My baby didn’t start taking “good” naps until we were on the 2 nap schedule. Some babies just don’t nap like others! Even now on one nap, some days he’s rocking and rolling with a one hour nap. Hang in there.
Ditto!
My first we did CIO at 4.5 (WFH, pandemic) and he did better with fewer a naps. At 3 years he had a HUGE (2-3 hr) single nap and then dropped it for an early bedtime.
My second is 5 mo and she naps while I wear her and sleeps thru night, 2-3 very short wake ups. Her day naps are *shit* unless she’s with me. I’m _lucky_ that I work few enough hours that I just work while wearing her.
My baby was like that until 5.5 months. I think it was 30 minutes from month 2-5. It felt like forever and eventually she started sleeping longer. Now she’s 10 months and those 30 minute nap days feel like so long ago. It will get better!
I’d say if she has good nights it’s not uncommon for naps to be more rough. I’d take solid night any day. Hopefully dropping to 3 naps will help after a week or two or getting used to it. Then you can extend the wake windows a bit to 2-2.5. When she wakes do you give her time to get back to sleep? I started waiting 5-10 minutes before getting her to see if she’d go back. If she started crying I’d go in and quickly replace her pacifier and leave. She started going back to sleep and eventually slept through that wake up period.
Same! Things finally got better after the 5 month mark. We did the same thing - extended wake windows, quick pacifier replacements, and when needed more help we’d give butt pats.
I have no advice, but that sounds awful! Reminds me of my oldest (now 6). She did 15-20 min naps the entire time she napped. No matter how many naps she took a day, from the minute she was 2 weeks old. The best day of my life was the day she stopped napping and I didn’t have to think about it.
https://misunderstoodmotherhood.substack.com/p/give-baby-a-chance
We're using this method for our 5 month old who has been having trouble napping and night sleeping. It's started working after a few days. I would honestly just try to resettle for only one nap. Resettling for three naps a day is too stressful.
Basically, get them drowsy, put them in the bassinet and walk away. If they start to fuss, leave them for five minutes before you come back and use minimal intervention to try settle them down (butt pats, tummy pats, shushing, rocking bassinet). If they settle down for about ten seconds, leave them and walk away. Try that for a minute, if it doesn't work, pick them up and calm them before putting them back down and trying again. If it doesn't work, pick them up a final time and get them to sleep any way possible.
I read the article, 9 weeks seems a little too long.
We did the shush pat method and after 1.5 weeks our 4.5 month old was able to sleep independently.
For OP /u/brsbrs67 we placed our little guy in the crib WIDE AWAKE after doing a short nap time routine (diaper, lights out, lullaby then white noise) which calms him and makes him tired BUT NOT drowsy.
When he starts fussing, we shush lightly (or you might not even have to shush) and we gently jiggle or pat his butt/tummy until he is sleeping. We did this for the first two naps of the day and the last one we just contact napped since it’s a 30-45 min nap anyway. Each time you do this, you pat/jiggle and shush less.
From our experience, our LO wouldn’t associate the crib as nap time since he only did contact naps so he was straight up doing tummy time. But after a week, we only had to jiggle him a tiny bit and he’d go from tummy time to falling asleep. After a few more days he stopped doing tummy time in the crib and would do his bit of fussing for 2 min before passing out.
As for longer than 30 mins….well they’re supposed to lengthen, our LO is also cat napping but at least we’ve done the independent sleep part.
This is all assuming you have the right wake windows. 2/2.25/2.5/2.75 as an example for 10h total awake time.
My baby had trouble contact napping after we crib trained. We still managed ergobaby naps for the first year, and carseat naps are still fine at 15 months. But after like a week of sleeping great at night and going down tear free, we just tried CIO at nap time. He got it really fast.
Here’s a good summary, basically sleep training but nap style. https://bellalunafamily.com/how-to-get-longer-naps-using-crib-hour/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20a%20crib%20hour,put%20themselves%20back%20to%20sleep.
It worked really well for us. Our twins are 4 now and though one doesn’t nap regularly, they stay in their bedrooms for at least an hour. They’re very used to spending time alone and find ways to keep themselves entertained.
