UPDATE: Talk to me about getting better (longer) naps for LO

CopperT0p · June 2014

I never had this issue with DS1 and naps. From the time DS1 had 3 regular naps they were always 2+ hours. With DS2 most naps are 20 minutes with the possibility that one might be 45 minutes. He will take 3 a day. I put him in the swing when he starts going calm at around 1.5-2 hours after his previous wake up. I know I need to move him to his crib for naps, but I've been hoping that the swing would extend the naps. Clearly that isn't happening. He sleeps in his crib at night, so no big deal to try the crib for naps.

Anybody have any tips for how I might be able to extend the naps if he's in the crib? He cries usually within a couple minutes of waking up. If he didn't I would just leave him to hope he might fall back asleep.

I am hoping that having longer naps might help him sleep longer stretches at night. Right now he wakes up every 1-2 hours all night long to nurse. I would love to have longer stretches at night.

***UPDATE

I have been putting him in his crib to nap since I posted this.

Monday night we were in Emerg until 2am because DS1 split his eyebrow at the pool. DS2 slept in the stroller for most of it but was wide awake for about an hour at 12:30am because of noise.

Tuesday I he took a 1 hour then a 2.5 hour nap in the crib. Today he is currently at the 2 hour mark on his first nap.

I'm not sure if somehow that late/disturbed night on Monday did something or if he has just had a flip in his abilities to nap in the crib, but I'll take this! I put him down awake when I see his sleepy cues. He usually cries for less than 3 minutes then falls asleep a few minutes after that.

I'll take it! DS1 is loving having some special alone time with me

Summer889 · June 2014

I'm working on this too, taking some tips from the "No Cry Sleep Solution" book. DS's naps are typically 30 minutes, occasionally 45. This weekend we had one 1.5 hour nap, so this might actually be working, although it's too soon to know for sure.

I've started doing a little pre-nap routine to get him ready for sleep. I nurse him, read him 1 book, then rock him and sing to him. I always used to nurse him when he work up from naps, but I think going to sleep with a nice full belly is helping. Then if he wakes up before 1 hour is up, I attempt to put him back to sleep (don't talk to him, just pick him up and rock him and sing some more). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

CopperT0p · June 2014

@Xan84 - He won't take a pacifier. He has started to randomly suck his thumb once in a while, so maybe when he has that under his full control he will go back to sleep.

When he is in the swing, he just pops his eyes open at about 20 minutes and is just awake and happy as a clam. He won't cry if I leave him in there, even if I leave him in there for an hour after waking up in the hopes he'll just fall back asleep. Only when he wakes up in his crib does he cry.

CopperT0p · June 2014

@Summer889 - I always nurse him as we are getting to the 1.5 hour mark so his belly is full when he hits nap time. Sometimes he falls asleep at that time and sometimes he doesn't.

If we are driving somewhere in the car he can nap for up to about an hour, maybe and hour and fifteen if it's a long drive. So it's possible for him to sleep that long.

The mini routine isn't a bad idea, just sometimes it might be a challenge while I have my 3.5 year old at home. A quick book I could handle since I read to them both during the day multiple times.

MindyBadger1 · June 2014

I also have a terrible napper. I'm hoping this will improve with some nighttime sleep training I have planned for the long 4th of July weekend. I dont think J knows how to fall asleep/stay sleep.

Babychuu · June 2014

Woot, another one for camp "My baby doesn't sleep during the day: How the hell am I ever supposed to get anything done?!" If you figure out something that works for you, be sure to update! I'd love to hear about it.

I've recently started only doing naps at home, with no sound, with the shades and curtains closed to make sure its dark and quiet. Then I do the same nurse/rock to sleep routine. Like you, about once a week I get an hour and a half nap. The rest of the time its 25min average. He falls asleep easier with the darkness/quiet, but the downside is he doesn't sleep much longer than before, and now he won't sleep unless he's at home. I feel like I replaced one kind of bad nap for another.

precious72381 · June 2014

Naps? What's that? Only way to get Abby to nap is to nurse her and then when she falls asleep, don't move until she wakes up. If I try to sit her upright, she wakes up. Try to move her to pnp or crib, she wakes up. But if I let her stay in the position she was nursing, and my nipple is just hanging out of her mouth, she will nap anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. The crazy part is, I do the same thing at bedtime but I can put her down then and she stays asleep. I'm just hoping daycare can get her to nap in August. When she wakes up (5 minutes later or 2 hours later, on me or the crib/pnp) she too is wide awake ready to play. So when I try to put her down and she wakes up, nap time is officially over!

kiki1978 · June 2014

Adam sleeps great at night (knock on wood), but is a crappy napper. He'll sleep 30-45 minutes, but he obviously needs more because he's so cranky. I feel like we've tried everything and nothing works. We have his 6 month appointment on Thursday, so I'm going to ask about it. Until then, I'm going to keep following this thread.

RingOfFire11 · June 2014

Same here. DD1 was a great napper (ff) and DD2 was not (bf). We were following the EASY method again but it wasn't working and I think it was because she was hungry again too fast. Now I nurse, she stays up for about 2 hours, then nurse again (she usually falls asleep at the boob but I still switch sides and everything) and down for a nap. She's sleeping 2 hours a nap now.

I will say, if I don't pay attention to cues, it's not that easy. Sometimes it's 1.5 hours and other times it's 2.5 hours of wakeful. I let her dictate but that's our order now.

CopperT0p · June 2014

Thanks for the commiseration ladies. We are going to keep working on this. I think I'm going to have to make naps strictly in the crib. We are travelling for 3 weeks at the end of this week and won't have a swing, so it's as good a time as any to get him used to the crib for naps.

CopperT0p · June 2014

Yeah, he took longer naps until about 8 weeks old, then became aware of the world and it seems like he doesn't want to miss anything.

This morning I tried a morning nap in the crib and he slept about an hour, so that's a start.

UPDATE: Talk to me about getting better (longer) naps for LO

Re: UPDATE: Talk to me about getting better (longer) naps for LO

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