Day time naps

[Colleen1988]

My LO is brilliant at night, he has his bath and bottle between and 6 and 7pm and is asleep by 7pm (been like this since 6/7 week old) he's now 13 weeks! I give him a dream feed at 10pm (he used to take 8oz, now takes 3oz) and he sleeps til 6/7am.

Because he's so good at night im not to bothered about the day, he naps whenever he wants and feeds every 4 hours.

My question is...

At what age do they have more of a daytime routine nap wise?
My LO currently has 2-3 naps a day, totalling about 4 hours, sometimes less.
He wakes himself up from naps sometimes and is so grumpy because he's still tired but won't sleep, I don't know what to do when he does this, it's awful because he just cries and cries for an hour or 2 and then goes for another nap, if he has a long nap he's so happy lol! Does this sound familiar to anyone? if so what did you do about it xxx

 

[kumber]

I don't think we had a proper daytime nap routine until he started on solids at 6 months. Until then he would nap on and off when he wanted, the only way to get him to have a decent snooze was for him to sleep on me. T'other one is going the same way, mostly catnaps here and there and is a right grump. Good luck, I'm not helpful!

 

[bigbee]

My son will be six months at the weekend and we still don't have consistent naps, unfortunately. His activity times varies day by day, so there is no way I can predict when to put him down, I just go by his cues.

 

[littlemonkey]

My eldest was a flipping nightmare with naps. He had bad reflux and it wasn't really until we got treatment for this and started weaning him around 4/5 months that his napping improved.

With my youngest, I just let him nap as and when around the day for the first few months, and putting him down for a nap when I thought he would be tired. At about that age I knew he was usually tired again after being awake for about 90 mins, so if we were home I'd put him down for a nap then. If we're out and about he just naps in the car seat or pram when he wants to.

It's only really been since he was four months old and my eldest started his free childcare hours that my youngest naps around the same time each day. Usually he has a nap once I've dropped my eldest off, around 9.30/10. He will usually sleep until about 11/11.30 and then want another nap around 2. He's six months now.

One thing I found with my two, is they both napped better at home, in their own bed, in the dark and quiet. I put white noise on for my youngest because it's not always quiet with a toddler in the house! If we're out, he usually only has 30/45 mins whereas if we're at home he'll sleep a good 90 mins - 2 hours. If he's only had a short nap, he's usually ready for another one earlier than usual. I try to have one good nap at home a day, so alternate our days of morning out one day, afternoon out the next. If we're out in the afternoon he usually ends up having two short cat naps

 

[Colleen1988]

Thanks girls... Yeah my LO likes his naps in his cot, quiet and dark! Some days he naps really well and others he doesn't, those days are just awful coz he just cried all day lol xxx

 

[Smileygirl]

My little one had a solid nap time routine from 10 weeks. I was advised that to have set nap times (at the same time each day) means the baby is happier and their body clocks set themselves to sleep for certain lengths of time at each nap time. At 13 weeks, my little one woke at 7am, slept 9:30 - 9:45 (I would wake him up after 45 mins if necessary), 12:30 - 3pm, 4:30 - 4:45 and then bed at 7pm. It took a few weeks to establish and if he woke in the middle of his lunch time nap, we kept resetting him rather than getting him up, but it was so worth it and the result was a very happy baby who slept well at predictable times and could self soothe (without resorting to cc...) honestly, it wasn't easy at times, but once it established, the whole family benefitted.