Naps - What am I doing wrong?

Eitak82 · August 2013

DS is 27 weeks old today. He has generally been a very good sleeper at night (and sleeps 10 3/4 - 11 1/2 hours at night from 7:15 pm - 6:30 am), but his naps always have and still are all over the place. He goes down for naps at about 9:00 am, 1:00 pm, and 4:30 pm (approximately). Sometimes, he will nap for a full hour and fifteen minutes continuously and then wake up, but just as often (if not more) he will sleep for 30-40 minutes, wake up, cry/play for 5-25 minutes and usually eventually go back down to finish his nap.

I keep reading about babies taking 2+ hour long naps (he has never done this), so I am thinking he may just be a shorter napper, which is fine by me, but I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong that's causing him to still wake up so frequently at the 30-40 minute mark. He doesn't have super clear "tired" signs (and I feel like they change constantly), he just generally gets a tiny bit fussier/higher maintenance when he seems sleepy. I assume he actually is tired, because when I initially put him down he can fall asleep within 3-5 minutes (with little to usually no crying).

Am I putting him down too soon? too late? The dr said he would likely be dropping a nap sometime in the coming couple of months... which one? or will this not happen because his naps are short?

Sorry for all the questions, but thanks for any help you can provide!

Litgirl77 · August 2013

That pretty much describes my LO as well. I actually think that's pretty normal (and compared to what I hear from other people, might actually be pretty good).

If he's falling asleep in 3-5 minutes, on his own, without a ton of fussing, it sounds like you're hitting the right window. I've heard that being overtired can make naps harder, so maybe experiment with 5-10 minutes earlier and see what happens?

The nap he will drop is that last one - you'll notice it getting shorter, and sometimes you'll put him down and he'll have a tough time falling asleep. My LO still takes it most days, but sometimes he just plays in his cribs for 20 minutes and then I get him up. The 2-3 transition is rough, I will warn you! Hang in there!

MomIn2013 · August 2013

DS is the same age and does the same. Usually his naps are no more than 45 minutes, but occasionally he'll go for an hour and a half.

JJ_13 · August 2013

I know very few babies who nap for more than 2 hours (unless they only take 1 nap a day). My LO is almost 8 months old, and I follow (generally speaking) the 2-3-4 rule. 2 hours after getting up, she goes down for nap #1. Assuming nap #1 was a "good" nap (in our book that's anything over an hour), she goes down for nap #2 about 3 hours after nap #1 ended. Then bedtime is between 7 and 8, and is somewhere around 4 hours after she got up from her last nap. Some days are off, and the hours are more approximations. I would say that really for her it's more like a 2.5, 2.75, 4.5 type of breakdown. For us, the key in lengthening naps was getting her to fall asleep on her own. Before she could fall asleep on her own, her naps topped out at 30 minutes and she needed 4 - 6 of them a day

As for dropping a nap, most babies will drop the late afternoon nap sometime between 6 and 8 months. And, according to my friends with older babies, most of them drop the morning nap between 12 - 24 months (and then take a longer afternoon nap).

Eitak82 · August 2013

Thanks, ladies! I take a "mommy & me" sort of class with DS and almost all of the other moms seem to have these magical 2+ hour long nap babies (which is why I keep thinking I must be doing something wrong.

I do think I'm going to play around with times a little (both putting him down a tiny bit sooner and a bit later) to see what happens, but it's nice to know it is not just us!

Jackiemxoxo · August 2013

DD takes 2 one and a half hour naps. They are sometimes as short as 1 hour and sometimes as long as 2 hours. She used to only take 30-45 minute naps from about 4-6 months. When she started getting on a more regular schedule (she would get tired around the same times). I would try and put her down at those times. I think she transitioned when she was able to self-soothe more and I dressed her in a sack in her crib. Her schedule is wake up at 7am, nap at 9am, nap at 2pm, bed at 7pm. I think consistency can be key if your LO is showing patterns of tiredness around the same times. However, every baby is different and if it works for you then just keep doing what your doing as long as LO is happy and rested.

Litgirl77 · August 2013

Nicb13 said:

Those moms have to be lying!

Agreed! Dirty, dirty liars - all of them!! :P

VPGIRL06 · August 2013

my LO will do that for some naps-she's 24 weeks, and takes 2 naps at 9 and 200. Sometimes she'll wake up after one sleep cycle, and do the something (play or babble) and fall back asleep. I don't think there's anything wrong-in fact, it's proabley why you have good night time sleeper. She can put herself back to sleep and doesn't need mom or dad there to help! My rule of thumb is that she needs to be in her crib at least 90 minutes for nap time-having some down time in the crib is more restful then playing down stairs. that being said if she wakes up early, i do move that second nap up, and sometimes there's a third-but 8 out of 10 times she puts herself back to sleep.

your LO is probably waking up because she's either not tired enough, too tired or something like a noise/teething pain/something on her little brain woke her up. I gave up a couple months ago trying to do the correct "wake/sleep" times and adjusting by 15 min here or there because my LO is happy most of the time, and seems to get the sleep she needs so it was more stress than worth it

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