Anyone else's kid a crappy napper?

BootsOrHearts · April 2014

I shouldn't complain because he sleeps great at night but during the day, we're lucky if we can get him to take 2 or maybe 3 30-45 min naps. We've tried putting him in the mamaroo, travel crib, his big boy crib, we even try laying down next to him on our bed, nothing. By mid afternoon I can tell he's tired, his eyes are red, he's rubbing them, he's fussy, but the kid just will not sleep! He will fall asleep in our lap then we put him down and he's wide awake. :-|

Anyone else dealing with the same thing? Anything that helped?

tired animated GIF

Edited to add GIF

yty0205 · April 2014

Mine will NOT nap without a huge crying, screaming fit. Eventually he will fall asleep after lots of walking, bouncing, rocking, shushing etc. And even then it's usually a short nap and you can't put him down or he'll immediately wake up. It was driving me crazy enough that I was actually happy to go back to work....

BootsOrHearts · April 2014

Gilmore09 said:

This is M exactly. The only time he will take an extended nap that is not on one of us is if he is sleeping on his stomach. I finally caved and started letting him take naps on his belly (with the Snuza) in the last two weeks since he has great head control and is almost rolling stomach to back. Thankfully he is a pretty good night sleeper so I really can't complain but being awake all day is exhausting and makes for one overtired baby.

Where do you put the snuza when he naps on his tummy?

lifesaverz · April 2014

Yup. LO has always been like this. She also sleeps great at night but her naps during the day are pretty much never more than 40-45 minutes. I've always thought that was interesting since it's pretty much the length of one sleep cycle, so she is always waking up after 1 cycle. During the day she stays up for pretty much exactly 2 hours, then will take a 40-45 minute nap, repeating throughout the day. She does seem generally happy though so I've kind of figured maybe that's just her thing & she doesn't need more sleep. She does get the recommended 14 hours of sleep total per day.

I should add she does have one "nap" in the morning that is 2-3 hours long, but I've always more thought of it as an extension of her night-time sleep (she sleeps for 9 hours, wakes up, eats, is up for a little bit then goes back down for 2-3 more).

Sorry I don't have any recommendations.

How many hours a day total is your little guy getting?

BootsOrHearts · April 2014

jordanm24 said:

Yup. LO has always been like this. She also sleeps great at night but her naps during the day are pretty much never more than 40-45 minutes. I've always thought that was interesting since it's pretty much the length of one sleep cycle, so she is always waking up after 1 cycle. During the day she stays up for pretty much exactly 2 hours, then will take a 40-45 minute nap, repeating throughout the day. She does seem generally happy though so I've kind of figured maybe that's just her thing & she doesn't need more sleep. She does get the recommended 14 hours of sleep total per day.

I should add she does have one "nap" in the morning that is 2-3 hours long, but I've always more thought of it as an extension of her night-time sleep (she sleeps for 9 hours, wakes up, eats, is up for a little bit then goes back down for 2-3 more).

Sorry I don't have any recommendations. How many hours a day total is your little guy getting?

Hard to say - we usually get 7-8 hours out of him the first stretch at night, then 2-3 hours after he eats (sometimes this goes until mid morning like you said), so between that and naps I guess it's 11-13 hours per day which isn't too bad. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it.

lifesaverz · April 2014

BootsOrHearts said:

jordanm24 said:

Sorry I don't have any recommendations. How many hours a day total is your little guy getting?

Hard to say - we usually get 7-8 hours out of him the first stretch at night, then 2-3 hours after he eats (sometimes this goes until mid morning like you said), so between that and naps I guess it's 11-13 hours per day which isn't too bad. I guess I shouldn't worry too much about it.

okay, yeah sounds kinda similar. I'd say if he seems happy then it's probably not a problem. But if he starts getting overtired sometimes, which it sounds like you said does happen, I'd work on maybe trying to get ahead of that a little more? I notice with LO if I miss her sleepy window it gets bad, & really difficult to get her down for a nap. I start getting her ready for nap about 15 minutes before the 2 hour awake mark, & that usually works well. Also we do the same for naps that we do at bedtime (sleeps in crib, fan on for white noise, swaddled with one arm out).

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BootsOrHearts · April 2014

mtb21 said:

Are you waiting too long to try putting him down for a nap? DS2 is awake for no more than 1.5 hours at a time, all day long. It is easy to get him down, but he is a short napper too so he still has 4 naps a day.

Yeah possibly.

mightymousy · April 2014

Yup will only fall asleep when jiggled in the carrier and only naps for 30 min at a time. Exhausting!

Cbowl · April 2014

Argh mine rarely sleeps longer than 40 minutes. She definitely wakes up after the first sleep cycle and it is impossible to get her back to sleep even though she yawns and cries and rubs her eyes. So clearly it's not restorative. I feel so bad about it but I'm not sure how to link those cycles.

imrachellea · April 2014

My LO only sleeps for a longer stretch if she's on one of us. Yesterday she slept 1.5 hours on DHs chest after he picked her up from daycare and then 2 hours on me when I got home...maybe because after only 8 hours of night sleep (when she normally gets 11) and a total of 26 minutes of a nap we're just that tired. But she is just not a good napper. Just never has been. Today at daycare her longest nap (of 4) was 50 minutes.

cammyisagirlsname · April 2014

My kid doesn't nap. At all!

bty19 · April 2014

yep. ive now broke down and will use our swing for naps adn she will now sleep for upwards of an hour plus. this is only so I can get sh*t done !

Also, if we go out, she sleeps in her car seat and will even stay sleeping in it for 3 hours. Im guessing its the semi seated position she likes for naps.

melco19 · April 2014

20-30 min naps for us. Usually 3 of them in a day

SusanC111 · April 2014

He takes a zillion long naps. BUT I have hold him. I'm working on getting him to take bassinet naps, but he usually pops awake when I put him down. I'm not too worried about it bc DS1 was the same and now he's a champ crib sleeper. I just need to get over this stage of holding him ALL THE TIIIMMMEE.

lilypienmessimy · April 2014

SusanC111 said:
He takes a zillion long naps. BUT I have hold him. I'm working on getting him to take bassinet naps, but he usually pops awake when I put him down. I'm not too worried about it bc DS1 was the same and now he's a champ crib sleeper. I just need to get over this stage of holding him ALL THE TIIIMMMEE.

This is exactly us! Always holding her or there's barley a nap! Hopefully it'll change soon!

bty19 · April 2014

MBMO2 said:

SusanC111 said:
He takes a zillion long naps. BUT I have hold him. I'm working on getting him to take bassinet naps, but he usually pops awake when I put him down. I'm not too worried about it bc DS1 was the same and now he's a champ crib sleeper. I just need to get over this stage of holding him ALL THE TIIIMMMEE.
This is exactly us! Always holding her or there's barley a nap! Hopefully it'll change soon!

My LO likes to be held during naps too which is why I now put her in the swing ....I put her in it after she falls asleep in my arms and I guess it still feels like she's being held. The crib naps last 20 mins (40 ish if verry lucky)and since she sleeps well in her crib at night , IDGAF...she can nap where ever it gets her to sleep!!!

serend · April 2014

Crib naps = 30-45 minutes. Swing naps = 2 hours or so. But we try to keep napping in he swing to a minimum now.

At his previous daycare, he would take multiple 1-3 hour naps and a couple of short ones mostly because they left him in a bouncer all damn day. He started to get a flat spot and slept like crap at night.

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