12 hour sleeper - what kind of naps to expect?

[kidsmom]

Hi! 
my little guy is 5 months old and sleeps thru the night (12 hours, please don't hate me).   The trouble is he only naps 30 min at a time...unless we sleep with him, which isn't exactly my ideal situation.   He stays awake for 2 1/2 hours at a time on average, and eats either when he wakes up or 1 hour later...then he eats again before he sleeps.   Is this normal?   How do I get him to wake up, play, then eat and nap for a longer time?  THanks for the help!

[LeeLeeMelis]

First off, I do hate you!!jk:-)  The 30 minute naps are hard as we have a short napper too. If he can stay awake for 2.5 hours at a time and is eating enough in his day time (gaining enough weight and wetting and pooping enough diapers) I'd say he's fine and go with it. Soon enough his daytime sleep will probably shift and go to fewer, longer naps. 

I'm no expert that's just what I would do (boy do I wish I were in your shoes though:-)  Good luck!

[marensmama]

Hi there and welcome to the BW community.   Usually LOs his age can handle 2-2.5 hours of A time, with 2 2hr naps and a 45 minute cat nap.  It's great that he's sleeping through the night, but the 30 minute naps indicate that he's OT.  I'd cut back on his A time to 1hr 45 or 2hrs and see what happens.  If he has a good nap, then the next A time can be 2.5 hours again.  He may need a bit of help from you to get past the 30 minute mark, and that's OK while you're getting him over the OT.  Once he's no longer having long A times with short naps, you could work on using PU/PD with him to extend the naps if pat/shh doesn't work first.

HTH!