What's a reasonable nap expectation?

allisshiney · July 2014

Hi folks, My son is now 3months old and I am wanting to establish a nap routine. He currently sleeps from 8-9 at night to aprox 8am (waking up to feed 3-4x). I was thinking of trying to put him down around 10am and 3pm. Does that seam reasonable? Too little? TIA

TeacherVicky · July 2014

Too little. At 3m, babies should be napping 3 or 4x a day.

If your son is only napping 2x a day, he is likely overtired, which will contribute to fragmented night sleep (and so getting up 3-4x a night).

At that age, I mainly focused on keeping DD's awake time to less than 90 minutes. She napped 4x on most days, 3x on others. Once she was about 4.5m old, I started implementing a 3 nap schedule and her naps started to lengthen and were of better quality. Her night sleep then improved as well.

Sscarolynedvx · July 2014

I would said follow the cues and put him down for naps then... And if he doesnt show signs of tiredness try laying him down anyways just to get going. My LO now is 5 months old and takes 2 naps a day but at 3 months she was sleeping most of the time, I will say she was napping 4-5 times during the day.

allisshiney · July 2014

Thanks guys!

flcl · July 2014

Definitely too little. At 3 months, LO was napping 3-4x a day (mostly 4). Around 4 months, he dropped to 3 naps and around 4.5 months, he naturally put himself on somewhat of a nap schedule. Echoing PPs to just watch for sleepy cues but in case you miss them, LO should be napping roughly every 90ish mins.

radiohd18 · July 2014

I don't know who came up with this originally but I've heard of Eat, Play, Sleep which works for us. Basically, it's all following cues.

brooksfam4 · August 2014

My 3 month old takes 2 really good naps (2-3hrs), but also takes about 2 shorter naps (maybe 30-45mins). This seems to work for us. He also sleeps really good at night (9pm-6am STRAIGHT!). I can only hope his naps are helping with his nighttime sleep. Good naps generally mean good nighttime sleep.

brooksfam4 · August 2014

@babycaps, I'm loving the sleep while I can. I've heard it can definitely change like yours did. Hears to hoping both our babies keep/get back on a good nighttime schedule!

workitmom84 · August 2014

@rds51510 - the eat, play, sleep cycle is based (loosely) on the book babywise. We do a similar schedule and it works really well. My little girl is 5 months (+2 weeks) and is really predictable (so far, so good - I know it can change). We feed her, hold her for a little bit, then she plays. When she starts to get a little fussy or "amped up", we know it's time to start nap routine. I actually could tell she was a little off because her cycles seemed a little off - that's how I knew she was starting to teethe (plus, all the drool!).

radiohd18 · August 2014

@workitmom84- we're pretty much the same way. She gives obvious cues when she's tired- cranky, eyes a little droopy, rubbing eyes, etc. She's only 4 months so there's not much else it could be if it's not hungry or needing a new diaper. My LO is drooling a lot too and has been for a couple of weeks. In fact, she constantly has her entire fist in her mouth-- I wonder if it's teething...?

megsue114 · August 2014

My 4.5 month old naps every 2hrs but usually only for about 45mn-1hr... Wonder if I'm keeping her up too long? She gets up several times per night but I suspect some of this behavior is the 4m wakeful. We have never gotten close to sleeping 8-9hrs straight (except a few nights around 3m when I think she had a major growth spurt.) thoughts?

SandiaLiz · August 2014

With my LO I would love to have set nap times but her naps are still very inconsistent (30 mins to 2 hrs 30 mins). She is at least consistent in that she really can't make it much past two hours of awake time.

So we watch for cues but she doesn't really ever act tired. I put her down immediately after an eye rub or a yawn if they happen, or at two hours.

It is definitely inconvenient to not know when naps are but we save a lot of fussing if we follow what she needs.

At this age you want baby to get 12-14 hours of sleep per day and they need about 3 naps.

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