People with babies or good memories

[browndog]

How long does/did your 3-5 month old nap for? J naps every 90 minutes, but sometimes her nap is only 30 min. long. When do these naps lengthen? I clearly remember nothing from my first go around with this!

[eav2c]

15-30 minutes of napping for everything 1 hour awake. Then one big nap mid day for 2 hours. Finally lengthened around 6 months

[carawestt]

Calvin naps every 2-3 hours for 45min-1hr. He sometimes sleeps longer but only when Lincoln is napping and the house is quiet. But he will only nap on me, he wakes up as soon as I put him down.

[TrudyCampbell]

Ruby is 4.5 months.

Her first nap is pretty soon after she wakes up.. prob an hour or an hour 20 min after... and she sleeps for a long time, like 2 hours.

And then after that it's a total crap shoot and I was actually going to post about it today. I'm not sure how much awake time I should expect her to have. I read that it's 1.5-1.75 hours at this age, and she IS tired at that time (she will start to nod off while nursing) but then when I put her down it takes her over an hour to fall asleep. (She will not nurse to sleep, she needs to fall asleep on her own.) She isn't crying or unhappy during that time, but I feel bad that she's just in her pnp rolling around for an hour or more. Once she finally does fall asleep, it's usually about an hour. Lately I haven't been able to get her to have a 3rd nap unless she's in the carseat or stroller.

[mscatra]

I'm pretty sure Maggie was still in the hour up/hour down cycle at that point. When we finally started to work towards a three naps a day schedule she still slept an hour on average for each nap. We only hit the golden fairly reliable 2+ hour nap stage this summer.

[honeybee503]

Nolan was only napping 40 min at a time until last week, so 6.5 months. Now they are about an hour.

Two days ago he napped for 3 hours. It is his longest nap to date.

[Beener]

Luke is 4 months and is up for 2 hours and then naps for anywhere between 30-90 minutes. After dinner, he stays awake for about 3.5-4 hours before going to bed (and is up every 2-4 hours for the next 12 hours).

[spaghetticat]

I'm so glad this is normal. Her naps have gotten so short. I put her down 1.5 hours after waking and then she sleeps for about half an hour. Then the rest of the day if we are doing something she just sleeps randomly throughout the day with a short nap around 6. If we are home I try to get her to nurse/sleep on me for 2ish hours during v's nap.

[shevacc]

G rarely napped longer than 30 minutes until she turned 1 and all the toddlers took one nap at the same time. Peer pressure was the only thing that kept her asleep.

[browndog]

Thanks guys, this helps. I was thinking she was getting the short end as a 2nd child because her naps are relatively short so I thought maybe it's just too loud in the house or something. But it seems like short naps are par for the course at this age.

[browndog]

Aug 20, 2014 14:59:59 GMT -5 Loco Coco said:

Ha, skiesthelimit and I were just talking about this earlier.

She usually naps every 60-90 minutes but only for 30 minutes. It's exhausting. She magically took a 1.5 hour nap earlier, but now it's just 45 min later and she's fussing for another! Ah! And she only sleeps on me during the day.

It's so exhausting and tedious. I sidecarred her crib (something I thought I'd never do) but at least now I can get her to nap there for a bit. I'm hoping she will get used to the crib this way and then I can move her out.

[greenkitty98]

Depends on the child. B never took long naps as a baby. He was a cat napper and 30 minutes was good for him. P loved sleep and was at 1+ hours for naps from very early on.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

[laurack]

Usually he takes one decent nap of an hour+ sometimes two

The rest can be short. Sometimes 5-10 min after eating then he's all refreshed and ready for a couple hours of awake time

He has had times where he is awake 4-5 hours with no nap. But he's happy! I don't get it

[laurack]

Matilda was a terrible Napper. 2 x 30 min naps all day at daycare was not unusual so William is still doing better than her

She didn't start taking proper naps until toddler room. Now she will sleep 1.5-2 for her nap. So she sleeps more hours per day now than as a baby

[abbypug19]

Caroline has 2 naps, usually 3 hours in the morning and afternoon. Sam catnaps in 15 minute increments in between whines and cries. He fights it and ends up so cranky.

[TrudyCampbell]

What makes you guys put your baby down for a nap? The awake time or tired signs? I've been going by tired signs but then she seems wide awake when I put her down. I'm wondering if I should purposefully stretch her awake time.

[browndog]

Aug 21, 2014 6:53:48 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

What makes you guys put your baby down for a nap? The awake time or tired signs? I've been going by tired signs but then she seems wide awake when I put her down. I'm wondering if I should purposefully stretch her awake time.

I always put her down based on timing/tired signs. If it has been 90 minutes I try to get her to sleep even if there are no tired signs. She usually falls asleep quickly. I don't put her to bed awake yet though. When did you start putting her in her crib awake? It does seem like just when a routine has been started, their habits change though!

[TrudyCampbell]

Aug 21, 2014 13:45:19 GMT -5 browndog said:

Aug 21, 2014 6:53:48 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

What makes you guys put your baby down for a nap? The awake time or tired signs? I've been going by tired signs but then she seems wide awake when I put her down. I'm wondering if I should purposefully stretch her awake time.

I always put her down based on timing/tired signs. If it has been 90 minutes I try to get her to sleep even if there are no tired signs. She usually falls asleep quickly. I don't put her to bed awake yet though. When did you start putting her in her crib awake? It does seem like just when a routine has been started, their habits change though!

Admittedly, Ruby is a good sleeper, so this will probably make people throw stuff at me... but probably a month or so ago she stopped nursing to sleep, she would just pop off when she was done and be acting wide awake. Then I would try rocking her and she would just coo and smile at me and never get drowsy. I tried just putting her down and leaving her and I found that after a few min of rolling around she would find her thumb and go to sleep, so now that's what I've been doing. 

My dilemma is that she will be acting tired so I try putting her down like that and then it can take her a very long time to fall asleep, and I feel like I should be using that time to play with her or something? She doesn't cry, she just hangs out and rolls around. I don't feel guilty when Violet does that but for some reason it makes me feel bad for Ruby. It was making me think I was putting her down too early. 

[browndog]

Aug 21, 2014 13:48:48 GMT -5 TrudyCampbell said:

Aug 21, 2014 13:45:19 GMT -5 browndog said:

I always put her down based on timing/tired signs. If it has been 90 minutes I try to get her to sleep even if there are no tired signs. She usually falls asleep quickly. I don't put her to bed awake yet though. When did you start putting her in her crib awake? It does seem like just when a routine has been started, their habits change though!

Admittedly, Ruby is a good sleeper, so this will probably make people throw stuff at me... but probably a month or so ago she stopped nursing to sleep, she would just pop off when she was done and be acting wide awake. Then I would try rocking her and she would just coo and smile at me and never get drowsy. I tried just putting her down and leaving her and I found that after a few min of rolling around she would find her thumb and go to sleep, so now that's what I've been doing. 

My dilemma is that she will be acting tired so I try putting her down like that and then it can take her a very long time to fall asleep, and I feel like I should be using that time to play with her or something? She doesn't cry, she just hangs out and rolls around. I don't feel guilty when Violet does that but for some reason it makes me feel bad for Ruby. It was making me think I was putting her down too early. 

I say if she is happy enjoy the break! But I know that is easier said than done. 2nd kid guilt is hard, but I'm sure they will just be resilent and well adjusted!