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Anyone's lo's only have half hour naps?
I think I need a bit of support from someone in the same boat.
When James was younger, he'd sleep well during the day - as a lot of newborns do, sometimes not waking at all for 4/5 hours. But that feels a long long time ago!
He's 6 months old on the 15th, and for absolutely ages he's been having 3 half hour naps a day. Maybe once he actually had an hour or longer.
Now I know all of the put them in the cot for naps, shhh/pat, etc. etc. But OH works nights and James is still in the crib in our room. So that just will not happen until he moves rooms. He hasn't moved rooms, because I haven't wanted him to yet. (Plus I have never got why the 'make sure baby can nap during the day with stuff going on around them' changes to the 'dark room, cot nap' or when)
So basically a lot of it is probably my fault. But I would still like to know there are other mummies out there with babies that can be smiley one minute, crying the next, grumpy half hour after having a nap, and mummies that get frustrated sometimes.
Don't get me wrong, James isn't grumpy ALL of the time. he can amuse himself. He sat in his playnest for over an hour this afternoon quite contentedly. It's just that he can switch just like that, and fights the sleep even though he's clearly tired.
Support please. xx
When James was younger, he'd sleep well during the day - as a lot of newborns do, sometimes not waking at all for 4/5 hours. But that feels a long long time ago!
He's 6 months old on the 15th, and for absolutely ages he's been having 3 half hour naps a day. Maybe once he actually had an hour or longer.
Now I know all of the put them in the cot for naps, shhh/pat, etc. etc. But OH works nights and James is still in the crib in our room. So that just will not happen until he moves rooms. He hasn't moved rooms, because I haven't wanted him to yet. (Plus I have never got why the 'make sure baby can nap during the day with stuff going on around them' changes to the 'dark room, cot nap' or when)
So basically a lot of it is probably my fault. But I would still like to know there are other mummies out there with babies that can be smiley one minute, crying the next, grumpy half hour after having a nap, and mummies that get frustrated sometimes.
Don't get me wrong, James isn't grumpy ALL of the time. he can amuse himself. He sat in his playnest for over an hour this afternoon quite contentedly. It's just that he can switch just like that, and fights the sleep even though he's clearly tired.
Support please. xx
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But thank you so so much, you don't know how much I appreciate your reply.
Sometimes it doesn't seem to affect James. He'll wake after his 30 minutes, I'll smile at him, and get a lovely gummy smile back. Other times he wakes and has a small cry, so I know he's still tired, or rubs his eyes. I just think then, oh why didn't you just stay asleep!
I know it is all to do with sleep cycle, but didn't realise it changed around 6/7 months. So there might be some hope there.
Most of the time it's fine. We're out or whatever. But sometimes it just gets a bit frustrating.
Thanks again. xx
At 5 1/2 months things started to change and he would have a longer nap, maybe 1 hour or just over. There was no routine in it, sometimes he'd do this 2 hours after getting up, sometimes it would be the afternoon and some days he'd be back to his 30-40 minute naps.
Fast forward a month and he generally now has only 2 naps a day, lasting an hour or more. There is days still (like today), where he goes back to the shorter sleeps but they seem to be getting fewer.
Not sure this helps but thought I'd share my experience with you xx
At least I can potentially see a light at the end of the tunnel now. xx
She's the complete opposite to jack who will sleep for 1.5-2hrs+ sometimes.
I haven't found a "trick" yet and have tried loads of methods but just wanted u to know ur not alone.
xxxxxxxxx
The thought of doing shh/pat etc. during the day, is just hard. OH sleeps during the day, so self settling would have to be tried when he's off. (As James doesn't manage that at all for naps either). He went through a stage of falling asleep on the playmat, but it didn't last!
When he wakes from the nap, he's awake. He does lie there and stare at me. In his crib/cot it might well be different, and I would be able to try to extend it. xx
I have noticed that lately she does seem to be getting better at napping-but it's usually the last one of the day before bed, and then I end up having to wake her so that she'll sleep at night
I've also heard that their sleep patterns change around 6months, so there is hope for us yet xx
So I can sympathise, if only I knew what to do to remedy it!
Sorry, have gone on a bit! x
http://www.parentingscience.com/baby-sleep-patterns.html
but I'm sure I saw it somewhere else. Will post if I can find it! As there is some science behind it so I'm pinning all my hopes on that!
xxx
Adam will usually have one long nap a day (1 hour to 1 hour 15 mins) but his other two naps are 30-40 mins each.
I did try a couple of things to extend his naps...
The first thing was based on advice from the No Cry Nap Solution. I went into Adam's room just before he was due to wake up (so after 25 mins or so) and intervened at the point of waking - so I popped him dummy back in, positioned his gaga (muslin!) next to his cheek and did some shushing. If this didn't work I'd pick him up and rock him back to sleep. Although this did tend to work (I'd maybe get another 20 mins out of him) it did have some unintended consequences...Adam decided that he liked being rocked to sleep so much that that was the *only* way he would go to sleep! Grrr. So that was not a great success.
I also tried PUPD, but this didn't work for us...Adam generally wakes up happy from his naps, and thought PUPD was a fun game - cue lots of giggles until he got bored and cried!
Sorry to not have any better advice...but you're definitely not alone!
xx
As **Cath** has said, the usual night sleep solutions are supposed to be used for naps as well. But as I've said I can't implement them. Usually I don't mind when james naps, or how long he naps for. But it's just the days he gets overtired, or is grumpy for most of the day. It's not good for him or me.
I think the idea with naps for self settling is if the shh/pat or PUPD doesn't work in half an hour, because they are getting too worked up etc. you give up and try again later. So presume this is the same for extending. xx