Curious...moms of short nappers...what is your lo's bedtime?

[kendra's mom]

Hello all.  First let me say it is very comforting to see that I am not the only one to be struggling with the short naps as well as questioning whether it is really necessary to work to extend them.  After all, as some of you have pointed out, there are successful mothers out there who haven't read Tracy's books (that's how I reassure myself when I am not up in the nursery doing PUPD or wake 2 sleep).

 Anyhow, I have noticed that if my 4 month lo short naps during the day then she tends to follow a ~8 pm bedtime.  On the other hand if she has a day like today (total of ~3 1/4 hours sleep...45 mintues, 1 1/2 hours, 1 hour) she is a night owl.  She did the same thing when she used to do the 2 - 2 hours naps followed by the cat nap.  She is perched on my lap and only now, at 9 pm, showing signs of needing to sleep!  When I look back at my journals you can see that as her bedtimes got earlier her naps got shorter. What I was wondering was how many of you out there are noticing the same pattern??? 

I must say that I have noticed that keeping her up longer (30 additional minutes  with her in a sling doing errands to make a total activity time of 2 hours) seemed to help today in not getting necessarily longer naps but naps that she wakes happy out of.

[scarletts mum]

Hi there

I do agree with you on this one.. my dd only takes 45 min naps (unless out walking in the  pram..) when she used to go to bed at 10.00pm she would take long naps during the day..regularly two hours at a time.  Now her bedtime is 7.00pm and she sleeps until roughly 7.00am. 

She definitely needs less sleep during the day now she is sleeping longer at night.  I am trying not to get too fraught about the short napping issues.  Today for instance I met a friend for lunch and I walked to the resaurant with Scarlett in her pram, she fell asleep on the way there, woke up half way through lunch then settled herself again and slept for a total an hour and a half...

If Scarlett wakes up after 45 minutes and is happy and smiley then I will get her up.  Only if she is crying and grumpy and still yawning do I try to get her back to sleep again. 

After all, if she spends all her time asleep, I dont get to see her and play!!

All the best.

lizzie

[thodder]

I also agree on this one.  Some babies just nap for 45 minutes and that's just natural, others take 20 minute catnaps (that's even in Tracy's book - not all babies take long naps).  As long as your LO is happy, there's really nothing to worry about in my mind.  It was only when my LO dropped his evening nap that he started to go to bed at a normal time.  My little guy actually goes through a nap schedule change every couple of weeks and I've learnt to roll with it.  Some weeks he'll take long naps, other shorter ones and still be happy.  :-)  I've learnt not to stress or Joshua and I both end up in tears and fighting with a 5 month old just isn't worth in <GRIN>.

Theressa

[Aarismom]

Yep, the longer they sleep at night, the less sleep they need during the day. They still need 2 naps + 1 catnap before 6 months...but if she's getting 12 hours at night, that's only 3 hours in naps, so 3-45 min cycles may be all she needs to be happy.

Also, your 45 min naps may be the cause of daytime sleep developing. This happens around 3-4 months. Just keep trying to push waking time up to 2 hours in 15 min incraments if you haven't already. Until it straightens itself out, you may only see 45 min naps for awhile.

Totally agree though about if they wake happy after 45 mins, it's more likely a biorhythm thing, and there's no reason to extend the nap. 

*HUGS*
Sonya =P

[Arwyn's mom]

My lo is a short napper  :roll:  and she goes to bed at 6:45 pm and sleeps roughly until 7 am with one middle of the night waking between 3 and 5 am.

[kendra's mom]

Great to hear from you all.  I've just decided to do as Thodder and just roll with things.  As long as she wakes happy from the 45 minute nap, we just continue on with the day.  Today she did a 45 minute nap in the morning, a 45 minute nap in the afternoon which she may have gone down for another 45 mnutes if we weren't interrupted so she had to 'veg' on the couch till she went for 60 minute nap later and then a quick catnap before supper.  She has been going from 6:30 pm to 7:30 am without any eats so I really can't complain!