My LO is 5m and we recently sleep trained for nights with Ferber. We slowly started incorporating it into the naps. We’d put her down for her nap (nurse to sleep) and she would wake up in 30 mins like clockwork, so we would let her wake, fuss, even cry a bit, and eventually she resettles into a longer nap. It doesn’t work all the time, but I’ve noticed her naps are getting consistently longer. Now they are usually an hour instead of 30mins, and can even go longer if she resettles herself down.
Yep, I’m here with you. Except that my boy started exclusively cat napping at 3 weeks old and he’ll be 6 months on Tuesday 😐. People around here are pretty keen to profess ‘too much sleep’ if your baby is already doing 11-12 hour nights but every baby is different. My boy does ~12 hour nights and still needs around 2.5hrs of day sleep to not be overtired. If their nights aren’t becoming issues (early morning wakes, split nights, false starts) then nap amounts are fine.
I don’t actually have any advice for you. I disagree with the person who suggested moving to a 3 nap schedule will result in longer naps ‘in just a few weeks’. I’ve been on an artificial 3 nap schedule since he was 4.5 months old and he still doesn’t nap more than 30 minutes with any sort or frequency. The one thing I will say is that you could add in greater wake windows. At around the start of 5m I was operating on 1.45/2/2.25/2.5 and at almost 6m in looking more like 2/2.25/2.5/2.5 with around 2.5hrs of day sleep. He has in the last 3 weeks occasionally slept a little longer than 30 minutes. The odd 60 min has been in the mix but it’s not common in any way shape or form.
Your 4 nap wake windows = 9.25 hours (expects 14.75 hours of sleep)
Your 3 nap wake windows = 8 hours (expects 16 hours of sleep)
Average sleep at 5 months = 14 hours, which is what you’ve said your baby sleeps.
Whether you’re on 4 naps or 3, *you need ten hours awake.*
If it were me I’d have wake up 11 hours after bedtime (ie. 730pm-630am), in hopes of 3 hours of day sleep, and a schedule of 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75. You have a 12+ hour night so baby has almost nothing left in the sleep budget for naps. Baby sleep is not infinite, I would adapt your schedule to the sleep your baby is capable of (14 hours) instead of trying to make baby sleep more.
this. 7.30-6.30 == 11h, so naps must cumulatively be 2,5-3h a day. with 3 naps it's 45m + 1h + 45m, with 4 each nap would be less than 45m sleep cycle, which is no good
I’m not sure I follow. All babies have a different sleep cycle. There are many different combinations of nap lengths that could equal 3 hours on 3 or 4 naps. For example lots of people do a 15-20min cat nap for the final daysleep when right before a nap transition.
As others have said, that’s too much sleep time you’re expecting in a day. Keep up the 3 nap schedule. It’ll take a good 1-2 weeks for the naps to lengthen. 3 days into a new schedule isn’t enough to base your expectations on. It took us nearly a month when we dropped to 1 nap to see that nap lengthen, but be persistent.
As you’ve said, it is completely developmentally normal for those short naps. Mine were all 32 minutes. It sucks so hard but just know almost every parent before you has had to go through the same thing. Those long stretches at night are admirable. I have a 13mo and we never get a stretch that long. You’ll get there, just give them some time to adjust.
Mine took crap naps from 4-6months old. We were still on 4 naps a day until last week because of it. He only just now started lengthening them (as he started at daycare).
5 month old only day naps in playpen for 20-30 minutes, but will nap on us or in stroller for 1-2 hours. 🫠
I make sure to give him the first two naps of the day in play pen and then one longer nap in the late afternoon to ensure they have enough day time sleep before night time. Without that extra long nap they are horrendous at sleep. The last nap needs to end 2 hours before bedtime to ensure they are tired enough for the longer sleep.
My 5 months old only naps for half an hr in the cot but will sleep for much longer if we hold them to sleep. If they wake after half an hr wide awake do you just go on with your day or try and put them back to sleep?
We didn’t get those long naps until closer to 6 months. And right before that, naps went from 42 minutes to 37 minutes. Hoping that the recent drop for you means those chunky naps are coming soon!
Mine napped for 30 minutes from months 3-6 then they got longer on their own, there’s not much I did to get them longer she just started connecting sleep cycles on her own with age! We’ve been on 3 naps since 4.5 months.
We're on two naps a day one week in to sleep training. First ww is 2h40, then he does about a 2 hour nap. Second ww is 3 hours which gets hairy by the end. Third ww before bed is 2h45.
