cat nappers....what happens when they get older?

[sarah2807]

My Lo is a total cat napper. ..she has a 20/25 min nap every 2 hours...I'd say i an average day she has 2 hours sleep at the most.split between little naps-just wondering if anyone knows how a baby with this sort of sleep patterns adusts when they get older? i hear people talking about children having an hour or two at lunchtime but my Lo never sleeps for more than 30 mins., I can't imagine her ever doing this!

Has anyone had a catnapping baby and can let me know how they changed as they got older?

I know I shouldn't worry about it, I just find naps stressful cos she fights them...I'd love to be able to put her down to sleep and know she'll have around an hour.

 

[Sherlock]

Galen has always been a power napper. He was up at 6.20am yesterday and had two half hour naps all day and went to bed at 7pm and slept till 6am (waking once at around 11pm)

Its enough for him and he copes with this amount of sleep in the day. His nighttime sleeps have gotten longer over time and he now sleeps at least 8 hours, usually 9 per night.

 

[daftscotslass]

My DD is the same, she'll nap twice in the day now for 15-40 minutes. They were shorter but more frequent when she was younger. She does on occasion sleep more than an hour (say once or twice a month) but it's usually when she's been genuinely exhausted or like last week when she had a tooth coming through. The times she'll sleep is pretty predictable now, though, when it wasn't before (usually about 11am and 2.30-3pm).

My nephew on the other hand settled into a routine of having one big nap of 2+ hours in the afternoon from about 6 months old and he still does it now at 3 and a half.

I just thought (very wrongly apparently) that little babies slept - they soooooo don't and ones that are awake all the time seem to be so alert with it as well that they need constant entertainment Not much help, I know, but you're not alone

 

[sarah2807]

Thanks Sherlock.....is he tired when he goes to bed? Violet is exhausted..., she's ok until about 5.30. she currently goes to bed between 6.15 and 6.30. She really fights sleep in the day tho and sometimes I just give up and let her carry on playing etc but sometimes think I'm not doing her any favours cos by tea time she is shattered!! She definately won't sleep longer than 30 mins whether I leave her longer between naps or not so I know that she is a power napper and I can't change that...I guess I feel bad cos you always hear about how the naps are important.

I just can't imagine her been the type of baby to have one long sleep a day.

 

[DaisyRose]

I'd say the main thing is that she sleeps at night. Ruby's daytime sleep patterns are all over the place during the week as we're constantly in and out of the car doing school/ preschool runs, groups, shopping etc etc!! I found it very easy to get my first into a sleep routine but I must say, she was a lot older by the time she started sleeping for very long periods.

Ruby may sleep for a couple of hours if she's not woken up. I'm sort of getting her into the routine of sleeping at about 10ish, and then after the school run but it doesn't always work, and one day she'll sleep for 2 hours and the next 10 minutes!!! The trouble is, she's exhausted by the evenings too and often ends up grumbling until I put her to bed - it is a nightmare! I'm going to persevere though - we will work out something that suits us.

It will all fall fall into place - 5mths is still pretty young. The only thing I can suggest really is attempting to put her down at roughly the same time, in the same place every day and use the same routine (eg I always change nappy, then feed before sleep) and maybe eventually she'll settle and sleep for longer. I've always found that kids thrieve on routine.