When do they grow out of 45min naps??

[mokey_cat]

Well here I am again with another chronic short napper   

Isla is stuck at these 45 minute naps.  Holly had these too but grew out of them at 4 mo.  So Im just wondering what age your LO's started taking longer naps on their own?  I have been patient so far but its every nap every day and I find it so hard to extend so by the end of the day she an OT mess and has to go to bed early without a feed sometimes.  I need reassurance its not forever!

I have tried a variety of A times but I think its more developmental.  I really want to move to a 4 hour EASY but our routine is just a mess with these short naps.

TIA 

[kirstym]

i could have written your post! my DD is 15 weeks and every nap of everyday is only 45 mins! i try w2s and shh patt and it doesnt really work as she wakes up !!! 

this is driving me insane now and wondering like you! she is currently on a 3.5 easy and too sometimes too tired to take last feed! and her A time is all over the place!

big hugs and hopefully will get some advice from others x

[sianie]

{{Hugs}} Laura! It's sooo frustrating!!

Been there with both my LO's & you name I tried it to extend naps but nothing really worked. With both of them by 6.5/7 mths old they started taking longer naps & we haven't looked back! It's definitely developmental in so far as a lot of LO's find it hard to transition from 1 sleep cycle to the next & their daytime sleeping starts to mature at around 6 mths old.

[jesie]

My DS still has short naps and he's 13 months! Sorry its not what you wanted to hear but some babies just don't need/want those long sleeps. Yes we do... but they don't.

[LittleLegs]

Hi

I too have a 16 wk old short napper who gets extremely OT and grumpy as the day goes on.  If he has sufficient sleep he's a content happy little chap.

Over the past few weeks he has started to wake up grumpy from his naps.  I think as he's starting to do more he needs more sleep.  He'll also be going to nursery in another 4 months so we need to try and establish a better routine that he can take to nursery. A few days ago we started the PU/PD technique.  It's too early to say how it's going but already today he has had more sleep (albeit with about 20 minutes of PU/PD but hopefully that'll only reduce each day).  You may want to try this technique.

The only advantage of having short naps is that I would suspect it would be easier to drop them when LO's older.

[mokey_cat]

Thanks everyone.  I had read they worked out night sleep first and she seems to be ok in that department so Im hopeful its just a matter of time  .

[rachelusc]

I started BW and EASY with my DD when she was about 4 months old and did shh/pat and pu/pd with her to get her napping in her crib and sleeping longer than 45 minutes.  It took a few weeks to start getting longer naps regularly (she was already sleeping fine in her crib for night sleep), but we still had some short naps sporadically until 6 months or so.  Eventually she got to the point that she would not cry when she woke up but would "play" with some of the soft toys we had in her crib and I was comfortable letting her move around and go back to sleep on her own, or at least have that down time.  Believe me, there were tears during the initial few weeks (mine more than hers!) but now she is 22 months and we have had over a year of no sleep trouble.  As a side note, things got much better when we got on a solid 4 hour EASY and naps were more by the clock than the elusive "cues" that I could never follow!

[cath~]

My LO goes through phases of good/bad napping.  They seem to be affected by all sorts of things (teething, developmental milestones, colds...).  However, when they were/are going well (and if I remember rightly), at around 3 months she used to wake at 45 mins and then I could re-settle her for another 45 mins with shh-patting and at around 4 1/2 to 5 months she started resettling herself and napping through the 45 minute mark.
She still does some 45 min naps (quite ofter really) but this is usually when something is bothering her (teething, at the moment).  Also, I think I was a bit slow on increasing her awake time as she got older - putting her down too early kept her naps at 45 mins because she wasn't tired enough so (want to) stay asleep after 45 mins.  I think I was misreading bored signs for tired signs.