How many naps does your baby take during the day?
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at
5:46 pm
Our baby is 6 months old. We’re having sleep troubles with him. He is snack napping during the day. He takes 3 20 minute naps and by bed time he is so tired he screams for 30+ minutes before he finally falls asleep. It’s quite a project getting him to bed…
How do your babies sleep during the day? Any suggestions to get mine to sleep just a little longer during the day?
We have a routine. Bed time is the same time and place daily. He knows it is sleepy time too. His dead give away is rubbing his eyes.
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My son did that when he was 4(ish) months old. So exhausting! I completely sympathize and empathize with you!
The best thing to do is to keep a consistent routine during the day, and to make predictable nap times for him. Babies are comforted by routine and predictability (this isn’t to say that you have to be strict about it, just be consistent) Read his sleepy signs — as soon as he yawns or rubs his eyes, take him and give him a bottle or nurse him (or whatever you do before nap) and put him to bed. Make sure his room is dark (I found that out the hard way), you can get some cheap black out blinds which work wonders. Put a fan in his room (if he doesn’t already have one) to block out household sounds. When he wakes up, let him cry for a little while and see if he’ll go back to sleep! I remember when my son was a little older, if he woke up too early I could get away with nursing him again and putting him back down.
At 6 months, my son was taking a nap an hour after he got up in the morning, and then every 2 hours after that and he was in bed (his choice) by 7.
Good luck to you!
My son is nine months old and he takes two naps during the day. ONe midmorning lasting 2 hours and one early afternoon for about one hour. When his naps were shorter, I tried to attend to him right away and nurse him and some times he would settle back down. I tr to keep the times the same and finish the last nap at least 3 hours before bed time.
My son just turned 6 months. He tends to sleep for two two hour naps during the day (2 hours after he wakes up and some time around 4pm or so). We had a really impossible time getting him to sleep at first, so we started wearing him in a soft baby carrier. That really helped get him to sleep. It also helped to take him out for a walk in a stroller. Once he gets in the routine of sleeping during the day, he should be able to do it without being worn or walked. It also helped to give him a comfort object– in our case a glowing musical seahorse that we ordered from Amazon. We give it to him at night and whenever we want him to have a nap. He’s learned to associate it with nap/sleep time, and actually starts yawning when we turn the music on now! Try nursing/feeding him until he’s dozy, then rocking him to sleep, too!
Good luck!
Different everyday.
Sometimes 2, sometimes 1, sometimes none.
Usually a nap about 2 hours after waking, and then another one around the afternoon or so…but it all just depends..
give him a bath and a massage before he goes to bed at night and try to settle him during the day after his bottle/feed snuggle into him with a book this should make him sleepy and will eventually he will associate a bottle and a book as nap time,
My son is 4 months old, and he usually takes one big nap in the morning and one big one in the afternoon. And between those, he takes cat naps here and there.
My daughter was a great napper (2-3 hrs. each time), but my son was the opposite. He did 30-min. naps & I’ve heard some kids do that. After he was 1, I think, he started sleeping longer. Hopefully yours will change too.
In the meantime, are you putting him down just before he’s sleepy or after he falls asleep? It may be b/c he’s not falling to sleep on his own & he can’t soothe himself back to sleep when he momentarily wakes up. Is it too quiet in the house? I usually put on tv or music in the background so they’re used to continuous noise. Sometimes when the house is noisy, then the baby goes to sleep, then it’s suddenly quiet, and when there’s a sudden noise, the baby can hear it. If it’s continuous, it might be better.
Good luck to you!
my daughter is now nearly 2 and has an hour nap a day! when she was 6 months she had an hour and half in the morning abut 930ish and same again in the afternoon about 1ish!! all children are different but it does sound like your current routine needs tweaking a bit so he isn’t so exhausted by bed time. hope this helps. also i made bed time 7pm at the latest as any later and the crying will start lol x
At this age, most 6 month olds take 3 naps per day and sleep 11-12 hours at night. Poor napping can cause worse sleep at night and not enough sleep can cause poor napping. At this age, the best thing you can do is keep wake-time short to avoid him getting overtired. My first son could not go longer than 1 hour 15 minutes before needing to sleep again until he was 7 or 7 1/2 months old! So, likely, you might be keeping him up too long before trying another nap. Short catnaps are common until after 6 months, but 20 minutes is on the very short side. Usually you see 30-45 minute naps. You also want to make sure bedtime is very early after poor naps. If he screams for 30+ minutes, you might put him to bed 30 minutes or more earlier. They need a lot of sleep and the better he sleeps at night, the better he can start to nap without being soooo tired.
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