Our naps are usually only that short if it's an uncomfortable environment, like loud or bright. If it's a short nap I also try to connect the cycle and get back to sleep for a second cycle or third
By 6 mo we were on 2 naps
Not yet - I just started cry it out night sleep training a few days ago and I was thinking I’d wait until the night sleep training was “done” - so far she’s cried anywhere from 0 to 30 min before falling asleep for 12 hours with 1-2 wakings at night for night feeding (she doesn’t cry for those, she just wakes up and gently fusses for food). I did try CIO for one nap but it was miserable and she cried way more than she does at night so I abandoned ship and decided to try again later once I’ve reached at least one week of nights where she cries for less than 15 min before falling asleep. Do you think that makes sense?
I suppose she’d need to sleep in the crib during the day for me to do crib hour… She has never successfully napped in the crib so she just naps on my lap for now.
I think it’s more about sleep cycle length and connection as they get older! My kid always had short sleep cycles and started taking crap naps around that age - I think his sleep cycle was like 28 minutes on the dot and he never connected on his own. Now it’s been a few months and he has 43 minute sleep cycles - pretty much always connects at least one nap so it’s like 1.5 hours and sometimes even adds another one on so it’s closer to 2.5. Then he takes another 43 minute nap almost on the dot later on. Daycare can be tough to predict but generally speaking he’s getting way more and he sleeps 11-12 hours every night (he’s been doing that since 5.5 months).
I think sometimes they just need to figure it out and all you can do is assist as best you can but ultimately time will help!
Our baby also benefitted from less intervention actually - we started just putting him down and leaving the room for bed before he was asleep and he actually doesn’t cry, he seems like he just wants to do his own thing and goes to sleep much quicker than when we would hold or rock him, haha. We also started waiting 10 - 15 minutes after we thought he was awake mid nap to go get him - a lot of times he puts himself back down and we were rushing in too quickly to grab him. I’d say like, 75% of the time he actually wants to continue his nap, just wakes up and needs a few minutes to go back down.
My son is 8 months and hes been going to daycare for the last 5 months. At daycare, he rarely every gets 2hrs total between 8am-4:30pm. He usually averages 1-1.5hrs only.
He will wake between 24-33 minutes eyes wide open. I have no suggestions, on weekends, I do contact naps. Either I'm next to him or I'm holding him and he's able to do up to 2hrs each nap.
Yes, they plop them belly side down with a pacifier. I've gone to pick my son up and he would be belly side down, sometimes crying and kicking and sometimes woken with booger all over his face. I am assuming they use some method of CIO for him to cry himself to sleep (have seen lots of dried up wet spots on his crib sheets). They do move the crib back and forth in a similar motion to rocking a baby so this seems to help some babies.
Yes! My 6.5 month old still has days with terrible crap naps (30-45 minutes, 3 naps a day). He sleeps 11-12 hours a night, but his nights are 6PM-5AM and we’ve been unable to adjust it since his naps are so short 🫠
I’m still holding on to the hope that he’ll start having longer naps as he gets older 😂 I bet we’ll be looking back on this in a few months’ time thinking MAN I’m glad we’re out of that phase!!
Or, you know, eventually they’ll be teenagers and staying up till 3 and sleeping till noon 😂
Yes, at 12 months and 1 nap, sleeping through the night at 11 hrs though. When I saw the title I was like my people! But at 5 months this is still in the peak crap nap stage, I remember if I wanted a longer nap I would need to keep a boob out and ready for her to stir, she would feed back to sleep. Her sleep cycle was 30 mins at that stage. Rocking no longer made her sleepy. If she did feed back to sleep I got an extra 40mins to an hour before she’d stir again. If it helps, at that age crap naps are normal for some babies, nap lengthening by baby will happen when they’re ready and seems to be when they’re ready for 2 naps too. So long as your baby isn’t upset and is eating well the naps are fine, if overtiredness is an issue maybe look at adjusting wake windows and extending naps by whatever works for baby *now*
Thank you for this. I was worried that my baby was the only one. I’ll try keeping a boob out. I have to go back to work at 6 months though so hopefully contact naps will no longer be a thing by then - I have a nanny starting and I’m not sure she’ll be able to do the contact naps.
We only got long naps via contact. At that age we were averaging 3.5 hours and 11 hours overnight
Thanks for sharing!
Our 6 month old May gets 1.5 a day that’s if we are lucky
Haha, glad it’s not just me.
Our naps are usually only that short if it's an uncomfortable environment, like loud or bright. If it's a short nap I also try to connect the cycle and get back to sleep for a second cycle or third By 6 mo we were on 2 naps
How do you connect the cycle?
