My son is 10 weeks old and stinks at naps. He will only nap 20-30 minutes if he's in his crib, maybe 40 minutes if he's in the swing. But will of course sleep two hours if I'm holding him. I try to implement the 3 hr routine for him but when he wakes up 20 minutes later... He generally stays awake for an hour after eating and goes down somewhat easily for his nap. If I get him back to sleep after his wake up, the 20 minute cycle just continues. He won't even stay asleep in the car. I'm exhausted. Any suggestions?
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I'm sorry
napping is so frustrating. My LO is 12 weeks and gets tired 1-1.5 hours after her last wakeup. and she is only really happy if her last nap was at least 1 hour (ideally 1.5). But some days she just will only sleep 30 min at a time. And I've never figured out what makes good nap days different from bad nap days. Personally the only thing that I've found helps my sanity on bad nap days is to accept my fate and give into it. Let her sleep when she wants to sleep. Try not to get too annoyed when she wakes up early again. Feed her every 3 hours or whenever she seems hungry. It doesn't make her sleep better but it does lower my stress levels to stop trying to fix the seemingly unfixable. 
I sort of just figure that at some point she'll grow out of this and get on a more regular and reliable schedule. (i hope i hope i hope). But maybe someone else has some better ideas.
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SO frustrating! My nine month old was the same way at that age and now she is a rockstar napper.
At that age, I just let her nap on me - and now she hasn't fallen asleep in my arms (or snuggled) since she was 3 months old - so try to enjoy it once or twice.
At 12 weeks I went back to work until 12, so the morning became daycare's problem and the afternoon I wfm so it was a BIG thing to get her to nap. We tried the swing then (battery operated) that she hated earlier, and she napped for 3 hours straight
We used the swing until she could not fit it in anymore and then moved to crib naps.
We also figured out that she could only be awake for 1 hour at that point. We ignored the "3 hour" thing and just made sure 1 hour after waking she would go back down. That moved to 1.5 around 4/5 months and then to 2 around 7 months.
Hope that helps.
I have SO been there. And its much easier in hindsight for me to say enjoy them sleeping on you - because I so didn't appreciate people telling me that when she was that little.
Good luck!
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@Mae: I'm glad I'm not the only one. I will try to keep going with the flow but grrrrr! I told my husband I'm ready to hire an infant care person to come in a get this kid to sleep better. He thought I was kidding
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@Kelley_lovelikecrazy: I'm certainly trying to enjoy it but I also have a 2.5 yr old so it's not always doable when I have to make dinner etc... Here's hoping that by 9 months he had it figured out! Haha!
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@MamaT: OH! With a 2.5 year old your ability to hold your baby during naps is about 37 seconds. Haha. Around 5 months Olivia became a good napper. So theres hope?
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@MamaT: I have no advice for you. I've got a similar situation except my LO does NOT go down easily, do at least you've got that?
I know it's exhausting nonetheless. I feel the same way. But I've read that a lot of catnappers naturally consolidate their naps around 6 months. Hope we can hang in there til,then!@Mae: I think that's a great attitude to have. In the last couple of days I've also begun to have a better outlook on my situation, or at least I'm trying to! I have resigned myself to not fighting my LO so much for naps and perhaps just try to enjoy the time that I have now where he naps on me....though let's not talk about having to break that habit later on!
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@MamaT: I think this is pretty normal for that age? DS1 used to only nap on me until I got totally sick of it and started putting him in the crib or pnp. He would nap max 30 minutes. Once we started to make it a routine and he got used to napping in the crib he started to extend the time asleep. He is now almost 2 and today I had to wake up him after over 2.5 hours!
DS2 is 13 weeks and honestly today was the first time I put him down in his crib for a nap.I think he slept 20 minutes and after I got him he went back to sleep on me for like an hour. It doesn't bother me as much as it did with DS1 because I know eventually he will have a schedule and when that happens we will be stuck in the house all day between both boys' naps! When they are little it's a lot easier to go out and do things and have them nap on the go.ETA: I just saw that you have a 2.5 year old. I try to make it a point to have the baby go to sleep during his brother's nap time so I have a little me time. Even if it's just 10-20 minutes it makes the rest of the day easier. Is that a possibility for you?
