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Babies: 6 - 9 Months
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naps for the 6+ month old

taraleannetaraleanne member
in Babies: 6 - 9 Months
Ladies, I popping over here from the 3-6m board...my DS is going to be 6 months in 10 days. 

His naps are rarely more than 45 minutes... he seems to be stuck unable to transition to the next sleep cycle. Which boggles my mind because he will sleep 10+ hours overnight.  He sometimes goes 1.5 hours.... but I know that 45 minutes isn't enough because an hour or so after waking he's ready for another nap. So I'm ALWAYS putting him down for ANOTHER nap.  If we by some miracle (which usually involves a car trip out of town) we get a morning nap of 1.5 hours and an afternoon of 1.5 hours and then another short cat nap somewhere in there, he's a happy baby all day long - so I figure this is probably what he needs. 

I've been lurking on some of the posts on this board and it looks like alot of your babies are able to nap for longer...1.5-2 hours.  So my question is, when does baby start doing this on their own?   Are my baby's cat naps just part of his age? I swear he's been doing this since 2.5 months old and I feel like we haven't gotten anywhere since (except that it's way easier to convince him to sleep, he just won't sleep long!)  He's always put down awake (drowsy) and usually goes down with little to no complaint. We don"t have a set schedule, we just start the day when he wakes and go by sleepy cues but it's generally about the same time every day, give or take an hour or so.

Please tell me these all day cat naps are an age thing and baby will lengthen his naps as he gets older!!! TIA! 

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Re: naps for the 6+ month old

  • SidraJediSidraJedi member
    DD is 8.5 months and her naps can be anywhere from 30 min to 3 hr. if she doesn't get enough of a nap when she needs one I just roll with the punches and deal with a fussy baby until she will consent to another nap.

    I think her naps became more consistent around 6 months? At 8 months she dropped her afternoon nap and now she just naps twice, once in the morning and once in the evening. Sometimes this is not true and she only naps once or three times. It depends on the day and what she is going through.

    Maybe your LO is distracted or overtired? I can't say where DD was at 2.5 months because I didn't even pay attention to or think about a napping routine until at least 5 months. It might just be par for the course? GL
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  • VPGIRL06VPGIRL06 member
    ^ this. sometimes when DD was that age I would let my DD pitter patter for 15 minutes after she woke up from a 45 min nap and sometimes she fell back asleep.
    BabyFetus Ticker Little Riley-our first little girl coming March 1st, 2013 (or sometime around there;)
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  • taraleannetaraleanne member
    VPGIRL06 said:
    ^ this. sometimes when DD was that age I would let my DD pitter patter for 15 minutes after she woke up from a 45 min nap and sometimes she fell back asleep.
    Tried this.... but I can't do the CIO thing and usually his fussing leads to full on crying. The only thing that calms him is leaving his room and going to "play". Only I'm no fool, he needs more sleep cause 30 minutes later he's clearly ready for another nap. I can't figure out why sometimes he naps longer and sometimes he wakes up unable to transition... routine is always the same and even the old tricks don't work...rocking, nursing etc... He protests it.   Luckily not every day is like this but TOO many naps are too short = overtired baby come bedtime.  Tonight I just said to heck with it and put him to bed an hour early.  Hoping he pulls off something more consistent as he gets older!
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  • jonesie2010jonesie2010 member
    Well I'm probably not the best one to give advice because at 8.5 months, DD is still not a great napper. But she is better than she used to be. At 6 months, we were lucky to get two 30 min naps a day. And like your LO, she could make it through several sleep cycles at night so I didn't understand it. Now we usually get at least one hour long nap a day. Still not great, but I'll take it. And I didn't change anything, it's just gradually gotten better over the last couple of months.
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  • pinottoparenthoodpinottoparenthood member
    My guy used to be a cat napper and now he (usually) takes longer naps... So it may just happen for you! The fact that he can now sleep on his tummy also helps.
    Amanda

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  • ASmallWonderASmallWonder member
    I really think this just varies kid to kid. My youngest is 6 months today and still naps like a newborn, exactly like yours.  A nap longer than an hour is incredibly rare and even an hour is hard to come by.  I just go with the flow and let him naps as he needs to.
    Formerly known as elmoali :)

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  • taraleannetaraleanne member
    Perhaps there is hope for us yet :)   This week is a wonder week and he will NOT nap unless attached to my boob- which is completely unusual behaviour for him because he usually nurses-plays-sleeps.  He never nurses to sleep, even when I try! This week it's the complete opposite. Hoping this phase passes quickly - I miss my own time, if only for 45 mins! 
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  • VPGIRL06VPGIRL06 member
    taraleanne said:
    VPGIRL06 said:
    ^ this. sometimes when DD was that age I would let my DD pitter patter for 15 minutes after she woke up from a 45 min nap and sometimes she fell back asleep.
    Tried this.... but I can't do the CIO thing and usually his fussing leads to full on crying. The only thing that calms him is leaving his room and going to "play". Only I'm no fool, he needs more sleep cause 30 minutes later he's clearly ready for another nap. I can't figure out why sometimes he naps longer and sometimes he wakes up unable to transition... routine is always the same and even the old tricks don't work...rocking, nursing etc... He protests it.   Luckily not every day is like this but TOO many naps are too short = overtired baby come bedtime.  Tonight I just said to heck with it and put him to bed an hour early.  Hoping he pulls off something more consistent as he gets older!
    oh, I wasn't talking about CIO. If she woke up crying then i usually comforted her. i'm talking about when she woke up "happy", sometimes she'd kinda roll around and babble then back down. 

    honestly, sometimes my DD wasn't ready for a nap at the same time every day. sometimes i put her down at 9, sometimes 930, sometimes 830..whenever the signals got super strong.

    but her naps USUALLY are pretty consistent now! today not so much but usually every day, same time, 1-2 hours a piece
    BabyFetus Ticker Little Riley-our first little girl coming March 1st, 2013 (or sometime around there;)
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