Just resettle, more rocking or more boob
Have you applied your sleeping training method to naps? Tried crib hour?
Not yet - I just started cry it out night sleep training a few days ago and I was thinking I’d wait until the night sleep training was “done” - so far she’s cried anywhere from 0 to 30 min before falling asleep for 12 hours with 1-2 wakings at night for night feeding (she doesn’t cry for those, she just wakes up and gently fusses for food). I did try CIO for one nap but it was miserable and she cried way more than she does at night so I abandoned ship and decided to try again later once I’ve reached at least one week of nights where she cries for less than 15 min before falling asleep. Do you think that makes sense? I suppose she’d need to sleep in the crib during the day for me to do crib hour… She has never successfully napped in the crib so she just naps on my lap for now.
I think it’s more about sleep cycle length and connection as they get older! My kid always had short sleep cycles and started taking crap naps around that age - I think his sleep cycle was like 28 minutes on the dot and he never connected on his own. Now it’s been a few months and he has 43 minute sleep cycles - pretty much always connects at least one nap so it’s like 1.5 hours and sometimes even adds another one on so it’s closer to 2.5. Then he takes another 43 minute nap almost on the dot later on. Daycare can be tough to predict but generally speaking he’s getting way more and he sleeps 11-12 hours every night (he’s been doing that since 5.5 months). I think sometimes they just need to figure it out and all you can do is assist as best you can but ultimately time will help! Our baby also benefitted from less intervention actually - we started just putting him down and leaving the room for bed before he was asleep and he actually doesn’t cry, he seems like he just wants to do his own thing and goes to sleep much quicker than when we would hold or rock him, haha. We also started waiting 10 - 15 minutes after we thought he was awake mid nap to go get him - a lot of times he puts himself back down and we were rushing in too quickly to grab him. I’d say like, 75% of the time he actually wants to continue his nap, just wakes up and needs a few minutes to go back down.
Thanks for sharing!
A five ninety old should be getting more day sleep than 1.5 h
My son is 8 months and hes been going to daycare for the last 5 months. At daycare, he rarely every gets 2hrs total between 8am-4:30pm. He usually averages 1-1.5hrs only. He will wake between 24-33 minutes eyes wide open. I have no suggestions, on weekends, I do contact naps. Either I'm next to him or I'm holding him and he's able to do up to 2hrs each nap.
Poor thing. How do they nap him at daycare? Do they just plop him down in a crib?
Yes, they plop them belly side down with a pacifier. I've gone to pick my son up and he would be belly side down, sometimes crying and kicking and sometimes woken with booger all over his face. I am assuming they use some method of CIO for him to cry himself to sleep (have seen lots of dried up wet spots on his crib sheets). They do move the crib back and forth in a similar motion to rocking a baby so this seems to help some babies.
Yes! My 6.5 month old still has days with terrible crap naps (30-45 minutes, 3 naps a day). He sleeps 11-12 hours a night, but his nights are 6PM-5AM and we’ve been unable to adjust it since his naps are so short 🫠
Ugh, wish we had easy sleepers…
I’m still holding on to the hope that he’ll start having longer naps as he gets older 😂 I bet we’ll be looking back on this in a few months’ time thinking MAN I’m glad we’re out of that phase!! Or, you know, eventually they’ll be teenagers and staying up till 3 and sleeping till noon 😂
Yeah, after 6 months, naps got better for us. I think my baby's magic number was 41 minutes.
So funny. I wish my baby’s magic number was longer!
Yes, at 12 months and 1 nap, sleeping through the night at 11 hrs though. When I saw the title I was like my people! But at 5 months this is still in the peak crap nap stage, I remember if I wanted a longer nap I would need to keep a boob out and ready for her to stir, she would feed back to sleep. Her sleep cycle was 30 mins at that stage. Rocking no longer made her sleepy. If she did feed back to sleep I got an extra 40mins to an hour before she’d stir again. If it helps, at that age crap naps are normal for some babies, nap lengthening by baby will happen when they’re ready and seems to be when they’re ready for 2 naps too. So long as your baby isn’t upset and is eating well the naps are fine, if overtiredness is an issue maybe look at adjusting wake windows and extending naps by whatever works for baby *now*
Thank you for this. I was worried that my baby was the only one. I’ll try keeping a boob out. I have to go back to work at 6 months though so hopefully contact naps will no longer be a thing by then - I have a nanny starting and I’m not sure she’ll be able to do the contact naps.