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@skipra: you give me hope! Mine is almost 12 weeks and I can't put him in his crib without him crying angrily. Or if I put him in there after he's fallen asleep in my arms, he'll wake up in 10-15 minutes. So yeah now I'm gonna stop trying so hard and just watch netflix on my ipad until he's got the naps sorted out. Or until he's old enough for CIO.
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Sounds normal. Some babies are just major cat nappers. Xander would only sleep for 20-30 minutes at a time and then he'd be awake for 1.5-2 hours at that age!! It was rough, but was his normal! Good luck to you!
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@skipra: yes! Luckily my 2.5 yr old is a good napper (usually 2-3 hrs in the afternoon) so at some point the baby is napping! I guess I just have to accept my 20-30 minutes! And learn to enjoy just that small snipet!
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I'm glad to hear this sounds normal to everyone! My first son was a good sleeper (from what I remember!) So I've just been so unsure what to do with this one! At what age should I start letting him cry it out?
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@MamaT: I started a thread recently about CIO, but my goal is to reduce the amount of struggle to get LO to nap, not to lengthen them yet. Hes almost 12 weeks. Most replies I got were that it seems too young. However, mrs. Bee's post on when to train says that 2.5-4 months is a good time to train, and Weissbluth also says between 8-16 weeks is a good time, if your baby is not colicky. I guess there's no one right answer. I am realizing that consistency is very important so if you do decide to train, stick with it! These are things I'm telling myself too.
and I haven't decided when I'm going to train yet.
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@BabyTsMom: I've never heard of Weissbluth- thanks for the info! I have read Mrs Bees post about CIO several times- and it makes me think I might go for it. While he is young, he's at a very robust weight
so I feel confident he wouldn't be crying for food. Ugh- just so challenging knowing when/what is right?! He forgot to come out with his instruction manual!
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My guy is 10 weeks also and was doing really short naps, I've tried a number of things that I think help him nap longer: I think the most effective thing has been giving up all caffiene again
even a cup of coffee made his naps and night time sleep crappy. We also do swaddle and white noise for naps in the crib. When all else fails we go for a walk in the stroller or put him in the baby ktan - we can usually get an hour nap then.
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@MamaT: Yes, it is so hard to know what/when is right. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. I would say before you decide when, however, you should really research the different types of training and pick one method and stick to it. At the end of the day, you have to do what you're comfortable with. I have to say, I'm utterly jealous that your LO at least goes down easily for his naps, even if they are short ones! By the way, people have commented that babies naturally lengthen their naps as they get older, so if that's your main concern, you might want to wait it out if you can? Just a thought.
I am obviously not an expert.
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@CakeLady: we do do the swaddle and white noise but it's certainly worth trying to give up my 2x/week coffee! Thanks!
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@BabyTsMom: oh not all naps are easy to go down for! Just sometimes! But your probably right that over time they will just lengthen. I probably just to be patient with my little man!
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@MamaT: I think it's totally normal. Mine did the same minus the going down easily until about 5.5m when they naturally lengthened. We never did CIO but sleep trained Around the same age. For me it was important that he'd outgrown spitting up and gas bubbles and understood object permanence- in that if I was gone,'I wasn't gone forever.
napping is so frustrating. My LO is 12 weeks and gets tired 1-1.5 hours after her last wakeup. and she is only really happy if her last nap was at least 1 hour (ideally 1.5). But some days she just will only sleep 30 min at a time. And I've never figured out what makes good nap days different from bad nap days. Personally the only thing that I've found helps my sanity on bad nap days is to accept my fate and give into it. Let her sleep when she wants to sleep. Try not to get too annoyed when she wakes up early again. Feed her every 3 hours or whenever she seems hungry. It doesn't make her sleep better but it does lower my stress levels to stop trying to fix the seemingly unfixable. 
I sort of just figure that at some point she'll grow out of this and get on a more regular and reliable schedule. (i hope i hope i hope). 
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