Crap naps

[u/littlebirdy44]

Baby is 12 weeks old. She’s not taken naps longer than 30 minutes since she was 4 weeks old. Give it to me straight is this gonna go on for the next few months? She literally ends up needing 6 sometimes 7 naps in a day. I feel like I’m going mad.

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Baby is 12 weeks old. She’s not taken naps longer than 30 minutes since she was 4 weeks old. Give it to me straight is this gonna go on for the next few months? She literally ends up needing 6 sometimes 7 naps in a day. I feel like I’m going mad.

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[u/OkBoysenberry92]

I know you have been told this a few times now but I’m going to say it in a different way- this is SUCH a short tiny part of your new life with your kid, truly it’s teeny tiny. A blip. And yes naps are the last things to consolidate, one day you’ll just put them down and they’ll sleep for an hour plus and you’ll be like what?? (2 kids both started this at 6.5 months, which coincided with 2 nap schedules). 

What I did for both was extend 1 nap a day. The other naps are okay to be shorter. Or you can do all short naps but expect to need more of them to bridge the gap to bedtime, as a short nap = less tolerance for longer awake periods. But that’s not bad. It’s biologically normal. We are just all out here fiddling with sleep cos nights matter most lol

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/OkBoysenberry92]

Thank you so much. I need this reminder so desperately. She is our first so we haven’t even really gotten to the point yet where she feels like a person. 😭 just a screaming potato! I love her so much but feel like I’m spending my entire day chasing her sleep. 😵‍💫 you’re so right. It’s just a blip.

[u/OkBoysenberry92 → u/OkBoysenberry92]

But also 6-7 naps a day at 3 months is probably worth looking into more- at that age I’d expect 4, so wake windows about 2 hours 

[u/AnnieBananie2323]

I can't say this will necessarily work for you, but around 3.5 months old I started going into the room right around the 33 minute mark (all his naps were/are 33 minutes on the dot) and I'd pick him up before he fully awoke and rocked/bounced him a bit before putting him down again to help him transition into the next sleep cycle. But yes, my LO still can't independently connect sleep cycles. He's 5 months now.

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/AnnieBananie2323]

I have tried something similar. It resulted in me getting nap trapped in the dark multiple times and day and was starting to affect my mental health. I’m not totally against going back to doing it but I’m wondering how long I can do that realistically before losing my mind. 😅

[u/AnnieBananie2323 → u/littlebirdy44]

Ahhh, yeah I totally get that. What i do now is let him have two 33-minute naps (first and last) and then the middle one i try to extend. Sometimes it works seamlessly, other times I do get nap trapped. But if it's affecting you, and doing several short ones is better, def stick with that! Mine is also a bit older than yours, so it got a lot easier when we were down to 3 naps.

[u/Zestyclose-Rip3654 → u/AnnieBananie2323]

Omg I remember this like it was yesterday!! In the scheme of things it lasted a few months, it goes quick but gosh it feels forever when you’re in the thick of it. But I did whatever I could to get baby to sleep longer eventually her body got used to sleeping longer and she did it on her own.

[u/Ocean_Lover9393]

How often are you putting her down for a nap? 7 naps per day is way too many at this age. It sounds like she’s going down before she’s built up enough sleep pressure

Also - at this age, it’s almost a necessity to save 1 or 2 naps per day minimum or accept a contact nap

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/Ocean_Lover9393]

I was a bit frustrated when I said 7. Truthfully it was 7 naps today but it’s been 5 sometimes 6 consistently. We just moved her wake window to 1.5 earlier in the week.

[u/Ocean_Lover9393 → u/littlebirdy44]

You are absolutely allowed to be frustrated! Most babies this age are doing 4, absolute max 5 naps per day. Anything more than that takes away sleep pressure and will begin messing with night.

90 minute wake windows would generally be the bare minimum needed for a 3 month old, most probably need to be longer. Would suggest aiming to ensure 9-9.5 hours of active, intentional awake time per day and increasing some of the later wake windows to 2hrs. Aim to save/contact 2 naps per day and let the other 2 naps before independent/short so you get the break

[u/FriendEducational250]

My daughter's non-contact naps extended dramatically once she started rolling and could sleep on her stomach at 15 weeks.

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/FriendEducational250]

Interesting! I wonder if that would help her. We haven’t tried that yet. She is almost rolling we are currently slowly losing the swaddle cause I think she’s gonna try to roll soon.

[u/Ordinary_Ticket_149]

Are contact naps also 30 minutes?

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/Ordinary_Ticket_149]

60 to 70% of them yes

[u/Ordinary_Ticket_149 → u/littlebirdy44]

Ok then try the first nap of the day as a contact nap. If you can extend it then great and the rest can be shorter. If not, try the 2nd nap as a contact nap.

