Timing of naps

[rudojen]

I assume that naps should be timed from the time the baby actually falls asleep, not when you put them down. Please let me know if this is not the case...

The issue we're having at our house is that we don't seem to have time for more than a 30-45 minute nap since it is taking me up to an hour to get Quinn to sleep for a nap.  Feedings are every 3 hours.  It takes about 30 minutes to eat, then about an hour of activity time (he is very alert and interactive for a 4 week old) before he even starts to yawn or show signs of sleepiness.  The it takes up to an hour to get him to fall asleep and I only have 30 minutes left until it's time to eat again.

I wouldn't be overly concerned except that he has not been sleeping well at night and I'm thinking this relates to possibly being overtired due to not enough good sleep during the day.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Harvey and Theos Mam]

You do time the sleep from the time they actually fall asleep.

Maybe you could just let him have upto 2 hrs on one of his naps to see how long he will actually sleep. A baby can become hungry after about 45 mins of struggling to go to sleep and with Theo i would feed him before giving him just 10mins "A" time and then try and put him down for his nap.

Do you have any wind down time before trying to nap him?

I used to take Theo into the dark bedroom,swaddle him and just quietly sit there holding him until i saw his eyes getting heavy,then i would put him down and pat/sshh.

[rudojen]

Once I see that first yawn we head into Quinn's room, I wrap him up in the swaddle, give him the pacifier, and we rock until his eyes get heavy.  When I put him down he generally appears to be sleeping.  Within 5 minutes though, he is trying to kick out of the swaddle and spits his pacifier out.  Usually after 20 minutes he will be calm and on the verge of sleeping again.  This is the do or die moment - either he will actually go to sleep or I know it will take another 20-40 minutes as we repeat the cycle.

The swaddle thing is a bit tricky with Quinn - if he's not swaddled there is no settling him with his arms and legs all over the place.  But he fights the swaddle so much that I think it might keep him up as well. 

I'll try feeding him a bit if he doesn't settle after 45 minutes.  I just don't want to turn him into a snacker!  Did you ever have any trouble with that with Theo?