Hellobee Boards

45 mins is considered a long nap at this age. They'll naturally get longer around 6-7 months..

No advice here. From 8 weeks-4/5 months, I was holding LO for every single nap. It was the only way I could get him to sleep. He would wake up immediately every time I tried to put him down. He eventually grew out of it once he was
I would say either just deal with the short naps or try to see if holding him will help him to sleep longer....

DS1 had short naps until about 9 months. Nothing to do but wait it out. But he did wake up happy.

My dd is 7 months and has been doing 23-30 min morning naps then 40ish min afternoon lately. We have had periods in the past where she will sleep for 1.5 hrs and she can go longer at night. I've tried the wake to sleep method with varied success and sometimes she can fuss and put herself back to sleep but usually once she wakes up she wakes up.

It's totally frustrating! My friends baby was having these amazing 2-3hr naps at 3 months and mine was having no longer than 40 min! But every baby is different and sometimes it's ok to have 5 naps a day! (which we do when we have particularly bad naps and our wake times decrease a bit).

DD was an epic short napper until 6-7 months when she settled into 3 solid naps around an hour (sometimes a bit more). I wish it wasn't developmental, but I totally think it is.

Question - Do you swaddle him?

I find that if my 3.5 month old was hard to put down for the nap, aka overtired that she doesn't transition to the second sleep cycle and wakes up after 45 mins. But if she is well rested she will sleep for 1.5 hrs. So it could just be that you've gotten into a vicious cycle of overtiredness & crap sleep. But I'm not sure what the solution is!

@MrsADS: My LO is 4 months and has been in the 10-12 hour range for sleep in a day since he was a newborn. Apparently we have low sleep needs ... Frustrating especially over night.

This is crazy long but infant sleep is my passion. Sorry!

@MrsADS: My 3 month old was taking two 1.5-2 hour naps and one 45 min nap by that age. I disagree when people say that it's normal at that age to take 30 min naps. On the contrary, you can read countless reputable sources that say by 3 months they start to consolidate short naps into a few longer naps. Here is just one:

http://www.m.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/baby-development-3-months

I worked HARD to get his naps that length. But to be fair, I stay at home so I was able to put the time and effort in. I realize it's not as easy for everyone. But infant sleep is so important that I made it work even though I became a hermit for a few months staying in and making sure he was well rested. (I was rather ignorant about baby sleep for the first 4 weeks of his life so he became an overtired mess and I thought he was in pain or sick. But he was overtired and after I learned that, I read everything I could to stay on top of it).

My son used a pacifier so I was able to go in over and over and keep replacing the pacifier. The shushing and patting never worked for me, it just riled him up. I would actually "hide" from him by crouching down and sticking my hand through the crib slats. He eventually, by 3 months, woke less and less and I stopped having to put in the pacifier.
Yes, I lived in the nursery like you are, but it was relatively short lived and has paid off in SPADES. Ever since about 3 months I get 3-5 hours of ME time because of his naps. So yeah, sucks in the short run but is totally worth it.

I also made sure at that age that I never ever kept him awake for more than 1.5 hours, sometimes he couldn't even last that long between naps. I learned his sleep cues and followed them to a T.

And I tried my hardest not to rush in immediately when he cried. I waited a minute or so because more times than not he would settle himself back to sleep. So rushing in isn't always the right thing. Sometimes if he woke and didn't cry I wouldn't even go get him and he'd still fall asleep again after a half hour.

I started really early with putting him down drowsy but awake (like, straight from the hospital!), so I rarely rocked to sleep. BUT if he was having a bad nap period (right now he is as he's trying to figure out and transition to 1 nap) I will hold him until he's asleep or asleep enough to transfer to the crib. I don't do it often or repeatedly so that it doesn't become a habit, but I will do it if the lack of napping or overtiredness gets out of hand. So he can catch up, basically. A few others said this and I agree if it's occasional to break the cycle.

If your LO is waking from the naps and is happy in the crib, try leaving them. They may fall back asleep and if not, quiet alone time in a darkened room during nap time is better than being stimulated. It still gives them some time to unwind and regenerate and avoid stimulation.

If there's been a day of crappy naps, you can totally try putting them to bed early. My son goes to bed around 6:30 on average. But if he skipped his afternoon nap (again, 2-to-1 transition is rough) I have no qualms putting him to bed at 5:30pm! And he will sleep sleep 13 hours. He's older, I'm not sure if yours sttn yet, but sleep specialists say that the time they go to bed has no bearing on when they will wake up at the young ages they are. In fact, if they are overtired, earlie bedtime to prevent overtiredness usually helps them sleep easier and longer, which is counterintuitive to most adults. I have multiple friends who moved bedtime earlier and got LATER wakeups!

I helped him become an amazing napper but of course we still hit patches during developmental milestones. He'd wake early (before an hour) or refuse the nap entirely (rolling was a big one around 4 months). But it was always short lived and I tried my best to remain consistent and stick with routine. Once you break routine you can create new habits so I was careful. I also liked the schedule he was on so I tried to stick to it while still respecting the 1.5 hour awake rule. We had some days that were wacky and he ended up taking 5 shorter naps instead of 3 longer ones, but he was always going down before 1.5 hours awake so he never got supremely overtired and was fairly well rested.

I know this is the sleep bible so you may already have it, but Dr Weissbluth's book is a godsend. It has helped me at every stage of sleep from newborn to now (14 months).

If you feel that the short naps aren't right and are making your baby overtired and cranky, listen to your instinct. I wasn't "lucky" and my son wasn't "born a good sleeper" as some people tell me. I had to work hard at it. HARD. My husband doesn't really commend me on a lot of mom stuff because - I'm a mom, that's what I do. But the sleep thing he has noticed and he actually gets defensive on my behalf when people tell me I'm just lucky.
Good luck, I know short naps and overtired babies can be super hard to handle. I'll be thinking of you. Feel free to wall me!

@MrsADS: does he sleep better in the swing or stroller or being worn? If he's overtired and sleeps better in a different way than the nursery, I'd do that. I held DD for almost every nap while onager it leave and then my nanny did until about 6 months.

I completely agree with @sweetiepie: and have had a similar experience with naps. We have stuck to a routine since 5 weeks and I don't keep her awake longer than 1.75 hrs. Maybe you can try an early bedtime for a few days to catch him up on sleep and then try to be religious about sticking to a schedule. I still get 45 min naps sometimes but it seems to be related to her overtiredness if I keep her too long. I'm sorry this is so hard!

@MrsADS: And I will add that I agree with @tofuwad: that if you are doing everything right and your son is still a short napper, don't beat yourself up over it! I hope I didn't come off that way in my post!
While I do believe that babies need to be "taught" to sleep and do think it requires some work, I also believe that there are some low-sleep-needs babies that no matter what you do, they won't nap for long (except for maybe with professional intervention like a sleep consultant). Just like there are high-sleep-needs babies that take monster naps without intervention. I just think MOST are in the middle and require some coaxing.

So, do what you can/are willing to do and if at some point he's still not napping and you realize that you're more unhappy than when you just let him take short naps, just go with the short naps.

I guess in summary, my original post was just saying that it usually requires some work and dedication and based on the crapload of research I've done, I don't think it's because of his age. My post was not meant to say that I think EVERY baby will nap for 2 hours at a time if you do everything I say (wouldn't that be nice, I'd be a rich woman )