Napping - please advise :-)

[blueeyes34]

We still having sleep problems here. LO doesn't like to nap during the day, I still keep persevering and eventually get her down to nap. Still waking every 2-2.5 hours during the night, sometimes we don't even manage 2 hrs. So I'm interested to hear everyone else's nap routine, especially for around this age. LO will be 5 months in 4 days time.

Do you put LO down to nap at certain times? If so what time? How long do they nap for?

Or do you put LO down when they give you the signs they are tired?

Does your LO nap in the same place they sleep at night? Or somewhere different? Where do they nap?

Thanks. I know every baby is different but just interested to hear what everyone's little ones do. Like I say ideally around this age but please also comment if your baby is younger/older, just aware that sleep needs change. Oh snc I exclusively breast fed if that makes any difference. I start to settle her for the night at 7pm, most times she settles by 7:30/8, so times it can't take me a couple of hours. As I said she wakes frequently to feed but goes back down and wakes for the day between 5:30 and 6:30. So tired all the time and would be nice to be able to catch up on sleep when she naps, but her naps are so hit and miss.

Thanks in advance xx

 

[El1en]

My Lo is 5 months and currently not the bet night time sleeper. She usually wakes at 6/630 and will not go back to sleep, so I tend to get up and have breakfast and then she has a little nap at 8/830 for 30 mins. She's then usually up until 1130ish when she will nap for 30/45 mins and then she's up until 330ish when she will nap for an hour or if I'm chilling on the bed with her an hour and a half. She's then up until 630ish when she'll nap for an hour and then usually up until 930ish when she goes down for bed. She's then up every 2.5/3 hours. My health visitor told me she was going down for bed too late and to try and get her into bed properly at 730/8 maybe missing out that last nap but she wasn't settling well, she was constantly waking just to be settled again so I went back to the later bed time and thankfully she's now up just 3 times. I know that's a lot to some people but to me it's so much better as she sleep solidly in between. When she was 3 months she was only up twice and I'd love to get her back to that

Edited to add that she will nap either in her crib or if she won't settle she goes on my bed and I lie with her for 5 mins until she falls asleep

 

[littlemonkey]

My youngest is five and a half months. He generally has two long naps a day, or three shorter ones. He goes to bed for the night about 7pm and is awarke for the day some time between 6/7am. He does sleep through and has done since 8 weeks old. But he is formula fed. My understanding is its more common for breast fed babies to still wake in the night to be fed at this age.

With naps we do tend to follow the same routine, purely because my two year old goes to play group in the mornings. We all get up around 7am to get ready and if my youngest isnt already awake he tends to get woken by my eldest. He then has his first nap around 9-10 am, either in the car on the way to dropping my eldest off or at home. He usually has a big long nap in the morning in his bed. Then in the afternoon we tend to go out so he will have a couple of short naps in his pram through the afternoon. Or if we're at home he has another long nap.

I've found with both my two, they've always napped better at home, in their cot, in the dark and quiet. I also use white noise with my youngest to drown out the noise of his brother! My LO will usually tell me when he's tired, but if he's had a long nap he can usually stay awake for three hours until he needs another nap or a couple of hours if he only had a short cat nap. He won't sleep longer than half an hour if he's anywhere other than his bed.

I can't sleep when my baby sleeps cos either have my eldest to look after or stuff around the house to sort out. Some days I even manage to achieve the holy grail of both boys napping at the same time! Those days I do sit with my feet up and a brew!

 

[Karenb]

I'm interested in this too! I am exclusively breastfeeding my lo and she wakes every 2-3 hours in the night and won't sleep alone. Her naps in the day only happen if she falls asleep when we go out in car or whilst feeding. Really want to start using her cot but she just cries when alone in there

 

[Orion]

My May baby has never been a long napper. He eats every 3-4 hours despite being bottle fed. I haven't set a routine - my day is completely baby led. If he's hungry, I feed him. If he's tired, I try to get him to sleep. (I've noticed recently he's struggled more to settle than in the past) However I've found that a typical day goes like this:

So we wake at around 7am, bottle, general getting washed/dressed etc...
Nap around 9am for about 30mins, wakes for bottle before 10am, playtime
Nap around lunchtime for 30mins if I'm lucky, wakes for bottle before 1pm, go out possibly
After another bottle he naps around 4-5pm usually for 60mins, tv and book time,
Usually wants another bottle between 7-8pm, after which he goes in his sleepbag for the night and sleeps pretty well from this time til the morning. He wakes for a bottle every 4 hours - so up at midnight and 4am-ish, but literally usually only awake long enough for a quick nappy change, if needed, and to eat.

Now he's outgrown his Moses basket, he naps and sleeps in his Cotbed.

Hope this info helps x

 

[blueeyes34]

Thank you all for your replies. It's very interesting to hear everyone's experiences xx