Do naps ever get better?

jonesie2010 · September 2013

Hello. DD is 6 months today, and I'm starting to wonder if naps are ever going to improve. Once or twice a week she'll have a good one to two hour nap. The rest of the time it's two 30 minute catnaps a day. On really bad days it's just one short nap all day long. By the time she gets home from daycare she is a cranky mess and she's down for the night by 6 so I hardly get to see her.

I keep telling myself it'll get better as she gets older, but I'm starting to wonder if I just have a poor sleeper on my hands. So for those that have been there, does napping improve significantly after 6 months?

VPGIRL06 · September 2013

DD is 28 weeks on Monday and I actually noticed a slight regression in naps around 24 weeks-she started needing 3 naps instead of 2. but for the past couple days she seems to be better about taking longer naps. from what i hear, i think naps start to lengthen as they start to be able to handle longer awake times

Litgirl77 · September 2013

Yes, they will. And then they will get worse. And then they will get better. And so on...

But seriously, we had to nap train to get them better. I've just come to expect that sometimes LO will wake at the 30 or 45 minute mark and fuss for a while. Usually he'll go back to sleep though. He now consistently naps for about 1.5 hours in the morning. Afternoon is mixed, but usually about the same. I will admit, that we still resort to the swing when he's overtired or sick bc it always works for him.

And I agree with PP, that they've gotten better as he's increased his wake times. Hang in there!

jllmb79 · September 2013

DD#2 is 6 almost 7 months and still a cat napper. I rock her to sleep

DD#1 was the same way until about 9 or 10 months when I did progressive waiting sleep training and the naps increased to about 1 hour each. It was not until she was at 1 nap per day that they increased to about 2 hours per day.

kjsmith9 · September 2013

Lurking from 9-12 months, but just wanted to say that daycare is a sleep ruiner!!

DD naps here for 1-3 hours, twice per day. At daycare, she occasionally will get one nap over an hour, but sometimes does TEN minutes the entire day. By the time I get home, she's a disaster - and gets put to bed early.

The teachers in the infant room said that a lot of babies get better naps after they move to the 1 year old room. It's hard in the infant room because everyone is on their own schedule, so there's always noise, light, etc. Once they move up, they have set nap times where everyone lays down and they turn the lights out... So a lot of them nap better at that point. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is true.

this decaf life · September 2013

DD is almost 9 months and some days she'll take 2 - 45 minute naps, usually 3 though. Rarely she'll nap for 1.5-2 hours but I'm just happy for any nap time.

momofmanyinthemitten · September 2013

DD did 20-40 min catnaps until about 6 mos. DS has been doing 3 45 min-1 hour naps for several months now. I'm hoping that once the excitement of crawling, sitting and pulling up is over, he'll be able to nap longer.

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