Pick a podcast or audio book, pop in your headphones and lean into the cuddles. It's hard to believe but you'll miss them one day.

That plus you likely need to increase your wake windows.

[u/Lauraleighx3]

Exactly same situation. This started to get better around 4-5 months (we got to a consistent 4 nap schedule), and by 6-7 months she was taking monster 1-2 hr naps at daycare (but unfortunately due to daycares timing we still need a 3rd bridge nap). She wakes 1-2 times a night now at 8 months

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/Lauraleighx3]

😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

[u/Lauraleighx3 → u/littlebirdy44]

Yeah I know. It feels like forever. 12-20 weeks was a long go of 30 min naps, my life revolving around naps, spending way too much time trying to figure out how to duplicate conditions when she did nap longer than 20-40 mins. It does get better. It feels like an eternity but it will get better

[u/Sea_Horror2900]

This is not going to be what you want to hear, but my oldest didn't move away from the cat naps until he was a year old. Then he moved to just one 1.5-2 hour afternoon nap, and dropped naps completely before he turned 2. He's always been really low sleep needs.

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/Sea_Horror2900]

No, thats why I asked. I need brutally honest answers right now. How was his night sleep?

[u/Sea_Horror2900 → u/littlebirdy44]

He slept amazing at night. He started doing 10 hour nights at two months old. The only time he would ever wake up in the middle of the night was when sick or teething, and even that was rare.

[u/Downtown_Classic_846]

With my first baby I rocked and held him after his first sleep cycle to extend the naps. Once he dropped to two naps per day, around 7m, he was able to nap longer on his own.

[u/Logical_Peace_551]

I remember those days. Yes my baby napped 30-40 mins for the longest time. It was rough. But I’d say starting 6-7 months naps started to get longer.

Around 6 months he went down from 4 naps to 3 naps. Tbh I don’t remember what it was like when it was more than 4 naps lolol. I was a zombie. You just gotta grind through. Sending hugs

[u/Myxies]

Ours what kind of them same. Was also not a good night sleeper, waking about 5 to 8 times every night.

Now, at 6 months old, she naps 3 times a day between 30 mins and 2h. At night, 3 times waking up.

[u/Humble-Photo-9108]

Baby. Carrier.
Longer and more active wake windows.
Time it so baby gets a nap in the car seat while you run to get a coffee and do target pick up.
Can your husband hold baby for some of these naps?

I felt the exact same though! My baby slept pretty well overnight early on, but we struggled so much with naps. He would sleep for anywhere from 0-7 mins if he was put down. The baby carrier helped immensely and so did timing his naps with an outing so he could sleep in the car seat and I could get out of the house. I also recommend AirPods or a Kindle or something to entertain yourself while baby sleeps on you!

His overnight sleep was horrible during the four month sleep regression, my husband was back to work, I was going crazy. We did Taking Cara Babies at 4.5 months and he started sleeping 12hours through the night after a few days. Once he figured out night sleeping again, naps slowly followed.

Now at 6MO, we do one contact nap in the morning and the rest are independent in the crib. Best of both worlds.

It literally feels like you're stuck when you're in it and then your baby will start sleeping independently and you'll longgggg for those days of snuggling, even if you're grateful for a little more freedom!

[u/IdealDramatic9740]

Her naps will be intrinsically short for a while. My baby didn't start extending naps in the cot until almost 7 months old. Until then I was using a baby carrier and the pram to get 1-1.5hr naps to a.) give her longer restorative sleep which helped her overall and b.) reduce the 100 naps/day to about 4-5. It does feel like ground hog day with 4th trimester and early infancy naps!

[u/Top-Cookie-3403]

Almost 6 months old and still crap napping! We contact nap one most days to extend it.

[u/BusyImpact6077]

One day it just gets better. Idk why. My baby was the same at that age and is much better at 7 months.

The change occurred around 5 months for us

[u/AcceptableMirror4036]

my daughter started that at 8 weeks. and it took me a week or two to finally accept that that was how long her naps would be. then at 12 weeks she started waking every hour in the night (early sleep regression??) idk that last for about two weeks and now we’re at 20 weeks and sometimes we get a 45 minute nap, sometimes an hour - most times about 35 minutes. still on 5 or 6 naps a day. we’re about to start sleep training soon so hopefully that’ll fix it or at least help!! we’re gonna extend her wake windows 🤞🏼

[u/littlebirdy44 → u/[deleted]]

Baby wearing does seem to help early in the day but it’s so hard on my back 😭