Can We Talk Naps?

[westiemom]

I have questions. If you have questions, ask away!

DD's morning nap used to be a solid 1.5 hours. This past week, it's more like 45 mins. I don't get her up until the hour mark but she doesn't go back to sleep. She just lays in her crib cooing and talking. Lol

Is 45 mins a normal nap? It feels too short for me! I can't drink my coffee and get dressed in 45 mins! Lol

What is everyone's overall daily nap schedule now?

[k3am]

docs.google.com/document/d/1Vf0qfImzm0d_-Zq2gbxVCKRVPtfx63OSPUqPXeVmLBg/edit?usp=sharing

See if that link works. A friend sent it to me before we had DD.

[aaemommy]

Cam's naps have never been as long as A took. By this point, A was taking 2 solid naps (1.5-2 hours) and 1 late afternoon catnap- half hour give or take. Usually that one was snuggled on me after we got home from work/ daycare. Cam takes 3 short (45 min-1 hour) naps at daycare, and a short 20-30 min catnap in the car. He seems to be ok with this nap routine but it drives me nuts on the weekends! It's like I can't get anything done in that short amount of time and we can't ever go anywhere without dealing with a tired cranky baby! It's worse than dealing with the feeding schedule lol

[teraiin]

I had this really long post but PB ate it.

The short version. DS gets 3-4 naps a day depending on when he wakes up. Usually at least one of the naps is only 30-45 minutes long. Most are 1.5-2 hours. Sometimes he takes small cat naps after nursing.

I was worried because he's been sleeping later. He used to be up at 6:30 no matter what now he's often still snoozing at 9:30 or later. But the link k3am posted looks like it says it's not uncommon for babies to need 12+ hours of sleep at 4 months of age.

The reason why I was worried is that I was snuggling him in the recliner for the last couple of hours so I was wondering if I was "forcing" longer sleep which is sort of silly because as we know a baby who doesn't want to sleep won't. But with his new rocking and cuddling strike he's still consistently sleeping later.

Not sure if any of this helps.

Things I need to do better at:
Having him nap in his crib only
Not rushing in immediately when he stirs

I've also sort of let him lead his nap time since I SAHM but I'm wondering if I should be encouraging a more precise nap time...

[babycaps]

Around 4mo DS1 settled into 45-90min morning naps, 2hr afternoon nap and 20min cat nap in evening (dropped that around 8mo).

[Deleted]

Ridley gets one or two morning naps about 45-90 minutes, one or two afternoon naps with one of them being closer to 1.5-2 hours (though this has been iffy lately), and then a nighttime catnap before going to bed for the night. She's awake a lot more in the evenings than any other time if day.

[babycaps]

Right now, LO sleeps about 14hrs at night, with 3 wakeups.

[fishbulb]

According to that table, A should be getting about 4.5 hours of total nap time, which she spreads over about 4 naps each day. Most of her naps are in the 45-60 minute range, so we're pretty close to the recommendation.

[snoris]

Baby I naturally takes a shorter morning nap (20-45 min) around 9 or 10. His big nap is in the afternoon, usually 2 hours at 1 or 2. On occasion he will add in a dinner time nap and on even rarer occasion a lunch time nap. Presumably if his morning nap was interrupted. He sleeps 8:30-7:30 pretty consistently and wakes up around 3:30 for a snack sometimes. This is all baby led. Funny how close it is to yours babycaps!!! Many paths to the same place.

[babycaps]

snoris, ours was very baby-led too! I follow his cues on tiredness. Now how he actually falls asleep is a little different than baby I, I believe!
He naturally has put himself on this schedule though.

[westiemom]

k3am I love this chart! Looks like we are doing ok with naps after all. Awesome! I'm going to start waiting 10 mins to respond at night to see if that helps me decrease the amount of times I feed. Thanks for sharing!

[babycaps]

I love the chart, but I struggle with ending naps by 4:30. That's actually exactly when he takes his evening cat nap and it IS indeed messing his bed time, but we can't seem to get him to nap earlier. I'm giving it a few more weeks though. His morning and afternoon nap are totally out of whack this past week given me coming back to work and so horribly making the nanny thing I didn't want him swaddled for naps! my bad!!

[ellesea]

We have no discernible schedule. We're always busy so I have no clue how long his naps are. I know that he does 3-4 a day, ranging from 45mins-2hrs. He just started napping longer.. like this weekend. But he is going to be waking up from his last nap very soon. Likely before 4:30. I don't know that he can stay up until 7. He usually cat naps while I make dinner for 20 minutes or so and he's still ready for bed at 7:15.

[tincupchalice]

One morning nap, 30-60 minutes. A long midday nap (1-3h), sometimes with a break in the middle for a snack. Considerately timed with DS1's nap. An afternoon catnap or two, 30-45 minutes. If I time it right, while I eat dinner.

[k3am]

babycaps, there is NO one sized fit all charts.. every baby and every family routine is different.

[snoris]

Sept 12, 2016 12:27:08 GMT -5 babycaps said:

snoris, ours was very baby-led too! I follow his cues on tiredness. Now how he actually falls asleep is a little different than baby I, I believe!
He naturally has put himself on this schedule though.

😳🤐😬 I had a misconception about your sleep.

[babycaps]

Sept 12, 2016 15:07:49 GMT -5 @frenchtoast said:

babycaps we end naps by 5:00 (or as close to that as possible) and it hasn't messed with bedtime for DS when he was younger or DD now. It's actually what our sleep consultant recommended. 4:00/4:15-5:00

Yeah!! Today actually worked out. He napped from 445-520 and was back asleep by 7pm. I think that will work!!

[mrssqueegy]

Thanks for that link k3am. I used it with DS1 but had forgotten about it for DS2.

We had a good nap day with 3 naps in the crib and 1 in the wrap at Costco. I wish we could get better about putting him down awake.

[jbeans27]

Sept 12, 2016 10:57:48 GMT -5 aaemommy said:

Cam's naps have never been as long as A took. By this point, A was taking 2 solid naps (1.5-2 hours) and 1 late afternoon catnap- half hour give or take. Usually that one was snuggled on me after we got home from work/ daycare. Cam takes 3 short (45 min-1 hour) naps at daycare, and a short 20-30 min catnap in the car. He seems to be ok with this nap routine but it drives me nuts on the weekends! It's like I can't get anything done in that short amount of time and we can't ever go anywhere without dealing with a tired cranky baby! It's worse than dealing with the feeding schedule lol

We have a very similar nap sched right now but luckily M naps okay (or better) on the go. By this time DS had two solid 1.5 - 2 hour naps and an evening cat nap but was a crap night time sleeper sooo... I'll take the 3 short naps and decent night time sleep I guess.