45 min to 1 hr nap around 3-4pm. She doesn't go to daycare.

this decaf life · August 2013

DD takes 3 - 45 to 60 minute naps a day at home. We just put up blackout curtains in her room though so I'm hoping she'll start napping for longer stretches.

Last night she didn't wake up until 410 [which might have been my fault because I was awake with gigantic boobs turning on lights and making noise] and then slept until 720 in the morning. She's usually up at 11, 2, 4 & 6 so this was a great improvement!

Maybe you could try to get her to take a nap as soon as she gets home. Sounds like she's definitely not getting quite enough rest!

ReeceFamily · August 2013

DD sounds about like your LO. At daycare, she'll take 2 or 3 30-minute naps (on average, but sometimes they are shorter, like 15 minutes and sometimes up to an hour). On the weekends I've been able to get her to take 1-hour naps, partly because I can lay down with her and soothe her to sleep, which obviously doesn't happen at daycare. I don't stress about it, she is generally calm and happy and growing well, and she sleeps at night (except right now she's teething...).

There is so much anxiety in our society about babies and sleep. I kind of wonder what effect that has.

Wild_flower25 · August 2013

DD still needs 3 naps most days, but daycare vs home is entirely different. She's just starting to take one long nap there, around an hour. I say long becasue typical daycare naps are 20-30 mins. Then once she gets home, she usually takes a late nap on me while nursing before dinner. On the weekends, the times are pretty much the same unless we are out. It's weird but she seems to only make it 2 hrs between naps at home where at daycare she goes 3 or even 4 hours sometimes!

It seems like they are trying to schedule out naps at dc now that she is 7 mos old because they put her down at the same time everyday now. I came once during naptime and they had it quiet and dark, so they do try to help at least.

Chappy_jr · August 2013

DS took those sort of cat naps at daycare when he went for a month around 3-4mo old and at home up until about a month and a half ago when he finally started sleeping for about an hour twice a day. This only happened after some sleep training, though. But the past couple of weeks, naps have been few and far between - only two 20-30 minute naps yesterday and ONE, yes, one, 30 minute nap today.

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