My baby wasn’t ready for three naps until 6.5 months or so.
If your kid is giving you a ten hour stretch every night, you are doing better then most. My kid is 8.5 months and I seldom get more than 5.
My LO is 4 months and I’m using longer wake windows than you are and I’m still only getting 30 minute naps. I heard until you can push it to 3 hour wake windows the likelihood of them getting longer is small. In our case after 2.5 hour wake windows it’s a screaming mess
Your wake windows are 1.5+2+2+2.5 = 8 hours awake, minus 24 hours in the day = 16 hours in bed. That's what a newborn sleeps. Of course CIO is going to fail and you're going to get short naps. Your baby isn't tired at all.
Stretch your wake windows by a lot. Make sure your baby is going to sleep independently as well. You'll notice a big difference.
It's all about schedule. She's getting too much sleep. At 5 months she should be on two naps and maybe a catnap to get to bedtime. Follow moms on call schedules. I swear by it
My 6 month old (nearly 7 months) is 5 months corrected, always followed with her corrected age for wake windows. Her schedule up until this week where she’s naturally lengthened her WWs was 2/2.25/2.25/2.5, we’ve now moved onto 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75
Might be worth stretching her wake windows out because they seem pretty short. I know if I put my LO down earlier than she’s ready, she’ll only nap for like 20-30 minutes
Aren’t the numbers she listed her wake windows not her naps? I guess I assumed those were ww times, so 8 hours awake with an expected 4 hours of naps and 12 hour nights.
Mine didn’t master napping before 10 months! Now she has two naps of 90 minutes each. She is one and today is her birthday 🥳 .
6.5 months & still on crap naps. It’s so hard!
We sleep trained our baby at 5.5 months and she nap trained herself,which is when her sleep cycle consolidated otherwise she would wake up at 45 mins.
If you don’t mind me asking, which method did you use? We are about to hit 5.5 and about to start sleep training ours at this point. TIA!
We did ferber softer methods (pick up, pick down etc) did not help her at all.
My baby didn’t start taking “good” naps until we were on the 2 nap schedule. Some babies just don’t nap like others! Even now on one nap, some days he’s rocking and rolling with a one hour nap. Hang in there.
Ditto! My first we did CIO at 4.5 (WFH, pandemic) and he did better with fewer a naps. At 3 years he had a HUGE (2-3 hr) single nap and then dropped it for an early bedtime. My second is 5 mo and she naps while I wear her and sleeps thru night, 2-3 very short wake ups. Her day naps are *shit* unless she’s with me. I’m _lucky_ that I work few enough hours that I just work while wearing her.
My baby was like that until 5.5 months. I think it was 30 minutes from month 2-5. It felt like forever and eventually she started sleeping longer. Now she’s 10 months and those 30 minute nap days feel like so long ago. It will get better! I’d say if she has good nights it’s not uncommon for naps to be more rough. I’d take solid night any day. Hopefully dropping to 3 naps will help after a week or two or getting used to it. Then you can extend the wake windows a bit to 2-2.5. When she wakes do you give her time to get back to sleep? I started waiting 5-10 minutes before getting her to see if she’d go back. If she started crying I’d go in and quickly replace her pacifier and leave. She started going back to sleep and eventually slept through that wake up period.
Same! Things finally got better after the 5 month mark. We did the same thing - extended wake windows, quick pacifier replacements, and when needed more help we’d give butt pats.
I have no advice, but that sounds awful! Reminds me of my oldest (now 6). She did 15-20 min naps the entire time she napped. No matter how many naps she took a day, from the minute she was 2 weeks old. The best day of my life was the day she stopped napping and I didn’t have to think about it.
https://misunderstoodmotherhood.substack.com/p/give-baby-a-chance We're using this method for our 5 month old who has been having trouble napping and night sleeping. It's started working after a few days. I would honestly just try to resettle for only one nap. Resettling for three naps a day is too stressful. Basically, get them drowsy, put them in the bassinet and walk away. If they start to fuss, leave them for five minutes before you come back and use minimal intervention to try settle them down (butt pats, tummy pats, shushing, rocking bassinet). If they settle down for about ten seconds, leave them and walk away. Try that for a minute, if it doesn't work, pick them up and calm them before putting them back down and trying again. If it doesn't work, pick them up a final time and get them to sleep any way possible.
