8 wo with short naps and bad habits?

[LBubs]

My 8 wo son is a terrible napper -- if he's not in his car seat. He will take a 1-2 hour nap if we've gone somewhere and he is snuggled in his car seat. If we are at home and I go through our routine (swaddle, paci, and now bouncing) he will only stay down for 20 minutes or so. He will cry and fuss for about 15 minutes and eventually fall asleep, but won't stay asleep. I've tried just letting him be for a bit to see if he can fall back asleep, but that doesn't seem to work.

To get him to calm down I have to walk around the house and bounce with him. But, he's already 12 lbs and its starting to kill my back. If I put him in the sling on me, he will conk out and stay out a bit longer, but as long as I'm moving.

Our bedtime routine is going well. He will go down somewhere between 7-8, dream feed at 10, and stay down until around 3 am. Then ready to get up around 6-7.

Have I already created bad habits? How do I undo this? I've read the BW and know this is not how I want this to go in the long run, but I was desperate earlier just to get him to sleep during the day. Our pediatrician says its normal at this age to have varying nap lengths (which I get), but at the same time, if we aren't on the go and in the car seat he's getting way too overtired during the day.

Help!

[becj86]

How long is he awake before you're putting him down for a nap? It sounds like he's already overtired or overstimulated when you're putting him down. Does he sleep flat during the night? Just wondering as some babies who suffer with reflux sleep 20min naps unless they're upright.

Don't worry about bad habits too much at this age, he's just getting used to being out in the world. If you're getting a good 11-12hr night in the cot and he's sleeping decent stretches (which he is), you're doing well. Sleep in the cot during the day is something that can be tackled successfully at any age, I think its easiest around 5 months. Some people get themselves in a pickle never being able to go out because the cot is the only place baby will sleep, so try not to stress too much about him not sleeping there during the day at 8wo.

[LBubs]

He is usually only up for about an hour. He is good about giving me the signals of sleepy - eye rubbing and yawning. I usually then immediately start the nap routine.

He does have really bad silent reflux. However, he sleeps on a special bed that keeps him at a 30 degree angle.

[becj86]

How long is the nap routine? Just wondering if that's pushing him into OT as sleep windows are pretty short at this age...

[LBubs]

Not long... enough to get swaddled and cuddle. He will have 3-4 fuss/cry bouts but then will fall asleep. I snuggle him and put the pacifier in. I try to give it a few more minutes once he's out and then lay him down. He will stay asleep for 20-30, but then is up again. He will keep yawning but won't (or can't?) fall back asleep.

[Scottishmummy]

Short naps in the cot are really common at this age. I started trying to get my DD to take cot naps around this age. She would sleep 2-3 hrs in the sling but only 30-40 mins in the cot, regardless of A time, swaddle, routine, dark, white noise etc.

I would alternate cot and sling naps so she had some long ones to avoid OT, so we could leave the house and to give me a break, but also cot ones meant she was still learning those skills.

As she got older (closer to 4 or 5mo) she switched to only taking short sling naps but longer cot naps, so I was able to just go with cot naps

[LBubs]

That's sort of the pattern we are on. I can only take the routine of of spending 30 minutes trying to get him to go to sleep for 15 minutes for so many days in a row. Today we went out and he slept like a champ for 2 hours in his car seat. I just tried to get him down now and spent twice as long rocking and cuddling as he was asleep!

Is this creating a bad pattern or do I hope he just eventually outgrows this?

[becj86]

Long naps will come - maybe try to structure your day so you're out and about for the morning and he gets a couple of good naps in and then maybe try for an afternoon nap in the cot so at least you don't have an OT baby all day. Its really normal to have issues like this at this age.

[malibu_nikkus]

Scottishmummy, did you spend hours shh and pat to train baby to extend cot naps, or did it just happen? I've already got 10wo going to sleep but trying to resettle after 30mins us doing my head in. Do I give up shh n pat for an extra 5-10mins of sleep and just wait for baby to sort his life out? Or keep patting to train him to extend naps? My toddler would prefer option 1!

[becj86]

I got L to sleep however I had to when he was little and then once he had a routine that was working well when he turned 5 months, I did a gradual withdrawal type thing and got him sleeping in his cot. I was really struggling early on and I just couldn't safely do shush/pat in a dark room. I can imagine your toddler is unimpressed!

[Scottishmummy]

Scottishmummy, did you spend hours shh and pat to train baby to extend cot naps, or did it just happen? I've already got 10wo going to sleep but trying to resettle after 30mins us doing my head in. Do I give up shh n pat for an extra 5-10mins of sleep and just wait for baby to sort his life out? Or keep patting to train him to extend naps? My toddler would prefer option 1!

No- I have a demanding toddler too! I used to go in around the 30 min mark and try to sh pat for up to 15mins to get her through the transition but if she woke she woke. Eventually it became easier to resettle/keep her asleep and then she started to extend naps herself, but it did take a few months