Are 45 minute naps a phase or habit

[Sarahboh]

First please answer my question as are 45 minutes naps being a phase infants go through or does it become a habit and they continue doing it forever.

My lo is 14 weeks and she is having some 45 minute naps, some 1 hour, some 1.5 hours and some 2 hours. I really don't want to fight her with naps (as in going in and shhh/patt) for a hour only to have us both more tired and her not going back to sleep. Most of the time she is in a good mood, sometimes grouchy after these short naps. Thus I am asking the question, will she grow out of the 45 minute naps eventually. I am too scared to try wake to sleep as I feel I might wake her myself and make the situation worse.

I know I may need also to consider in the next month transitioning to 4 hr easy.

Her night sleep is good 12-13 hours (sometimes with one feeding, sometimes with none). Typically her day sleep ranges from 3-4.5hours. Is this in a good range?

Thanks ahead of time for all your feedback

[imsmum]

How many naps is she taking?  If she's taking more than 3 then I would say to continue with the pat/shh, if only for the ones she wakes up grumpy.  At about the same stage my dd started taking all 45 minute naps.  I did pat/shh which at first did take an hour  but eventually went down to a few minutes (I had to continue it at the transition in the sleep cycle for quite some time)  But she would never take more than a 30 to 45 minute nap in the morning no matter what.  She's 17 months now and just dropped  to  one nap.

[Sarahboh]

she takes 3 naps plus a catnap daily, sometimes 2 of the naps may be 45-1hour, one 2 hours and her catnap 40-50minutes, some days 2 1.5 hours naps, 1 45 and catnap 40-50 minutes. Everyday, week is different, I know she is able to take long naps because not all of the naps are 45 minutes, so what to do?

[imsmum]

What does (very roughly) her typical day or days look like?  At her age she can still typically only stay awake for 2 hours right?  Probably longer after a good nights sleep, shorter after a short nap?  Which naps are usually the short ones?

[Meg's Mom]

will she grow out of the 45 minute naps eventually

In my opinion, and experience from this site - YES, she will outgrow them.  If you watch her A times and extend when she is ready eg: moving to 4hr EASY at 4mos - then she should outgrow them.

Watch that am nap and once that one starts extending you can bet you r on the road to recoverer  :wink: .

[Melsy]

Ds FINALLY outgrew the 45 min naps at 5 months.  I couldn't have been happier!  At 5.5 months we dropped to 2 naps per day and we have had mostly (touch wood!) plain sailing since then.  We are on 1 nap a day now at 16 months which was a little tricky but still, not too bad.

Once I stopped stressing about the 45 min naps I found I handled it a lot better.  I used to be so caught up in how long he was napping for that I kinda lost focus of enjoying my little one - and that is the most important part!!!

Having said that, a friend from this site, no matter what she did, her little one would never sleep much longer than 30 min naps.  And believe me she tried everything to extend them.  But it just seems like he is wired for short naps!!

Good luck, enjoy your little one, maybe once you go to 4 hour easy and bub gets used to that, maybe the naps will become more consistent and predictable!

Melissa