How long for naps - 15 weeks (12 adjusted)

Well, the babies are doing really well with their night sleeps, bath, bottle/breast and into bed by 6-6.30pm and generally sleep through until 5/6am give or take. Then another feed and sleep for another hour.

I'm now feeding them every three hours during the day -Liara on 180ml FF (6oz) and Sierra on the breast with a top up of formula (my supply is easing).

Liara has about 3-4 one hour naps but Sierra won't sleep for more than 45 minutes at a time and often only 2-3 times and this is only with me spending the time to get her to sleep.

This has been going on for a few weeks now and I was just wondering, what sort of nap routines should I be getting them into ie. what did you do and/or how often did your little ones nap and when, especially if they were STTN at this age? I've got the HSHHC and No Cry books but for this age, it's just a general amount of how much sleep they should be getting, which seems to me that they are getting.

But I'm curious to know whether they should be sleeping longer periods for their naps (I seem to recall with Aliah older DD that she had two naps one from 9am to 11am and then 1pm to 3pm).

So even though, I can quite often settle one or the other back to sleep after one hour if they still seem sleepy, quite often they wake at the same time and I can't do both at the same time.


I currently separate them for naps because it takes so much longer to settle Sierra (and inevitably she wakes Liara) whereas I'm able to put Liara down as she lets you 'know' when she's ready.

What is really the issue though is that by 5pm, Sierra especially, if she hasn't slept enough, she becomes difficult to get off to sleep for the night as she is so overtired and then this will impact on Liara because they are in the same room (different cribs) and wake her up.

 

Don't ask me, Easton takes 2 minute cat naps all day - he needs a good 2 or 3 hour nap - ok well I NEED HIM TO TAKE A GOOD 2 or 3 hour nap LOL but I swear he is already worried that he will miss something!! I am exhausted and my house is a mess.

 

We have followed HSHHC since my DD's were about 4 months and my little guy is 4 months right now.. for the girls we did about 4 naps/day at about 45 min each.. sometimes they did CIO through the naps.. same with my DS. I remember the nighttime sleep corrected itself first.. like you.. and then we had worked on naps.. I remember the naps eventually going smoother and getting longer the better they slept at night. Around this age I'm aiming for 45 min at least in the morning and then 1.5 or more hours in the afternoon.. then maybe a 45 min late afternoon nap.. my kiddos go down at this age for at least 45 min 3x/day.. even if it means they cry.. sounds mean, I know, but it works and we have some very good 20 month old sleepers that go down for naps and bedtime without soothing and without a fuss every single time with very few exceptions...

 

Might sound mean, but for everybody's sanity, it's sometimes necessary - I've been CIO with Sierra because otherwise she wouldn't sleep at all!

And Heather, I so get what you're feeling, I swear they are now realising that it's so much more fun being awake!

 

Sebastian is 12 weeks old and he does 5pm to 1ish am and then again around 4:30 or so. So, I'm jealous of your LONG sleepers! I had that with my twins!! It's nice! The problem I'm having is that Sebi only takes like 3 oz or so per feeding so he's hungry more often.

And during the day, he doesn't even really have a schedule yet. Or at least, he doesn't have a schedule that I have picked up on.

Sounds like your kiddos are doing GREAT!

 

Lol. Sebi is a catnapper too. I hate it. My twins NEVER did that!! It's suppppeerrr annoying!

 

My boys were cat-nappers forever - until we dropped to 1 nap at 14 months, I was lucky if they slept more than 45 minutes for any nap. I tried a number of different strategies from various books, etc., and the only thing that seemed to help was time (and yes, I did stick to each strategy for a week or more to give it enough time to work).

Hopefully you can find something that works for you, but if not, don't be too hard on yourself. Some things just take time and maturity it seems. My boys didn't STTN until 9.5 months, so I think you are doing great at 15 weeks to be getting that long stretch at night. Even when mine did STTN, it was 7:30pm to 5am at best, some mornings even earlier, and not because they were hungry - they were just ready to be up. Hang in there and hopefully things will sort out with time.