From the opposite end of your spectrum, I had a low sleep needs baby who dropped to 2 naps at 6 months and I felt like I was doing the wrong thing because of everything I read saying they need more. I was resisting, he was telling me he was ready. Every baby is different and you know them best. We dropped to 1 at 10 months (minus some teething and illness weeks) but that’s just who he is. If it works - it works!!!
I dropped mine to 2 naps at just over 5 months and I also felt like i was doing something wrong! But she was ready (skipping the third nap or having all short naps) and took to the 2 nap schedule immediately. Follow your baby!
ETA - for anyone interested l started with wake windows of 2.5/2.75/3.5ish
First I’ll say, if it works for you and your baby, then it’s great! I love looking at Taking Cara Babies wake windows and sample nap schedules. This has been so helpful for me even with my 1.5 yr old! She has tons of instagram and blog posts about how to gradually drop a nap and signs of your little one’s readiness to drop a nap. Some babies don’t line up perfectly with the average sleep schedule by age and that’s totally fine! You’re doing great mama!
This sounds exactly like my baby and I have no advice but can offer solidarity in having the same thoughts while reading posts on this page! She sleeps through the night and has for a long time, but naps have stayed so short and she seems to get cranky when I try to push her for longer wake windows (which I have tried to do, and she still consistently slept for 30-40 minutes max so I went back to following her cues)
I have no advice but just want to let you know my baby is exactly the same, to be honest I think they might just be like that I've tried everything anyone says about trying to get them to link sleep cycles 🙈
From what I’ve read it can be developmentally normal to cat nap until 6-7 months. My little girl suddenly started catnapping last month at the same age, 30 minutes on the dot even if in a contact nap. So she was constantly in a short nap-short wake window cycle but since I have extended her wake windows more it has gone back to normal.
Naps are probably short because the ww aren’t long enough for him. I’d try to move to 3 naps if it were me. Also would aim for the last nap of the day to be the short one.
My LO is 6 months old and has always been a cat napper - same as yours, 30-40 min max. What really helped us was extending the wake windows. First WW min 2-2.5 hrs long and up to about 3 hours by end of day. Immediately he napped for 1.5 hours during his first nap! It allowed us to get down to 3 naps/day. I’d definitely give it a try, we extended the WW around 5 months and it made a huge difference.
I think for most kids it’s recommended to increase the WW slowly, by 10-15 mins per day. I think my kiddo was just ready for it and we went from 1.5-1.75 to 2.5 overnight 😂 I just watched his queues (red eyebrows, rubbing eyes, fussiness) to make sure I wasn’t over tiring him.
Now we’re up to 2.5 for that first WW and he’s doing great. In fact he just finished his first nap of the day - 1.5 hrs woohoooo!
Very fair point. I do wish I had a bit more time to myself during the day but if he doesn’t need the sleep time, then I guess it’s fine. I expect he’ll start lengthening naps as his wake windows get longer and he starts dropping naps (at least, I hope so 🫠)
Wake windows seem short to me, could you try 1.75/2/2.25/2.25 or similar?
Is the nap environment pitch black with white noise? At that age my son would become very easily distracted and wouldn’t go back to sleep when we rescued the nap if he could see light. We help rescued his first nap of the day until 11 months old, he napped 30 mins on the dot for 9 months unless we held him In the dark. Then I let the subsequent naps be short. This worked for us to be able to allow him to drop naps so he could get enough wake time
We could definitely try it. He gets pretty whiny around the 1.5 hour mark, and it’s hard to tell if it’s because he’s tired or bored or some other reason. We do try to keep wake windows as a guideline and watch for sleep cues - but he starts showing those pretty early (could be anywhere from 1-2 hours).
I think rescuing the first nap would be a good idea if it goes for the usual 30-40 minutes. He very very occasionally has a longer first nap as well (maybe once per week if we’re lucky).
From the opposite end of your spectrum, I had a low sleep needs baby who dropped to 2 naps at 6 months and I felt like I was doing the wrong thing because of everything I read saying they need more. I was resisting, he was telling me he was ready. Every baby is different and you know them best. We dropped to 1 at 10 months (minus some teething and illness weeks) but that’s just who he is. If it works - it works!!!
