Needs Longer Naps - Any Suggestions?

I know it will make for a very cranky child, but you could always try slowly cutting out one of the shorter naps. As an example, if he usually takes one of his cat naps around 10 am, try cutting it from 30 mins to 25 mins for a week and continue decreasing it by 5 minutes every week until it is gone. It should make his afternoon nap a little longer. I am assuming that, at this point, he is probably taking 3 or 4 cat naps. Continue to slowly cut the other ones one at a time and it should improve the one you want him to take most and last the longest. It will be a slow process but it usually helps.

He may be too overtired and restless to sleep. I would try putting him to bed earlier at night and adjust his nap time. I bought a book called healthy sleep habits healthy child and one thing that I learned that was shocking to me but it worked was having them sleep more. I found something on the internet when I googled the dr from the book and it said that if your child gets up around 7:00 their first nap should be at 9:00. I thought they were crazy. They wouldn't go to sleep so soon after getting up from sleeping all night but they did....all 3 of my boys. You should try this book or at least google some information on it. The guy is Dr. Marc Weissbluth. When I googled him I was able to find a time chart as to roughly when to try to get them to sleep. This book saved me
Best of luck.

Hi, T.,

My son is almost 7 months old now and does the same exact thing. I spoke to our nurse practitioner about it at his last check up and she said it's really not something to worry about if everything else is ok - meaning if he's eating well, is happy and playful, is sleeping through the night, then taking cat naps during the day isn't that much of a problem. She said at this age he's not really doing much to make himself that tired and that this should change as he grows older.

Hope this helps!

My DD did this too! It drove me CRAZY.

30 minutes often means a baby can be overtired. Do you have set nap times? If so, try putting him down 15-20 min earlier than usual and see if that helps.
When he wakes, what do you do? Do you let him fuss for a while? Does he scream? I would not get him out of bed until nap time is over. Give him 10-15 min and if he does not go back to sleep on his own, go in there quietly, no lights, and see if you can soothe him back to sleep. Turn back on his lullaby CD, rub his back or belly, and talk to him softly if needed.
It probably will not work the first few times you do this - you may have to do it for a couple of weeks before he catches on, but if you are persistent and consistent in your methods, he will catch on!

Lastly - does he always wake at the 30 min mark? If so you can try the sleep to wake method:
Stir your LO 5-10 mins before he tends to wake. You go in the room 5-10 mins before he wakes up and gently rub his cheek, head etc until they BARELY stir and then you let go. You are attempting to pull him from deep sleep to then start a new sleep cycle. You do not actually wake him up. If you are not totally sure if he moved, wait a min or two and do it again. This is better then doing it too much and waking them fully. A bare movement usually works. If your baby still wakes up you can try doing the wake to sleep a few minutes sooner. You really have to experiment with the timing.
I hope this helps!

Hi T.,
I agree with the other post Re: putting him down earlier. White noise also works for my daughter. I tried a lullaby c.d but she kept waking up. Maybe it is a specific song on the c.d that is waking them up.
Good luck
D.

Hi T. - my 5mo did the same thing until recently, when i also read 2 books: the first is 'secrets of the baby whisperer' (also has a sequel called 'the baby whisperer solves all your problems') and the second is the one another poster mentioned - healthy sleep habits,happy child. both books are useful, but i would definitely read them BOTH so you can figure out what is right for you. i personally am not at this point comfortable letting my child cry alone in her room, and the baby whisperer book has some alternatives to that. what i do now, which helps my dd, is when she wakes up at the 30 min mark, i wait until she cries, then i go in and pick her up, give her a binkie, make sure her swaddle is on tight, and hold her sort of sideways in my arms until she falls back asleep. it has gotten much, much easier in the past few weeks. at first she would cry and wiggle, and i would have to jiggle her. i stopped jiggling when she calmed, and started again when she fussed. i put her down when she's almost asleep - as in, her eyes have been closed for a few minutes, her breathing is deeper, but she knows she's being put down. if she cries again, i pick her up and do it again.
that's what i do,but the baby whisperer book has another method, the pick up/put down method, to train your child to go back to sleep alone. i tried it, but i couldn't get it to work - maybe b/c i was doing it wrong, or dh was doing it wrong perhaps. but the website babywhisperer.com has some great info and advice about some of these methods, including the one i use (the "gradual" method").

anyway, gradually she has been able to go back to sleep much more quickly with much less intervention. there have even been a few times lately when she just needs me to give her the binkie.
but i think that sleep to wake method sounds good, which the other poster mentioned too - i will look that up in the book and try it. what the book says is that these catnaps indicate that the baby is too overstimulated right before the nap, and needs a longer and calmer wind-down period. i find better wind-down does help dd sleep better, and yes - more sleep helps too. the baby whisperer book will help you get your baby on a schedule, too - mine was not until i got this book.
so - hope this helps, good luck!!!
T.

I wish I had some advice, but I don't -- but I just wanted to say that my son did the exact same thing! He is one now, and often naps for longer, especially if I rock him right away if he wakes up and give him a binky and then put him back in the crib. But, I hear that as they get older, they do nap longer. So hang in there!

My son was a half hour napper throughout the day until he was a little over a year old. He too was tough to put down but as he got older, it got easier. I found that if I put him down two hours after he got up from his last nap, he was well-rested and happy throughout the day. Once we got close to the one year mark, he started to go to closer to two and a half hours and then eventually three hours. The more he was able to stretch it out time between naps, the longer naps he took. The frequent 30 minutes naps were rough for awhile, but he was also a great car sleeper so I'd sometimes plan errands around naps. Good luck!!!

our daughter is almost 9 months old, and for her afternoon nap which should be 2-3 hours she does wake up. We took the lead from daycare who would just leave her be and fuss it out. We found that does work, sometimes the fuss goes anywhere from 10 minutes to 25 or even on occasion 45, but she goes back to sleep for at least an hour or more after that. We know she's tired, and our rule of thumb has been that we will leave her be until she's slept at least 2 hours (cumulative sleep). It does make for a happier and rested baby, and she rarely wakes up repeatedly anymore.

T.,

I wish I had some magical words of wisdom but I don't. My daughter did the same thing. At 8 months she would go down with a bottle, some rocking and a binky. Like you said, if I put her in the crib, she was up half an hour later. If I slept with her, she would be out for 1.5-3.0 hours! All I can say that as time goes on, it got better. DD is now 22 months old and naps on average 2 hours/day. Best of luck and enjoy those times you get to sleep with DS. He will be wiggling off your lap all too soon.

S.