When do naps extend without help from mommy?

[kalsc2001]

I've been helping DS extend his naps when he wakes at the 45 min mark for the last 2.5 weeks. He will stir and wake, and I'll place my hands on him and he'll go back down fairly quickly. I'm wondering when I should stop doing this to see if he can naturally coax himself back down. Typically, he still needs our help to soothe (shush/pat) for both nighttime sleep and naps. He's 4 mo old and will be starting daycare soon so I was hoping this would work out naturally, as our daycare provider will have other kids to tend to and if you don't catch it at the right time, he wakes and will either not go back to sleep or it will take much more time to get him down.

Thanks, Karen

[kim&savannah]

For us, it was right around 5/6 months that I didn't have to help him extend and he still took 1.5 hour long naps the majority of the time.  Before that, we'd have times that he wouldn't need help, but he usually did.  I was dissappointed because I thought it was a matter of just getting them out of the habit, but for some babies, it is truly something they just have to outgrow and their brain usually matures so they can stay asleep through the jolts around 4-6 months.  So your LO might make it before he starts daycare since he's right at that age.

I'd keep working with it though as long as you can.  I sometimes wonder if DS would have outgrown the 45 min. naps no matter what I did, but I know DD took  a LOT longer to take good naps (I think she was around a year before it because regular), and I didn't do as good extending hers, so maybe that was the key.  Plus it helps them get enough sleep. . .

~Kim

[tylersmommy]

It was 4 mo for #1 and 8 mo for #2. With both, I did help extend them. While I think short naps can become a habit, there is a developmental component there. They do have to be developmentally ready to take longer naps, and that's usually around 4-6 mo, like Kim said. Or longer, for some babies like my younger one. Keep working at it, and hopefully he'll work it out soon!

[kalsc2001]

Thanks for the replies--another question--what signs can I look for that he will extend on his own? Because I'm 'helping' him before he gets to that point, what should I do to see if/when he is there? I hope I make sense... -Karen

[lilsweetie]

5.5 months for us.

[MJMom]

Thanks for the replies--another question--what signs can I look for that he will extend on his own? Because I'm 'helping' him before he gets to that point, what should I do to see if/when he is there? I hope I make sense... -Karen

I could never tell from a nap to nap basis.  I would just not help every few days to see if she could make it or not. 

[Bryony]

My LO still does 45-ers for her lunchtime nap on most days (which I can no longer extend),  but usually manages 1.5 hrs for her morning nap. She's nearly 7mo.  Sorry, probably not what you want to hear! 

She's had the odd spell of being able to do longer naps in the past - I got confident enough to leave her to her own devices if we had a few days of her not really waking up at 45 mins, just stirring a bit.  Then she would manage a few days extending on her own, before going back to 45-ers.

Does he do 45-ers at both naps? I think for lots of LOs, they "get" the morning nap earlier than the lunchtime nap - so maybe if he is getting a good morning nap he will manage with 45 minutes at lunchtime plus a catnap - we have been doing this for some time.   Or maybe you could work out a routine with lots of 45 minute naps, more close together (on some days we had 5 x 45 min naps), which the daycare staff might be able to manage?

HTH

Bryony