Talk to me about naps

Robeano · October 2013

Okay, so sleep training at night is going amazing. Last night it took her two minutes to fall asleep, she woke up once when DH came home from being out, barely cried. Slept till 6:00am, had a diaper change, feeding and back to sleep until 7:30. So all in all sleep training is a heaven sent.

Then it comes to naps... we've been nap training as much as we can at the same time (life is busy, you all understand) It doesn't seem to matter what I do she won't sleep longer than 30 minutes, like every time! And she resists the afternoon nap in her crib like crazy. Anybody go through this? Do some babies just not need long naps? Will it get better once she's adjusted to her new nighttime sleep routine? Should I not worry about it since she's happy and portable? Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

TJ1979 · October 2013

Can you give us a run down of her typical sleep and nap times?

Robeano · October 2013

As of right now usually asleep around 7:30. Up for the day between 7-7:30. First nap I aim for 10:30-11ish. She'll only sleep half an hour. Then I try for an afternoon nap between 2:30-3:30. Depends on when her first nap happens. Then at 7 we start her nighttime routine.

Robeano · October 2013

The book I read said to aim for 3 hours up between naps. But with life sometimes she's up for 4. She's a happy baby so I guess I figured she was fine

TJ1979 · October 2013

So she's getting like 13 hours of sleep a day? Maybe that's why she doesn't nap well, maybe that's all the sleep she needs. Is she super tired and cranky at bedtime? Or could you push bedtime back an hour?
Or I could be completely wrong. E gets 10 hours of sleep at night, and a 2 hour nap during the day. I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Robeano · October 2013

that's a good point, maybe she just needs the two half hour naps... She is pretty tired by the time she goes to bed. BUT were still trying to figure out her new sleep schedule. Who knows

pb_bride · October 2013

TJ1979 said:

So she's getting like 13 hours of sleep a day? Maybe that's why she doesn't nap well, maybe that's all the sleep she needs. Is she super tired and cranky at bedtime? Or could you push bedtime back an hour?
Or I could be completely wrong. E gets 10 hours of sleep at night, and a 2 hour nap during the day. I have no clue what I'm talking about.

Exactly what TJ said. Hannah is getting majority of her sleep at night, so even though she is tired during the day, she is not capable of sleeping more than an hour or so. Ferber addresses this in his book. The solution would be to cut down her overnight sleep a bit so she can take longer naps during the day. A lot of babies will seem tired or even cranky during the day but they physically cannot sleep because of how much they sleep at night.

M sleeps anywhere between 10-10.5 hrs at night, then takes 2 naps a day, totallling 2.5-3 hrs, so he gets 13 hours of sleep in a 24 hr period.

laura1 · October 2013

My DD does best when we put her down for the first Nap after being awake for 2-2.5 hours. She will nap for 2 hours, then be up for 3-3.5 hrs, then nap for 1-1.5 hrs. Then bed about 4 hrs later. Maybe she needs the am nap earlier? If DD doesn't get that long nap, she fights her pm nap and it is short, too, probably because she is overtired.

That said, my DS never napped longer than 45 min until he dropped to one nap a day around 12 months. He is like my DH, not much of a sleeper! He started fighting naps at 2, and stopped napping all together at 2yrs 10months when he gave up his paci. Some kids are just better sleepers than others! GL!

ccam · October 2013

We just follow DS's cues. Sometimes he can barely make it 2 hours after he wakes up in the morning! I find that his stretch of awake time gets bigger as the day goes on, he never really followed the 3 hour rule. He's more like 2/3/4 so his longest stretch of awake time is between his last nap and bedtime.

I'm sure your LO is still adjusting to her new nighttime schedule too though. My only suggestion would be an earlier morning nap?? If DS's am nap is off, it throws off his whole day. Every kid is different but they say they average 14-15 hrs of sleep.

kaf7 · October 2013

My LO only does 30min naps. He was doing 4 a day but we cut the evening one this week as he screamed for 30min and was only sleeping for 20. I have no advice other than to say H sounds normal to me.

Robeano · October 2013

Thank you everybody. You've all given great advice! Lots to think about

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