Help - 5 month old won't nap longer than 30 minutes :(

HI Livgian, Our LO is up for around 75 to 90 minutes including resettling time, any more than this she gets overtired and we risk skipping a nap. We play for 30 to 60 minutes depending on when she has had enough and then lie on my bed with dummy, lovey and a few small books and read quietly, play with lovey and sing quietly. This routine is for around 15 minutes and then the last 15 minutes is dozing next to me before she goes into the cott. She settles best when next to me on the bed but I put her in the cott as much as I can so I wait till she is drowsy and then move her over to the cott. She usually wakes up a bit but is okay to settle again if the timing is right. When in the cott she tends to prefer that I lean over near her for a while until she is snoozing with eyes closed. Sometimes with patting and a bit of shushing. Morning naps are easier. Around 3 months DD also preferred sleeping in my arms but I just gradually put her down more and more when drowsy and though we missed a couple of naps that way because she would wake up completely if I timed it wrong, she did eventually get the idea and at the four month mark she disliked being cuddled to sleep and preferred to lie down. That made me sad but gave me my arms back.. Having said all this it is still tough as her little arms flail around for ages and she dislikes me holding them down a lot of the time, so naps are still a difficult time and doing all the above she still misses the afternoon ones a lot. Still trying to figure out how much sleep she needs in the afternoons... <em>edited by sparkly on 20/08/2012</em>

My daughter is also 5mths and we struggle with her day time naps. She doesn't fall asleep by herself so it's a lot of rocking, singing, patting, ssssshing. And when she does finally sleep its for 15-45mins at most and won't settle back to sleep. The only way she will sleep for 1-2 hour stretch is in my arms, which is really not ideal. She goes down to sleep like an angel at bedtime though but even then she's up 3 time during the night. Does anyone do a day time nap routine before putting their LO down?

Ladies there is an application called baby connect that charts sleeping, feeding, medicine, diapers etc. It's fantasic and gives you graphs too. Costs about $5usd or equivalent from which ever app store you have for I-pads n I-phones. You can sync them too so if ur out you use phone... At home, use the pad. It's fantastic and can help note patterns with sleep. Pingu, will pm u when I get back thurs. No whatsapp here. Just txt. Hope some of these suggestions help. Not worth me putting my two bobs worth in, DS1 was a shocking sleeper, even still wakes once a night now at 2yrs 2mths. DS2 is better during day but nights he is still up anywhere between 2-4 times. Blah!

Hi Pingu, Our bubs are the same age almost, I started mapping bubs naps and night sleeps plus feeds on a print out I made in excel. I haven't started a routine or schedule, I am just purely going by her tired and hungry signs and seeing whether there is a pattern in her days and nights. She was sleeping 6:30 to 6:30 with a waking at 1/2 and then at 5ish at age 3mth. But then she changed up and reintroduced a 11pm waking around age 4 mth. Now she started waking at 9:30 or 10:00 which started the day Ramadan did, so I think the last prayer wakes her up as we have a lot of mosques around us. Currently she wakes at around 9:30, 1:30 and 4:30. So during the day she was taking 5 x 45 minute naps with a very very random 90 or 120 minute nap about once a week or month. Just this week she started to nap consistently 90 minutes for her first nap every morning. This was with no coaxing or resettling, just by watching her signs and she did the rest. I agree with Kiwispiers that resettling was a bit more of a hassle that it was worth as I started to try that around age 4 mth but it didn't stick and it was too much effort for me. I would only resettle if she woke up unhappy as if she didnt want to be up yet but as she usually wakes up with big cheesy grin resettling just doesn't seem necessary or possible!. If she is happy between naps then I knew things were ok. I knew she was going to join a nap like she did as she started to decrease her time between the two morning naps and in the end could only last about 30 - 45 minutes before she was ready to sleep again. It's really been a good little exercise to do this charting thing, as it has helped me understand her more. plus as Kiwispiers also mentioned i could understand her awake times to see what was happening there. I can send the chart to you if you think you might want to try it, to see what is going on, otherwise there is one in The Baby Sleep Book by Sears' that is similar. Also check this out, graph 3, a PhD study showing sleep pattern of one baby and how it changed over time. http://www.babysleepsite.com/baby-sleep-patterns/baby-sleep-pattern-chart/ This is similar to the chart I am doing but I add in feeding times too. edited by sparkly on 14/08/2012 <em>edited by sparkly on 14/08/2012</em>

mine had 4 45 min naps at that age, the only way I could get a longer nap was to go up and soothe him right before he was due to wake, if I was lucky I could get him back into the next sleep cycle. But tbh it was more hassle than it was worth as he was a happy wee boy anyway so I didn't bother and just dealt with the short naps. It could be worth trying to fiddle with the gaps between nap times to see if it makes any difference. By the time he was on two naps they had naturally lengthened to 90 min each and he has had a 3-4 hour single nap for the last year (from age 1-2) which thankfully he shows no sign of dropping!

My firstborn did the same thing. Some kids are good sleepers,some not so good. My second one made up for it. He is a great sleeper! Cant really give tips as you cant really change their biological setup. Some children just dont need as many naps or long naps as others. I have realised that you just tire yourself out mentally and physically if you want to change who they are.

Hi, I feel for you. My DS did the same thing, and I was starting to think my husband would think I was crazy, and not believe me, as my LO passed out for a good 13hr night sleep not long after my DH got home each night, and never cried in front of daddy. I decided on the SSHhhh pat cry it out method, as a last resort and it worked like a charm. (yes I realise I'm going to get crucified on here for letting him CIO). My LO took to it really well and never cried for more than a few minutes, as I never left him crying alone and always soothed him in his cot. So who knows, if Id had a screamer I might have caved and picked him up. I found white noise worked as well as shhhhing. A hair dryer (either real or on a white noise app) was our magic tool. We started with shhhhing and rubbing his belly to get him to nod off. Then just the shhhhing. Then shhhhing from across the room, then from the door, then from the hallway. You get the idea. In less than a week I could give him a kiss, walk out and turn on the hair dryer noise faintly outside his room and he was out like a light. You can also use the noise on an iPhone when travelling. He's been a brilliant little sleeper ever since. He didnt have a dummy at all (as I was scared Id loose them) and didnt need a bottle at all after he turned one. I never fed, rocked or cuddled him to sleep, as I knew when I went back to work, no one else would be able to do that for him consistently and it wouldn't be fair on him or his carer. We have a strict routine any time he goes to bed, he gets changed and into a grow bag, gets a story and then off to bed with teddy (that never leaves his cot). If he's ever upset or after travelling, I go back to the shhh pat again and would never leave him to cry on his own. Good luck, I hope this helps and you find something that works for you :)

I can't offer any advice, but just wanted to let you know DD was like this too. She slept for 45 mins at a time three times a day and that was that. She was just not one for daytime sleeping, but would do a solid 13hrs at night. Does he sleep uninterrupted during the night? If so, maybe, like DD, he is just not a daytime napper. If as you say, he is happy and content, and getting plenty of night time sleep, i'd be inclined not to worry too much. I'm sure others will have some good advice to follow. Good luck!