Nap/Sleep Question For A Moderator

[Cohensmom]

Hi there ~ I have a quick question.

My almost 5 month old son only naps for approx. 45 min to an hour each nap.  He usually has 2 naps in the morning, and 1-2 naps in the afternoon.  He usually can only stay awake for about an hour to an hour and a half before he needs a nap.  Most nights he sleeps from 6pm to 7-8am with a feed usually around 5-6am.  Total hours of sleep in a day is roughly 16-17 hrs.

After reviewing the methods of extending his 45 min naps, and looking at the typical amount of sleep a 3 month old gets and a 6 month old gets, I am wondering if I should really be trying to extend Cohen's naps during the day since his total sleep in a day is more than the typical amount of hours a 3 or 6 month old sleeps. 

I've also noticed in a moderators post regarding W2S method, that in her experience a baby under the age of 6 months has difficulty entering into the next sleep cycle anyways; so if that is the case, will a baby just natually sleep longer for naps once they get a little older?

Thanks

Michelle   

[Mom to M&M]

Hi there. I'd say that at almost 5 months, your son's awake times should be 2-2.25 hours long. Because he's only awake 1-1.5 hours, he only needs a short nap and then because he's only taking a short nap he can't stay awake long next time! I would definitely work on extending his awake times slowly - try 15 minutes every 3 days. This should really help extend his naps as he'll be more tired for a longer one. Just keep it lowkey - carry him around for the last bit if need be, etc. Good luck and let us know how you get on!

[Cohensmom]

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the reply.  I have tried all sorts of different things to try to get him to stay up llonger than 1-1.5 hours but it usually doesn't work or he has a meltdown cause I am not putting him to bed and it takes extra long to get him to go to sleep cause he's overtired.  He also then only sleeps 45 minutes.  There are the odd days where he sleeps an hour and a half and he still needs to go to bed after an hour.  I swear my child just likes to sleep I guess.  I've tried all sorts of versions of the EASY routine, but it just doesn't work for Cohen.  He's very particular about when he eats and when he sleeps.  LOL

Maybe once he gets a little older he'll start to have more awake time and longer naps...(crossing my fingers).  Thanks for the advice, I'll see how it goes and let you know.

Michelle

[SallyDom]

Hi Michelle, I also have a sleepy little boy (almost 19 weeks old). Up until the last couple of weeks he could only stay awake about an hour so was on a 3 hour EASY, with 2 of those hours being sleep. I sometimes felt like I hardly saw him as he might spend 20-30 mins feeding, 10 mins changing nappy and massage (has ezcema so I massage all over with ointment 3-4 times a day) and then 20-30 mins on his play mat and tummy time and then he was back to sleep!
He can manage 1.5 hours awake time now, 2 hours if he's feeling really energetic, but he still often has 2 hour naps. I get so much done at home I'm sure it's not normal for a new mum!

[Cohensmom]

Hi SallyDom,

That is great that you can get a 2 hour nap in during the day.  Cohen will only ever sleep an hour at a time tops most days.  He does sleep a lot at night though, so I really can't complain about the short naps.  What time does your lo go to bed at night at?  Is he sleeping through the night?  Last night Cohen slept from 6pm-7am, fed, then went back to sleep until 8:30am.  That's the longest he's ever slept.  I couldn't believe it.  He then took 3 naps today of about 1 hour each.  He tends to be able to stay longer after his last nap of the day, but as soon as 5:45pm comes, he's usually telling me that he wants to go to bed.

I guess maybe we can count our blessings on such good little sleepers.  Sometimes I think about trying to get him to nap longer or eat every 3-4 hours, but then I think, if he's sleeping through the night, should I really be messing with a good thing.  You know?

Well glad to hear there are more sleepy babies out there!   

Michelle

[SallyDom]

Congrats on the sleeping through! The latest we have achieved is 6.35 but that has only happened once. He was getting to 5am ish for a while (and then going back to sleep) but now things have gone a bit crazy and he's waking any time from 2am, but it is still only the once in the night and he usually wakes up properly about 7.30-8am. 
Dom also gets cranky about the same time as Cohen but if the timings work out I let him have a catnap. I start his bath, bottle, bed routine at 6.15 and he is usually asleep by 7pm. Even if he is really cranky the minute we head upstairs he cheers up. Not sure if it because he loves his bath or if it is cos he knows bedtime is coming!

