45 minute naps... aargh!

**Bluest Blue Box** · 25-06-2011 11:43

I have a 12 week old that has 45 minute naps all day. He usually crashes in my arms at 8pm and I hold him until he gets up around 11pm at which point I feed him again and put him in his bassinet. He then sleeps through to 5 and down again after a feed to 7.

Are his short naps during the day normal? I've tried giving him a top up before, going in at 35 minutes and trying to resettle before he's fully awake, wearing him in an ergo, with no luck. He's usually up for 1 1/2 hours before showing tired signs.

Had anyone been successful at getting longer naps? I'm going insane trying to get things done in the short amounts of time I have to myself.

**themissingpiece** · 25-06-2011 11:56

Sorry to say but both my bubs were like this and nothing I did ever helped, and believe me I tried!
For DD it took til she was 9 months to do longer sleeps during day and for DS he was 8 months. It meant my two always had more sleeps per day than the books say is normal, but this was because they would only have 40-45 mins.
It might help you to read some info on the net about sleep cycles to understand why. I could watch a click and know the minute my bubs would wake. It's not ideal I'm hearing you, but there was no way I was going through hours of controlled crying to get my kids to have linger sleeps. They just did it in their own time and hopefully that happens sooner rather than later for you and your bub!

Ps I'm jealous you are getting a 6 hr stint of sleep at night! Hold onto that as a positive!

**Hollywood** · 25-06-2011 12:20

My advice is to stop reading books that tell you "babies should have X amount of sleep for naps" and such stuff. Some babies will just fall into their own natural patterns of sleep, and in due time they will sleep longer if they need it. DS was a catnapper at that age too, never slept more than 45 minutes at a time (the length of one sleep cycle). Just go with the flow at this age and enjoy the awake time with your little bubba.

**Me&MrMagoo** · 25-06-2011 12:41

Originally Posted by LG

My advice is to stop reading books that tell you "babies should have X amount of sleep for naps" and such stuff. Some babies will just fall into their own natural patterns of sleep, and in due time they will sleep longer if they need it. DS was a catnapper at that age too, never slept more than 45 minutes at a time (the length of one sleep cycle). Just go with the flow at this age and enjoy the awake time with your little bubba.

Yup, I agree ... I drove myself batty trying to get Ds to sleep longer than 45 minutes ... But in the end he started doing it himself as he got closer to one year old ...

* end of transmission *

**bumMum** · 25-06-2011 12:47

I don't think you can change it. My ds did this for ages! When he got older he began to stretch out the sleeps more, to up to an hour and a half. I remember the frustration of cat naps

**FearlessLeader** · 25-06-2011 12:50

well, i know that some babies won't change, and some babies only need that much, but if you think your baby needs more sleep, it's definitely worth a try

try elizabeth pantley's no cry nap solution or jo ryan's baby bliss. Baby bliss worked for my DS, he went from 40 min naps to 2 hour naps, it took about a month of persistence and NO controlled crying. There's a middle ground, it's not 'just deal with sleepless baby' or 'leave them to cry'

**trishalishous** · 25-06-2011 12:57

DD catnapped too, but slept better once she got to 12 months.
Hes sleeping GREAT over night - 11-5 is an AWESOME stretch!

**davally** · 25-06-2011 12:58

Originally Posted by themissingpiece

Sorry to say but both my bubs were like this and nothing I did ever helped, and believe me I tried!
For DD it took til she was 9 months to do longer sleeps during day and for DS he was 8 months. It meant my two always had more sleeps per day than the books say is normal, but this was because they would only have 40-45 mins.
It might help you to read some info on the net about sleep cycles to understand why. I could watch a click and know the minute my bubs would wake. It's not ideal I'm hearing you, but there was no way I was going through hours of controlled crying to get my kids to have linger sleeps. They just did it in their own time and hopefully that happens sooner rather than later for you and your bub!

Ps I'm jealous you are getting a 6 hr stint of sleep at night! Hold onto that as a positive!

Could have almost written this myself (except I only have one child).

I know it might not be what you want to hear but it sounds normal to me. At 12 weeks DS was feeding every 2 hours or so and overnight I would get one longer sleep between 8 pm and midnight/1 am and that was it. A six hour sleep stint was unheard of till DS was about 7-8 months.

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**moonsmum** · 25-06-2011 15:09

another mum to catnappers here.

It's frustrating isnt it? My ds got into the habit of longer sleeps after a couple of months of resettling think he was about 6 months. dd on the other hand is nearly 7 and is worse!!!! she will go back to sleep if i put her in the pram, so for one of her 2 sleeps i put her in the pram after her 30-40 mins sleep and rock it and she goes back off (which is where she is right now).... your ds sounds jus like her........ i used to hold her from 7.30-10.30 and not b able to move while she cluster fed/slept in my arms but she would then sleep til 4am and then again til 8am..... now she barely goes more than 2 hrs!!!! we have tried everything but oh well some kids are just not good sleepers as babies........ I'm hoping she gets better soon.....enjoy the 6hr block you are getting and dont worry about the catnaps.

**Eco Goddess** · 25-06-2011 15:55

My DS did this for quite a while and it was frustrating! I kept to trying to change it, but ended up embracing it and we were all much happier. Since about 8 months he has been having 1.5hr naps and now usually has one 2hr+ nap! So there is hope