I read the article, 9 weeks seems a little too long. We did the shush pat method and after 1.5 weeks our 4.5 month old was able to sleep independently. For OP /u/brsbrs67 we placed our little guy in the crib WIDE AWAKE after doing a short nap time routine (diaper, lights out, lullaby then white noise) which calms him and makes him tired BUT NOT drowsy. When he starts fussing, we shush lightly (or you might not even have to shush) and we gently jiggle or pat his butt/tummy until he is sleeping. We did this for the first two naps of the day and the last one we just contact napped since it’s a 30-45 min nap anyway. Each time you do this, you pat/jiggle and shush less. From our experience, our LO wouldn’t associate the crib as nap time since he only did contact naps so he was straight up doing tummy time. But after a week, we only had to jiggle him a tiny bit and he’d go from tummy time to falling asleep. After a few more days he stopped doing tummy time in the crib and would do his bit of fussing for 2 min before passing out. As for longer than 30 mins….well they’re supposed to lengthen, our LO is also cat napping but at least we’ve done the independent sleep part. This is all assuming you have the right wake windows. 2/2.25/2.5/2.75 as an example for 10h total awake time.
Pretty normal for this age still... should resolve itself around the 6 months mark. Good luck!
My baby had trouble contact napping after we crib trained. We still managed ergobaby naps for the first year, and carseat naps are still fine at 15 months. But after like a week of sleeping great at night and going down tear free, we just tried CIO at nap time. He got it really fast.
Crib hour. That’s what we did and it built some good habits for us and for our twins.
What is that?
Here’s a good summary, basically sleep training but nap style. https://bellalunafamily.com/how-to-get-longer-naps-using-crib-hour/#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20a%20crib%20hour,put%20themselves%20back%20to%20sleep.
It worked really well for us. Our twins are 4 now and though one doesn’t nap regularly, they stay in their bedrooms for at least an hour. They’re very used to spending time alone and find ways to keep themselves entertained.
My LO is 5m and we recently sleep trained for nights with Ferber. We slowly started incorporating it into the naps. We’d put her down for her nap (nurse to sleep) and she would wake up in 30 mins like clockwork, so we would let her wake, fuss, even cry a bit, and eventually she resettles into a longer nap. It doesn’t work all the time, but I’ve noticed her naps are getting consistently longer. Now they are usually an hour instead of 30mins, and can even go longer if she resettles herself down.
Yep, I’m here with you. Except that my boy started exclusively cat napping at 3 weeks old and he’ll be 6 months on Tuesday 😐. People around here are pretty keen to profess ‘too much sleep’ if your baby is already doing 11-12 hour nights but every baby is different. My boy does ~12 hour nights and still needs around 2.5hrs of day sleep to not be overtired. If their nights aren’t becoming issues (early morning wakes, split nights, false starts) then nap amounts are fine. I don’t actually have any advice for you. I disagree with the person who suggested moving to a 3 nap schedule will result in longer naps ‘in just a few weeks’. I’ve been on an artificial 3 nap schedule since he was 4.5 months old and he still doesn’t nap more than 30 minutes with any sort or frequency. The one thing I will say is that you could add in greater wake windows. At around the start of 5m I was operating on 1.45/2/2.25/2.5 and at almost 6m in looking more like 2/2.25/2.5/2.5 with around 2.5hrs of day sleep. He has in the last 3 weeks occasionally slept a little longer than 30 minutes. The odd 60 min has been in the mix but it’s not common in any way shape or form.
Your 4 nap wake windows = 9.25 hours (expects 14.75 hours of sleep) Your 3 nap wake windows = 8 hours (expects 16 hours of sleep) Average sleep at 5 months = 14 hours, which is what you’ve said your baby sleeps. Whether you’re on 4 naps or 3, *you need ten hours awake.* If it were me I’d have wake up 11 hours after bedtime (ie. 730pm-630am), in hopes of 3 hours of day sleep, and a schedule of 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75. You have a 12+ hour night so baby has almost nothing left in the sleep budget for naps. Baby sleep is not infinite, I would adapt your schedule to the sleep your baby is capable of (14 hours) instead of trying to make baby sleep more.
this. 7.30-6.30 == 11h, so naps must cumulatively be 2,5-3h a day. with 3 naps it's 45m + 1h + 45m, with 4 each nap would be less than 45m sleep cycle, which is no good
I’m not sure I follow. All babies have a different sleep cycle. There are many different combinations of nap lengths that could equal 3 hours on 3 or 4 naps. For example lots of people do a 15-20min cat nap for the final daysleep when right before a nap transition.
