nap times....who's right???

[finlays mam]

Can anyone clarify who's right about the length of nap times requred for babies?  Tracy says 5 hours and other 'experts' say no more than 3.  I know some of our babes on this site 'manage' on less than 5 hours but what's the real deal?  Some say that good day sleep means great nightime sleep....not in my case This is a question that really intrigues me.... can anyone answer?

Thanks, Debbie x

[chell]

I am not sure how old your lo is, but check out this link for a rough guide:

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=46.0

I do know that Tracy says that sleeping any more than 6 hours during the day will interfere with night time sleep.

[finlays mam]

Thanks for that Chell x

[Aggs]

I'm afraid that it may be a matter of reading your baby to determine how much sleep is optimum for them.  I think that a 12 hour night is probably optimum - not sure what Tracy said about that, been a long time since I needed to consult on babies sleep, but I might be there soon!  At nearly 7 months, DD seems to need around 3 hours in the day, it splits into 2 or 3 naps, one of about 45 mins in the am, a longer one of 1.5 to 2 hours after lunch and depending on how well she slept at lunchtime she may or may not have about 30mins in the late afternoon.

On some occasions, depending on what our day is going to be like, we would have two longish naps of around 1.5hrs each.  In general, at DD's age, she seems to get tired after 2-3 hours of being awake.

So far it has totally proved true that too little sleep in the day makes for rubbish sleep at night.  I don't know why, you'd think that it would make em sleep better!  As they get older their sleep patterns change, so it really depends on how old your LO is...

[finlays mam]

Aggs - thanks for your sharing your experiences with napping, you're right i suppose it's down to our lo's, but i always wonder how these 'experts' come to their conclusions/findings   

Debbie x

[Aggs]

Hee hee, I know what you mean Debbie, it's infuriating that some expert is supposed to know all!  The thing is that the major experts tend to have much experience of looking after other people's babies, and I guess they write these books full of guidelines on their experiences of these babies.  Maybe the times they suggest are an average!

The other trouble is that when you have your first baby and have zip experience, you buy up a ton of books by experts, expecting them to tell you what to do and when to do it!  That gets a lot of new mothers out of a hole in the first few panic stricken weeks and months, but there comes a time when you realise that in the end, your baby is as much of an individual as you are, and there is no book just for him/her!  Therein lies the wonder and challenge of parenting I think!  Yaaaaay!!!

[finlays mam]

Aggs..... how right you are!! I suppose that's called individuality

Debbie x