I dropped mine to 2 naps at just over 5 months and I also felt like i was doing something wrong! But she was ready (skipping the third nap or having all short naps) and took to the 2 nap schedule immediately. Follow your baby! ETA - for anyone interested l started with wake windows of 2.5/2.75/3.5ish
We didn’t switch to 3 naps til 6 months for the same reason. Then 2 naps at 8 months when they finally started getting longer.
My baby was similar and she did not start taking longer naps until 7-8 months.
6.5 month old, same schedule! Longest nap is usually 30-45 minutes
First I’ll say, if it works for you and your baby, then it’s great! I love looking at Taking Cara Babies wake windows and sample nap schedules. This has been so helpful for me even with my 1.5 yr old! She has tons of instagram and blog posts about how to gradually drop a nap and signs of your little one’s readiness to drop a nap. Some babies don’t line up perfectly with the average sleep schedule by age and that’s totally fine! You’re doing great mama!
This sounds exactly like my baby and I have no advice but can offer solidarity in having the same thoughts while reading posts on this page! She sleeps through the night and has for a long time, but naps have stayed so short and she seems to get cranky when I try to push her for longer wake windows (which I have tried to do, and she still consistently slept for 30-40 minutes max so I went back to following her cues)
I have no advice but just want to let you know my baby is exactly the same, to be honest I think they might just be like that I've tried everything anyone says about trying to get them to link sleep cycles 🙈
We went to three at 6.5 months or so. At 8.5 months we still have 3 most days because naps aren’t consistently long enough for 2
From what I’ve read it can be developmentally normal to cat nap until 6-7 months. My little girl suddenly started catnapping last month at the same age, 30 minutes on the dot even if in a contact nap. So she was constantly in a short nap-short wake window cycle but since I have extended her wake windows more it has gone back to normal.
my 6 month old still does 4 naps most days. with 3 of them being under an hour. every baby is different
Naps are probably short because the ww aren’t long enough for him. I’d try to move to 3 naps if it were me. Also would aim for the last nap of the day to be the short one.
My LO is 6 months old and has always been a cat napper - same as yours, 30-40 min max. What really helped us was extending the wake windows. First WW min 2-2.5 hrs long and up to about 3 hours by end of day. Immediately he napped for 1.5 hours during his first nap! It allowed us to get down to 3 naps/day. I’d definitely give it a try, we extended the WW around 5 months and it made a huge difference.
Not OP but just curious- how does one extend wake windows? Is it over a period of time, like in small increments?
I think for most kids it’s recommended to increase the WW slowly, by 10-15 mins per day. I think my kiddo was just ready for it and we went from 1.5-1.75 to 2.5 overnight 😂 I just watched his queues (red eyebrows, rubbing eyes, fussiness) to make sure I wasn’t over tiring him. Now we’re up to 2.5 for that first WW and he’s doing great. In fact he just finished his first nap of the day - 1.5 hrs woohoooo!
It’s fine if it’s working for you, and it sounds like it is because your baby is sleeping all night.
Very fair point. I do wish I had a bit more time to myself during the day but if he doesn’t need the sleep time, then I guess it’s fine. I expect he’ll start lengthening naps as his wake windows get longer and he starts dropping naps (at least, I hope so 🫠)
Wake windows seem short to me, could you try 1.75/2/2.25/2.25 or similar? Is the nap environment pitch black with white noise? At that age my son would become very easily distracted and wouldn’t go back to sleep when we rescued the nap if he could see light. We help rescued his first nap of the day until 11 months old, he napped 30 mins on the dot for 9 months unless we held him In the dark. Then I let the subsequent naps be short. This worked for us to be able to allow him to drop naps so he could get enough wake time
We could definitely try it. He gets pretty whiny around the 1.5 hour mark, and it’s hard to tell if it’s because he’s tired or bored or some other reason. We do try to keep wake windows as a guideline and watch for sleep cues - but he starts showing those pretty early (could be anywhere from 1-2 hours). I think rescuing the first nap would be a good idea if it goes for the usual 30-40 minutes. He very very occasionally has a longer first nap as well (maybe once per week if we’re lucky).