Napping

Try putting some rice cearel in there bottle, it fills them up longer and the can sleep longer. I breast fed both my kids but still gave them a little bottle with some breast milk mixed with rice before bed and naps..worked like a charm! Good luck

Hi!
Let her have her own cycle, it changes day by day in that age. It sounds like she sleeps a lot to me, I wouldn't worry at all. As long as they increase in weight you are fine, and she sleeps so long at night! Good for you, enjoy it while it lasts! Good luck!

Hi C.! Congradulations on your little girl! We've had a lot of 'issues' with our little boy and his naps as well. He used to do the same thing... little tiny naps and just when I would start to get something done he would wake up! It wasn't until about 4months that he really started to stretch out his naps. I kind of 'helped' it along by watching when he would start to stir, and go in and transfer him from his bassinet to his swing... and put it on a medium speed. Then he would sleep another hour. (his swing used to be the ONLY place he would nap). after about a couple weeks of doing that he had stretched out his sleeping to 2hrs, and not needing the swing at all. Every baby is soooo different though. I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child" by Mark Weisbluth, and agree with his concepts. I tried the Babywise thing as well, but Adam has developed his sleep on his own, and over time, it is getting better. It is easiest to go by his cues and put him down when he is tired (usually after 2hrs of being awake).
Good luck and just know that in a month things will be so different for her! They change so fast!

Hi C., Babies are all different. When she takes naps try outting her in a dark area and if she wakes up just let her fuss a bit or play and she might fall back asleep. This also helps her to learn how to self entertain. Make sure she is well fed before putting her down. Try the same time everyday and put her on the floor to play when she is awake cause she is probably just dozing off like we do when we are just doing nothing.

You know...I don't believe there is anything you can do. My son was the same way and never really took a nap longer than an hour, but would have 3-5 naps a day that lasted 1/2-hr to 45 min. He's now 14 months old and still has the same pattern. I read somewhere too that some kids nap! and some kids cat-nap and that the pattern that they have as babies will likely follow them into toddlerhood. Be thankful you have a baby who is sleeping thru the nights tho! Be very thankful! :) Maybe try putting her to sleep a little earlier. We found that our son would wake up at the same time every morning, no matter what time we put him to bed....so if she's getting cranky into the evening, maybe try earlier bed times. We started our night routine (bath, bottle, cuddling, bed) at 7:30 pm and he'd be in bed by 8pm and wake up at 6ish. :)

Your daughter is still a bit young to be regular in her routine, but it's never to early to try! she is about the right age to start though...I would say, find the schedule that you would like her to have and just start doing it. It may take a few days or maybe a little longer to start working, but once she learns it, it'll be easier. Just know that babies often find themselves a schedule and then change it every so often. So don't be discouraged if it stops working after awhile, just find a new one! I see some people already suggested some books, so Good Luck!

Different babies need different amounts of sleep. My baby never slept unless I was holding her. She didn't start taking a good nap (maybe 90 minutes) until she was 18 months old. Naps stopped complete at 24 months.

If your baby is happy and healthy (and you are too), don't worry about the naps. :-)

Hi C.,

I've had 5 children and taken care of many others and this I can tell you, every one had a different sleep pattern. My last child didn't take very long naps(3 - 45 minutes naps) and also didn't sleep more than 8 hours a night but she was healthy-eating well and gaining weight, intelligent and happy (for the most part) so I know how frustrating it can be. I remember looked up how many hours a newborn was suppose to sleep and feeling like something must be wrong and this was my 5th child! My advice is to relax. As long as she is healthy, she will develop her own sleep patterns. Make sure you are as consistant with bed(nap)time routine as possible then let it go. She'll sleep when she's tired. There are ways to 'encourage' her to sleep when you want her to if you want to fight that battle. And there are many valid reasons for a child's habits to be changed (other siblings, working schedules)But if at all possible, I wouldn't recommend it. By the way, my daughter is now almost three, very active and intelligent and sleeping longer than she did as a newborn.

Hi C.:

For about 3 weeks now, my son (13 weeks old) has had difficulty sleeping past the 30 minute mark during the day, too. He generally sleeps a long time at night. According to our pediatrician (and a friend who has two sons that experienced the same napping issue), this is not all that uncommon at about 3 months of age. Some babies (like mine, and possibly yours) simply have sleep rhythms that take a bit longer than others' to mature. I know how frustrating it is because our babies are sleepy and cranky and want to nap longer, but simply can't pull it together yet. The upside: both our pediatrician and my friend assured me that my son will eventually outgrow this pattern and he will one day be able to consolidate his daytime sleep into longer naps. Knock on wood that it happens sooner rather than later!

-C.

If you haven't read it already, I'd recommend the book "On Becoming Babywise." It is all about sleeping and eating schedules. Your life will certainly be easier and your baby will be much more even keel if she's on a sleep schedule. I used BabyWise for my youngest and what the book recommended was that upon waking up in the morning, feed the baby. Then she'll have awake time for about 2 hours, then down for a nap. It's best to put them down before they act exhausted. Alert and calm is how they'll go down for a nap the easiest. She'll take her nap (and it may take half an hour for her to fall asleep - and that's ok), and then when she wakes up, start the whole process over again. Your sleep-eat-play routine should take about 4 hours. Put her down to bed early, like 6:30 or 7pm, and you will be surprised how much longer she'll sleep at night. (I know that sounds like it couldn't possibly be true, but I promise it works!) Best of luck to you and your precious baby girl!

A friend with 4 kids once told me this: There are three things you can't get a child to do: eat, sleep and poop. At 12 weeks old your baby will establish a routine on her own, or perhaps she never will. There's really nothing you can do about it. Good luck!

