I can't believe my 6 month old is still napping only 30 minutes!

[yunnage]

My daughter has always had 30-40 minute naps, ever since she was about 2 months old.  I was hoping that at 4 months, it'd change and then I hoped for the same at 5 months, but here we are at 6 months and she's still napping only 30-40 minutes.  I thought it was a developmental thing for her, so I patiently waited for her time to come, but it hasn't!

She always wakes up content and never wakes up crying, but I think by this age she should really be doing a solid hour or two for her naps.  She's very pleasant and easy going when awake, so it isn't like she's super fussy as a result of her short naps.  I've tweaked her awake times to those more appropriate to her age, but in the end still get the same short naps.  In the end if she wakes up early, she'll nap 4 times in the day and if she wakes up 'late' like closer to 7, she'll get 3 short naps.  I feel like I'm endlessly trying to figure out what her ideal A time is in order for her to nap better, but no matter what time I choose it's always a short nap.  Thankfully she falls asleep on her own for naps, usually within 5-10 minutes of mantra crying, after months of shh/pat and pu/pd and in the middle of the night she's sometimes able to put herself back to sleep.  Her room is fairly dark and she sleeps swaddled with a sound machine on.

Here is a typical day for her:

E 6:05
A 6:15
S 8:04  26 min nap  Total A=1hr 59
A 8:30
E 9:35
A 9:45
S 10:44 42 min nap  Total A=2hr 14
A 11:26
E 1:00
A 1:08
S 1:44  30 min nap  Total A=2hr 28
A 2:13
E 3:00
A 3:05
S 4:20  30 min nap  Total A=2hr 7
A 4:50
E 6:00
A 6:10
S 7:15

She almost always wakes up 30-60 minutes after she goes to bed at night, which is a sign of overtiredness?  She used to wake up only once in the night between 1-3, but lately has been getting up 2-3 times.

Honestly, a few months ago I learned to accept her short naps and it took so much stress off of me because I was just getting so frustrated in not being able to extend her naps with W2S or HTTJ and her not figuring it out.  But, I feel like she really should be napping for longer now.  I know her A times could be longer and I've done that as well, with the same short naps and even today, she fell asleep in the carrier after being only awake for 1hr 45!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. 

[anna*]

(((hugs))) that is really frustrating!

I would start out by extending the first A of the day, you could push it out to 2hrs 15 and even 2hrs 30 mins to see if you that gets you a longer first nap.

Is there anything you can do to try and extend her naps? Have you tried W2S recently? Does she have a soother?

[empowered mama]

I agree with Anna - my DS just turned 6 months and more often than not, we are needing to increase his A time to get those perfect naps.  Often, if he wakes content and happy, I know it was a UT nap and need to adjust the A.

I know how you feel, as we have been tweaking his A's for 1.5 months and finally are starting to make a little progress.  Just want to encourage you that all your hard work will pay off 

[lpperry]

I just posted on the same topic. I have a 6 month old daycare child who typically takes 20-30 minute naps, but he is pretty happy throughout the day even with the short naps.  Until last week, he was swaddled and on his back.  Since I had no success in lengthening his naps for months, I decided to unswaddle him and start him out on his tummy.  For the first time ever I got long naps consistently for nearly the entire week. There were still some speed bumps, but it was a drastic improvement. 

I would try unswaddling. Swaddling makes the little ones feel more secure, but maybe it's too confining for a 6 month old.  Also, I tried unswaddling one arm to wean him from the swaddle, but it made no difference in the short naps. Last week I just went cold turkey--swaddled both legs, with both arms out and placed him on his tummy. 

[DanishMom]

Hi,
I went through the same thing with my daughter until a mom of 5 gave me the following advice: at her age, she should only be taking 2 naps and on cat nap in the late afternoon.   When your baby's naps are too short it is for one or two reasons:  Either their A time is too short and they are not burning enough energy or they are ready to drop a nap. I can see from your schedule that your daughter's A time is just fine.   

Here is my recommendation: 
Look at page 34 of Baby Whisperer and follow the 4 hour EASY.  Your LO gets up at the exact same time as my LO at her age. Below is my schedule at your LO's age: 

I recommend

E 6am nurse and solids following. Don't wait to feed her solids
A 7am-8am
S 8am-9:30am  (a 1.5 hour nap is fine at this age)

E 9:30am or 10am
A 10:30am-Noon
S Noon-1:30pm 

E 1:30 or 2pm
A 2:30pm-4pm
S 4pm-5pm cat nap

S 5:45pm Nurse/bottle
bed time at 6pm 

This is very important: Remember that it will take a baby at least one week to adjust to a new schedule. The first 4 days are the hardest but hang in there. She WILL sleep, I promise you.  It may take you a full 2 weeks for her to get it down as she is not a newborn anymore. 

The other advice is: stop swaddling her, she will sleep better and longer.  She doesn't need it at 6mo.  If you don't swaddle her, she will find a sleep position which will make her comfortable (likely her stomach or side).  You can either cold turkey her from the swaddle while you are changing her schedule or do it like the other woman recommended: one arm at a time.  It is up to you.  I did it cold turkey when my LO was 4 months old.  If you are concerned about SIDS you can buy a BabySense V sleep monitor or another bed monitor.  I loved mine and it made me feel more secure.  Just an idea. 

