According to Weissbluth, how long should their naps be?

He says in his book (HSHHC) that the morning nap is the first to emerge consistently around the age of 3 to 4 months. Well, for the most part it has but sometimes they are REALLY short. The naps following are usually around an hour or so, but they used to be able to nap longer. When they do wake up after 40 minutes, I try to soothe them back to sleep, but it hasn't been working for our dd. Any suggestions?

 

He says in his book (HSHHC) that the morning nap is the first to emerge consistently around the age of 3 to 4 months. Well, for the most part it has but sometimes they are REALLY short. The naps following are usually around an hour or so, but they used to be able to nap longer. When they do wake up after 40 minutes, I try to soothe them back to sleep, but it hasn't been working for our dd. Any suggestions?

 

At that age mine only slept about 45 min to an hour. The biggest thing for me at that age was to stick to the short periods of wakefullness. Typically if they had been asleep at least 40 min I would not have any success getting them back to bed. It has only been since about 5.5 months that there is a clear morning and afternoon nap that is consistently an hour or more. Don't stress about it yet. I would just worry about the periods of wakefullness for now.

 

I seem to be having this exact issue as well. The morning nap is short and sometimes I get A LOT of resistance (not initially, but then once they're in the crib for a few minutes there's crying). Contrary to what the book says, it's the afternoon nap that's developing more consistently. Yesterday they slept from 12:30-3:30!

I know they need it, but it's almost like the morning nap happens too soon. However, if I keep them up they're super cranky. It's usually about 1 hour max that they can keep it together. Guess we'll just keep working on it!

 

quote:
Originally posted by Mattsgal:
The biggest thing for me at that age was to stick to the short periods of wakefullness....Don't stress about it yet. I would just worry about the periods of wakefullness for now.



I totally agree with this. Your babies are still so young. I think the most important thing is getting them to nap. If that means they take 4+ 40-minute naps a day, so be it.

They are just starting to be more aware of their surroundings. The more they are exposed to the routine, the better practiced they will become at it. I think you'll see a nice, predictable routine in another 6 weeks.

Congratulations on having some sort of routine at 3.5 months. At that age I resorted to napping in their swings b/c they would only nap ontop of me (or someone else)...not real practical!

 

DO NOT STRESS ABOUT IT! I totally agree with what the pp say about wakefulness. I was so wound up about mine not taking longer naps. They totally took 40-45 minute naps and sometimes 4 times a day. It wasn't until 6 months that mine got longer. Now that we have transitioned to 2 naps they take much longer morning and afternoon naps. I wish someone would have told me not to stress about it, but I had the same concern you. Its possible mine took a little longer to get longer naps because they were 6 weeks early, but really they were doing the exact same thing at your kids' age.

GOOD LUCK!

 

Thanks to all for your responses. And thanks for saying not to stress over it too much. They are actually taking a nice long nap right now, which is great. They've been taking these short naps over the last few days, which is unlike them. THANKS!!!

 

same exact thing here- i'm not too worried about it but i do try to put them down now long before i think they need to go,. because i am always suprised at how soon they seem to get cranky after overdoing it in the mornings. then the evening is a little fussy spell too,. and in between is really hit or miss. i feel really lucky if we get an hour,. and if they both get an hour at the same time that's like heaven!