I noticed my baby had a very regular 45 min sleep pattern. He would often rouse after the first 45 min, but if i left him alone even if he fussed for a few minutes, he generally went back to sleep for another 45 min. Otherwise, he woke up cranky. Babies do sleep alot! which is great for mom too!

Another book to try (that I found invaluable!)

The Happiest Baby on the Block
by Dr. Harvey Karp

Wonderful, wonderful book. I wish I'd read it before my daughter was 4 months old.

I just got past your situation and my son did the same thing as your daughter at that age. Try adding some white noise to her room like an instrumental music CD or a fan. Try leaning toward a napping schedule althought at 12 weeks it's still a bit young to insist up on it. Growth spurts are about to happen as well... not that they aren't developing all the time. If you can get in to a routine with her where she is up 1.5 -2 hours and then putting her down for a nap she will learn to treat her crib as nap/bed time and know what she is to do. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't happen right away though... it takes time.

Hi C.,

I personally think this is totally normal. My son is 20 mo. and he started taking one long nap only a few months ago. When he was around your daughter's age, he would nap up to 3 times a day in 20 to 30 minute increments. In any case, I find the Babycentre website has lots of wonderful suggestions and information about all things baby. Here is a link to a section on napping.
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/sleep/wontnap/
Cheers, B.

Babies at this age definitely need more than one big nap a day but it is normal for them to fight it. Now in the spirit of full disclosure I am a scheduling mom;). I not completely unflexible but do have a schedule. First off, nothing can be that bad with her sleeping so well through the night. I have some recommendations but if it starts messing with the night, it isn't worth it. At this age she should probably be having 2-3 good size names a day. But babies nap in short time periods, wake up and then go back to sleep. So decide how long she should be napping and leave her in the bed the whole time regardless if she is sleeping and try to have her nap about the same time everyday. Now in my house afternoon naps are always the same time but the baby's (almost 1) morning nap is only there 3-5 days a week because we just aren't home. She lives through it.

So for my baby, I will put her down in the afternoon for her long nap. She will sleep about 45 minutes and play for about 10 and usually just go back to sleep. It took a while to get it that way but it has worked for all 4 of my kids.

HTH
J.

Hi C.,
We had similar issues with my oldest daughter, until our pediatrician (and a book or two!), told us about sleep cycles. Everyone (babies included) have cycles within their sleeping times. Sometimes we are in a deeper sleep and sometimes lighter and/or stirring until we fall back into deeper sleep again. What may be happening with your little one is that when she stirs you are getting her up too quickly and not allowing her to fall back into deeper sleep again. What is 'tossing and turning' for adults is sometimes short periods (5 mins or so) of crying/fussing in babies and then they go right back down on their own.
If she is fussy within an hour of going down, try leaving her in her bed for up to 10 mins. to see if she'll settle on her own. It really may be as simple as that!
Another thing to add is find a room that is pretty dark during the day to nap in, or get heavy curtains/blinds for the nursery. Light can really interfere with sleep cycles.

Hi C.,

I totally remember this time...my little one is 2 1/2. My son had irregular sleep times during the day as well. And around 3 months his night time sleep was similar to your daughter's.

What I did was this. When he woke up, I began counting down two hours. And I would put him down every two hours and I didn't care if his sleep was 30 min or longer. When he woke up, I began the two hour count down. And I made sure his room was like night time: sound machine and black out window treatments. When I began putting him down as such he became more agreeable (not cranky). Then what I also did was NOT put him down after 4:30 pm. And if he was still sleeping close to 4:30/5:00 pm I would casually wake him up (open his door, talk louder when in another room, etc.)
And then I began his night time routine around 6:45 pm which allowed me to finally place him down for his night sleep around 7:30. And to this day, we start his routine at 7:30 pm and he is down by 7:50 and I am off the clock.
He wakes every morning around 8/8:30 sometimes he'll hit 9:00 am. He has his two hour nap at 2:00 pm every day. I can't beat it. Good luck to you. And one more thing that saved me was being flexible. Even though I thought I had a schedule it was actually a guideline. Best to you.

C.

I agree with trying to get her to nap every 2 hours. During that age my daughter napped best if I put her in a carrier for naps and let her nap "on" me. We used the Moby wrap. When she stirred I could just move around some and she'd usually go back to sleep. You could also try a swing - we used the Fisher Price cradle swing a TON with lots of success.

I would not try rice cereal - the AAP recommends no solids for six months. And from experience I know that solids don't help sleep (studies correlate this).

C.,
I love love love the book The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Problems. We tried following the BabyWise book, but my son was not a good napper and there wasn't much guidance on how to fix that. When he was around 3 months, I found the Baby Whisperer book and he was sleeping longer naps and through the night within about 3 days. The Baby Whisperer sets out the schedule very clearly and makes it very easy. If your baby is still having sleep issues, she addresses that, too. An added bonus for us was that we started getting my son to bed at around 7:30 (then he slept until around 7 am) and were able to get our evenings back. I can never recommend this book enough.
Good luck,
C.

Hi C.,

Our baby girl is the same way too. We're really blessed also. Just go with the flow of your baby's napping pattern. It varies from day to day. As your baby gets older, she may not have the long naps. On the days your baby has less or shorter naps, you will have to put up with her crankiness. Hang in there.

My sleep at night was essential. So if your daughter is sleeping well at night. She will eventually get into a routine the older she gets,my daghter did. Two naps a day is the normal routine and maybe she will need two shorter naps. Very important she gets a good sleep thru the night. Good for you and good for her.