Finally, my LO dropped the afternoon cat nap at 6.5 months.  She just laid there and cried until we picked her up.  I dropped the afternoon cap nap and moved her bed time 15min earlier.  She was fussy the first week but then did great after that.  Keep an eye out for her not wanting to sleep in the late afternoon in the next few months.  E-mail me at christine.drelling@gmail. com if I can help you in any other way.  Two other great books are Baby Wise and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. 

Warmly,
Christine

[yunnage]

Okay, I extended her A time to 2 hr 15 yesterday and today.  Yesterday she slept for a whopping 1hr 45 min and today 35 minutes.  This is going to sound weird, but I think she slept longer yesterday because she was coughing during her nap - kind of a self-inflicted wake-to-sleep (just my theory).  We have a video monitor, so I could see that she'd cough and then resettle herself back down. 

I also don't know how long I should make her A time after a 30 minute nap.  After a 30 minute nap I usually let her A time be around 2 hrs.  Do you think I should shorten it to prevent OT or lengthen it?

I haven't been able to get my LO onto any proper EASY schedule for months because of her short naps.  I know in theory we should be working on a 4EASY, but with her short naps I have to adjust her E and A times every time.

I've been avoiding weaning the swaddle, but looking back at how her older brother slept, he was out of the swaddle by now.  I just don't understand why she's able to sleep for so long at night and also fall back asleep on her own swaddled at night.  I'm going to try lengthening her A times for a week and then see where that gets us... and then unswaddle the arms.

Thank you for all of your input.

DanishMom - I used Healthy Sleep Habits for baby #1 and it worked wonders, but this baby wasn't able to fall asleep without me, so I turned to the babywhisperer for her.  Thankfully after weeks of shush/pat she can fall asleep on her own.  It really is a beautiful thing when they fall asleep on their own

[yunnage]

I forgot to ask:

We've had two days of 2hr15 A time, do you think I should increase it to 2hr30 or stick with 2hr15 for another day or two?

I forgot to add:
No soother and I haven't tried W2S in awhile because I could never figure out what time to do it at for it to work

Thanks!

[lhosk]

would like to follow this thread!

[empowered mama]

how was her sleep last night?  any NWs?  If so, she could potentially be OT from the night which is why the A might not have worked today...

what works for us after a short nap is to shorten the next A time by 30 min if it was an OT nap, and by 15 min if it was a UT nap (though some LOs can vary on this...)  I might try to work off that 2 hr 15 min A time.  If she woke from the nap crying, it could be OT.  If happy/babbling, more like UT perhaps.  make sense?

HTH!  Good luck

[yunnage]

Her sleep last night was actually pretty good.  She didn't wake up after 1 hour at bedtime, which was unusual but much appreciated.  She woke up at 10:30, had a quick feed, then woke again at 5:15.  I fed he and she fell back asleep until 6:50, which was great!  Usually she stays awake if the feed is after 5 am.  I'm trying to intervene less at night and I think she's slowly figuring out how to fall back asleep on her own.

Speaking of which, she had 2x30 minute naps today and then I just put her down for the third nap at 2:30.  She awoke from it and I left her and she managed to fall back asleep after 8 minutes of being awake.  She's NEVER done that before, but usually talks and stirs for a few minutes then starts crying for me after 10 minutes.  Is it normal to fall back asleep for a nap?  Do other babies do that?  I'm assuming that isn't considered consolidated sleep, but it's very cool that she fell back asleep.

Also, I can never tell if her nap is OT or UT because she always wakes up happy.  Even if her A time is clearly way too long, like 3 hours due to running errands or such.  So, I never know how to adjust her A time after a short nap and I get stuck putting her down after 2 hrs of A time because it always works.

[anna*]

Getting herself back to sleep at night and after a short nap is GREAT! Way to go!

[empowered mama]

Yes, that is a great sign she is learning how to transition - you're doing awesome

When my LO wakes halfway through a nap, I try to give him at least 10 min to see if he can resettle (or if the mantra escalates then I go in).  What I've noticed lately is that if he is a touch OT, then sometimes he can resettle back down.  If he wakes up UT, there is no chance of him resettling and extending the nap.  So that sometimes will tell me how to adjust the next A.  Not sure if other LOs do this, but it's something that works for us.

If 2 hrs A works after a short nap, stick with it! 
 
HTH - keep up the great work 

[yunnage]

I don't want to jinx it by writing this, but my LO is currently at the 1.5hr mark for her nap.  This has never happened!  I'm hoping that I can replicate this again!!  Her first nap this morning was A=2hr25, which I guess was OT because she only napped for 25 minutes.  I put her back down after 2hr A time and voila, she's actually napping!

My question is, yesterday she had the exact same A times, but started her day later and all of her naps were 35 minutes. 

Empowered mama, I really like your suggestion for cutting A time by 30 for OT and 15 for UT.

Thanks for the encouragement everyone!

[empowered mama]

Wonderful wonderful news on that long nap! 

How much night sleep did she have before those naps yesterday?  I found with my LO that if he got too much night sleep, it would make him more resistant to his naps and they would likely be short.  Sort of robs the day sleep you know?

Or if she didn't get enough night sleep, she may have been OT for those naps...

Glad you are making progress - you are doing a great job!