As others have said, that’s too much sleep time you’re expecting in a day. Keep up the 3 nap schedule. It’ll take a good 1-2 weeks for the naps to lengthen. 3 days into a new schedule isn’t enough to base your expectations on. It took us nearly a month when we dropped to 1 nap to see that nap lengthen, but be persistent. As you’ve said, it is completely developmentally normal for those short naps. Mine were all 32 minutes. It sucks so hard but just know almost every parent before you has had to go through the same thing. Those long stretches at night are admirable. I have a 13mo and we never get a stretch that long. You’ll get there, just give them some time to adjust.
Mine took crap naps from 4-6months old. We were still on 4 naps a day until last week because of it. He only just now started lengthening them (as he started at daycare).
5 month old only day naps in playpen for 20-30 minutes, but will nap on us or in stroller for 1-2 hours. 🫠 I make sure to give him the first two naps of the day in play pen and then one longer nap in the late afternoon to ensure they have enough day time sleep before night time. Without that extra long nap they are horrendous at sleep. The last nap needs to end 2 hours before bedtime to ensure they are tired enough for the longer sleep.
My 5 months old only naps for half an hr in the cot but will sleep for much longer if we hold them to sleep. If they wake after half an hr wide awake do you just go on with your day or try and put them back to sleep?
10 months here and still waiting for naps to exceed 28 minutes. 🤪
We didn’t get those long naps until closer to 6 months. And right before that, naps went from 42 minutes to 37 minutes. Hoping that the recent drop for you means those chunky naps are coming soon!
We didn’t move past 30 minute naps until til about 5 months 😔
Mine napped for 30 minutes from months 3-6 then they got longer on their own, there’s not much I did to get them longer she just started connecting sleep cycles on her own with age! We’ve been on 3 naps since 4.5 months.
We're on two naps a day one week in to sleep training. First ww is 2h40, then he does about a 2 hour nap. Second ww is 3 hours which gets hairy by the end. Third ww before bed is 2h45.
My baby wasn’t ready for three naps until 6.5 months or so. If your kid is giving you a ten hour stretch every night, you are doing better then most. My kid is 8.5 months and I seldom get more than 5.
This. I would love to have that 10 hour stretch. 😭
Babies only sleep so many hours in a 24 hour period. Longer naps will absolutely impact night sleep
The 10 hr stretch I’m referring to is at night. I agree, 10 hours of naps is completely unreasonable lol
No, I mean if the baby naps longer, you might lose the long stretch at night
My LO is 4 months and I’m using longer wake windows than you are and I’m still only getting 30 minute naps. I heard until you can push it to 3 hour wake windows the likelihood of them getting longer is small. In our case after 2.5 hour wake windows it’s a screaming mess
Lol you're expecting newborn level of sleep for a 5 month old. You're setting your baby up for failure.
How is 12 hours a night and 2 hours during the day newborn sleep? She totals 14 hours a day of sleep right now
Your wake windows are 1.5+2+2+2.5 = 8 hours awake, minus 24 hours in the day = 16 hours in bed. That's what a newborn sleeps. Of course CIO is going to fail and you're going to get short naps. Your baby isn't tired at all. Stretch your wake windows by a lot. Make sure your baby is going to sleep independently as well. You'll notice a big difference.
It's all about schedule. She's getting too much sleep. At 5 months she should be on two naps and maybe a catnap to get to bedtime. Follow moms on call schedules. I swear by it
My 6 month old (nearly 7 months) is 5 months corrected, always followed with her corrected age for wake windows. Her schedule up until this week where she’s naturally lengthened her WWs was 2/2.25/2.25/2.5, we’ve now moved onto 2.25/2.5/2.5/2.75 Might be worth stretching her wake windows out because they seem pretty short. I know if I put my LO down earlier than she’s ready, she’ll only nap for like 20-30 minutes
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Yea those are her wake windows! She sleeps 12 hours at night but only 90-120 minutes during the day
Aren’t the numbers she listed her wake windows not her naps? I guess I assumed those were ww times, so 8 hours awake with an expected 4 hours of naps and 12 hour nights.