Anyone Else's Baby Taking Short Naps?!

Thanks for this post. I have a 12 week old who is taking 45 minute naps and have been/am trying the various ways of teaching him to self-soothe (Babywise, Healthy Sleep etc.). He has been doing this for about 4 weeks. I honestly think he doesn't need 15 hours of sleep. He started sleeping through the night last week, so I really don't want to complain. I agree with the post that reminds us that nap times vary from baby to baby and from age to age. I basically try to continue the nap if he is fussy, but if he wakes up happy (which is usually the case in the morning), I get him up.

Anyways, thanks for letting me know that I am not out there alone.

I would not worry so much about it. The fact that she sleeps thru the night is a godsend. My son still does not at 16 months and only naps once a day for about an hour. Everything I have read recomends 12-15 hours of sleep which your daughter is getting

I don't know what to do either! My daughter is 3 months old and has been taking 30-45 minute naps for weeks it seems. Usually she sleeps for 1.5-2.5 hours each nap. She too is sleeping thru the nite so i can't complain. She is also a pretty happy baby despite the lack of sleep. Except when i finally got her in front of the camera for her 3 month pic...then she started fussing, lol. I hope this is a phase and she will start back with longer naps soon. Good Luck!

your not alone! mine is 10 months now but will still only take 1 nap a day sometimes and even then it's not guaranteed to be a long one, like 45 min to 2 hrs, so I never know! she is fine though, starting to walk and get into everything like she is supposed to, so try not to worry too much and enjoy the night time sleep :)

Your baby might already be growing out of naps. My daughter did, she was down to only one nap a day by 7 months, and by a year she had given up naps altogether. She's now 8 1/2 years old and still sees to require less sleep than most kids. Your daughter might be smiliar to mine in how much sleep she needs. As long as she's setting the time of her naps and doesn't seem exhausted, I think she's okay. She might start napping longer again once she's walking and burning more energy, but then again she may not. Good luck.

My litle girl is 8 months old and started taking shorter naps about a month ago. They are usually about 30-45 minutes. She is not fussy either. I read in one of my parenting books that its ok. I also asked her pediatrician. He said as long as she is getting 12-14 hours of sleep, then that is plenty. My daughter sleeps about 12 hours every night and takes about 2 naps a day. Also when my daughter wakes from her naps after 30 minutes I leave her in there and she goes back to sleep for at least 30 more minutes. I just started that about a week ago and it seems to be working!

She is most likely going through a growing spurt, which can happen when a child does this. You might want to make her activity day a little more active in playing more and she might sleep longer. If she is sleeping throughout the night nothing is wrong with her. How long has the pacifier been out?

I have also used Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child, in addition to Baby Wise. I was just reading up in Babywise on the 45-minute intruder for you. The book states this occurs mainly at 7-8 weeks and at 4 months of age. So no mention of 7 months. So this advice may or may not be applicable. They noted that the 45 minute intruder occurs if your baby wakes out of a sound sleep with a strong cry. They feel it may be because her sleep schedule has been interupted from going to sleep too late or a hectic morning OR because she is hungry, even if the last feeding was a full feeding. They said to treat it as a hunger issue rather than a sleep problem They advised that if she is breastfeeding check the quality of your diet, fluid intake and rest or if she is taking formula and solids, increase her intake. Hope this might help.

K.

My now 7 month old has never napped more than 45 minutes in his entire life. I've read every book and spoke to more than one "expert" (Dr.s, midwives, child care professionals, OT, etc.). They ALL say that some kids take long naps and others don't and that there's little you can do to force or coax your child to take longer naps. The only piece of advice I consistently received that seemed to have any research backing it was to avoid caffeine if you're breastfeeding - which can obviously keep the baby awake if consumed in inappropriate amounts.

My son took really short naps too. It wasn't until he was down to one nap later on that the nap got longer. I just don't think there are any hard and fast rules as to how long kids should nap, so for me it was hard to do any "sleep training" regarding naps... beyond keeping them as regular as possible. If she not cranky and doing well at night, I'm not sure I'd change anything.

My daughter ALWAYS took short naps until she was about 2 1/2. She took 3 - 30 minute naps. It turned into a joke in our house. We would look at the clock when she fell asleep and exactly 30 minutes later she would wake up, 30 minutes to the second at times. I had friends who would say they didn't know how I got anything done because she was always awake. But, she would sleep 12 hours at night and was happy during the day. I also tried to take away her evening nap to see if it would help and it didn't. It finally got better when she was about 2 1/2 and was taking one nap during the day. She just turned 3 and is still taking a 2 hour nap during the day 2:00 - 4:00. Hang in there! It will get better! I know you want those long naps and they will come. Don't stress out too much about it. If she is happy (most of the time) and sleeping at night, she will be just fine.

My daughter did this at that same age--it lasted a couple of months and then disappeared on it's own. I also followed Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, which did work eventually to produce a (now) great sleeper. Babies reorganize their sleep patterns frequently and that is what I think is happenening at this age. My daughter at 7 months slept as follows: nighttime 7:30pm-7am. Nap 8:30-9:15, 12:00-12:45, 3:30-4:15. At about 10 months, she totally changed things on us and slept at night from 6:30pm-5:00am with naps: 8-10:30am and 1:30-2:15pm. Then, around 14 months she got on her regular schedule (she is 2 now) and she sleeps from 8-6at night and naps from 12-2:30 during the day. Hope this helps. Just keep following the book and she'll get there. If she seems happy, she's fine. Don't make yourself crazy over it like i did--it seemed as though as soon as I stopped stressing over it, things fixed themselves. Good luck--I know how badly you want those long naps (believe me--I DO!)--I promise they WILL come!