I know what you mean about whether to change things or not. As long as he is happy after a 1 hour nap I'd be tempted to leave things as they were. If Dom has less than an hour and a half (as I said things went a little crazy a couple of weeks ago as well as the early night waking times he also started waking after 45min in his nap times) he is so cranky he isn't happy with anything.

Does Cohen sleep well if you are out and about? Dom will only sleep well if he is in his cot which means if we have been out all day he will only have maybe 2 hours of sleep all day which leads to a very overtired baby and it can take some doing to get him to sleep on the night.

Sally
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[Cohensmom]

Hi Sally,

Sometimes Cohen sleeps well when we are out for a walk or in the car, but then there are times where is just gets so cranky and we have to come home right away or a meltdown begins.  If we are going on a long car ride, he tends to do well for the first sleep, but then if he wakes and wants to go back to sleep he usually screams.  It's funny cause sometimes he'll scream for like the last hour in the car, but as soon as we get home, he's happy as can be.  I think he just gets restless in the car seat.

Cohens been sleeping through the night for about a month.  We used to do the dreamfeed, but then it started causing night wakings, so I stopped it and the first night I cut it out, he slept from 6pm-4:30.  Do you dream feed?  I also had to take his pacifier away to get Cohen to start sleeping through the night.  He slowly started taking less and less food at night, then only wanted the pacifier.  It was good at first cause it was a quick sollution, but then it just got to be frustrating.  After the first night we took it away, he then slept through the night ever since. 

Are you formula feeding or BF?  If Dom was sleeping through, I am sure he'll start sleeping through again soon.  I know when Cohen has his immunizations, he woke in the night for 3 days after, but then got back to normal.

Michelle

[SallyDom]

It's bizarre isn't it how they can be screaming so much one second and the next they are happy as anything. I think they do it to keep us on our toes!

Dom would never dream feed so we tried waking him a bit by changing his nappy but he would still never drink more than about 3oz so we stopped waking him and it never made any difference to the time he woke in the night.

I bf for 4 weeks but was having a really hard time with it, don't think I was filling him and he would cry with hunger all the time so went on to formula and got a much happier settled baby. I don't really mind the night feeds too much, I feed him, put him down (with a kiss of course) and he chats for a while and goes back to sleep happily. I can hear him chatting to himself through the monitor and think usually I'm back to sleep before he his! He then sleeps until 7.30ish. My friends little boy (21 weeks) has started sleeping through until 6am but that is when he gets up for the day. I'd rather do a middle of the night and get to sleep in a little then have to bit up at 6am.

Dom had some immunisations last week and thankfully he was fine afterwards. No more for about 8 months now, yay, I hate seeing his little face screw up when they do it. He just looks so shocked and hurt.

Sally
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[rinajack]

Hi girls

So glad to hear I am not the only one whose short napper is happy that way.  Zara has 3-4 short naps per day (30-45 mins each).  But her awake times are already 2-3 hours.  In the last two weeks she has started extending some naps, but is completely unpredictable when and for how long - if she wants to sleep I let her.  Most days is it short naps though.  She is usually really easy to put to bed, happy, smiley and giggly - I don't want to mess that up by trying to force her to sleep - if she does wake unhappy she is usually easy to resettle, although this is rare too.

Her nights are pretty good, no DF, 11-12 hour nights.  Has only started waking once per night since I went back to work part time, but this is phasing out I think, as not every night now.  Our new prob is teething, making her hard to put down, but homeopathic stuff is helping.  But mostly our days start at 5am!!! Going to bet later does not help this, and she doesn't make it up in  naps - I think she is just an early bird.  Can sometimes get extra 45 mins if I take her to bed not the BW way I know, but dh and I love the extra cuddles.

Zara will not sleep more than 1/2 hr when out, usually in my arms.  Does not even sleep long in car.  And she did the car screaming thing too - is happier since I turned the seat to face forward, and sat it up...never wants to lie down much this one.

She is such a spirited lo.