Nap training?

Question

Has anyone been able to have any success with nap training? Our little girl is 19wks old and sleeps very well at night, and has an apparently age appropriate bedtime of 7:30ish... but everyday we struggle with naps and getting anywhere close to the recommended hours of sleep per day because of it. She only naps for 32ish mins at a time (one sleep cycle). I have read that apparently this can be normal until 6ish months of age... but just curious if other mommas have any success stories of elongating naps?! 
She's a sweetheart, but better daytime sleep would be lovely!!!

Answer

My kid is the same way he sleeps great at night but only cat naps for like 20 minutes while eating. If he sleeps to long during the day hours night sleep suffers. His Dr said it's normal that some kids are just cat nappers. And I prefer him to sleep through the night so I don't fight him to hard on day naps.

Answer

We were having lots of trouble around 12 weeks and so I read it's important to put them down no later than 90 min when they first wake up... we were def waiting too long because you think, oh they are well rested from all the night sleep. Nope it sets you up for good naps so important.
Also when I put him down I change him if need be, sing 2 lullabies and turn his mobile on for 1 min and pat him and walk out... nothing too elaborate. Don't rock until calm just place them down awake... the first time I did this because he was used to me rocking him for awhile until calm, he cried for 1 hr... I went in 5 min intervals and soothed him without picking him up. 
Then they recommend after an hr of fussing get them up for another hr then try again

When they don't sleep longer than 45 min then go in soothe them and walk out and keep doing this until it has been an hr for the whole process.

This way they start to learn how to soothe themselves to sleep if they wake up

Our little guys now takes 2 2 hr naps and 1 30-40 min nap which I have a feeling he is transitioning to 2 naps a day

Answer

We still have to use his merlins magic suit for naps. We don't need it for night time though, as he sleeps 10-11 hours. When he uses it during the day the first and second naps are 1.5 hours and the third and forth are about 30-40 mins. Hoping to drop the forth nap this month sometime.

Besides that, only tips are a dark room and white noise. Wo the white noise he wakes to everything!

Answer

We did have success elongating her sleep cycle, although I'm not sure if it was anything I did, she may have just grown into it. We started at 13 weeks and It took a few weeks - we had to dedicate time to be at home for almost every nap, which was tough. She'd go down for 4-5 naps in her crib, white noise, sleep-suit and blackout curtains. Each nap was between 35-45 minutes.

I picked one nap a day and tried to help her connect sleep cycles. First by rocking her back to sleep (took about a week). Second week by going in, giving her pacifier and putting my hands on her chest and arms to muffle her reflex while she tried to go back to sleep. I'd have to do it at lease three times before it worked. By the third week, she just needed her pacifier and by the fourth week she was waking up and going back to sleep on her own more consistently. She's know down to three naps a day at 17 weeks.

Again, I really don't know if it was anything we did or if she was ready. I do know it was a big time commitment! If you want to do it, try and be consistent even though it sucks.

Answer

Hey we went/are going through the same thing. Ours slept great at night but wasn't meeting the minimum sleep hours per day because she never napped more than 30 mins. Things are a little better now but I haven't really done anything different than before. We put her down to nap in the same spot she sleeps at night, in the same sleep suit and with the same white noise machine on. I just think we have to wait it out until babies are done going through their sleep regressions. Hang in there!

Answer

We struggle too. Would nap for long periods only if held. Wouldn't fall sleep on her own, and only sleep for 20-25 min and then rouse. I had to start putting her to sleep in a dark room with white noise. BUT with the dark and white noise she is up to 35-40 min and I can put her in her crib drowsy and hold her hand/put my hand on her chest and she will fall asleep in the crib. We are obviously going for fall asleep when put down drowsy, which she can do at night. It's a transition, and we'll need to get good at it before we can eliminate white noise, dark room. But i felt the transition was best for us because i'm not comfortable with using CIO. Since we're making progress i'm just gonna keep on truckin and hopefully we're getting there. It probably would be much faster to let her cry and I will consider if progress stalls but we seem to be doing better all the time and I think as they get older it will be easier too. Just my opinion.

Answer

Our LO is the same. Goes to bed around 7:30/8pm and usually (until I'm guessing this sleep regression shite kicked in!) slept til 5am, woke for a feed and would go back down easily until 8.30/9am.

Some days naps are consistent, short one of maybe an hour if I'm lucky in the morning and sometimes a two hour one in the afternoon. These are good days but unfortunately few and far between.

If I'm out during the day she'll sleep on me or in her maxi-cosi but the second I'm home she wakes up. I'm really trying to keep consistent with her naps but it's hard when I don't really have a routine myself during the day. I kinda want her to be able to sleep anywhere so maybe that's a good thing.

If you get any joy let me in on the secret!! 😊😊😊

Answer

I put my baby boy on his swing and it works magic! He'll stay sleeping for about 2-3 hours

Answer

My boy has been doing this since 4 weeks old. We've been on a program here in new Zealand called 'little ones'  for the last couple of weeks. It's basically a schedule but with tones of other info and support. It recommends self settling and a super dark (like pitch black) room are the keys to longer day naps. Anything you are doing to help them get to sleep (rocking, feeding etc,  even a pacifier) they will be looking for to get back to sleep after that 30 mins sleep cycle. We're still working on it, but can almost get a 2 hours nap at 12pm. Win!!

Answer

My daughter is also a bad day napper. The early childhood nurse advised to focus on cultivating the middle of the day nap as a longer nap as this is the one which bubs keep the longest into childhood.

My DD won't sleep when out as she is too interested in seeing things. She gets really tired but not overly grizzly (like she would if we were simply at home). I therefore try to get out, even if it's just a walk round the neighbourhood, in the late morning. This means she is up for a few hours (2.5 or 3) and she is ready to pass out when we get home.  If she wakes after the first sleep cycle, especially for the big nap, I work really hard to re-settle, even if this means having to pick her up to rock her to sleep. Often I will have to do that to get her over the first sleep cycle (after 30 min or so) but she will then sleep for another hour or two without the need for resettling between cycles.

Nap training?

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