Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

Sasha's naps are so short-- that she basically can only be up about an hour or so before she looks ready for another nap.

I hope that the naps will start to meld into each other-- does that happen, or is this another freakin' sleep thing to work on?

I figure once I get a good nighttime sleeping sitch, with less wakings, I will tackle naps. But it seems like she wakes up for a short time, and the next nap is just a continuation of the one before-- ya know?

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

randi, Chels was the same exact way she woud literally nap four or five times a day at 45 minute clips lately, without jinxing it, she has made her morning nap longer and her two afternoon naps longer so she's having three good long naps, I think it just sort of happens, at least it did for Chels, she's a little over 6 months and it just started really in the past week or so...could be a fluke but it does seem like there is a pattern forming...

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

You could try moving her schedule around. First-does she get tired after she eats? This is my kids schedule:

They wake around 5-5:30 to eat and then go right back in their cribs. They sleep until anywhere from 7:30-9-are you getting her up very early? My kids NEVER give me a problem with going back to sleep then.

Then they wake up around 8-sometimes Declan will sleep until 9! They have their bottles and about an hour later-they have breakfast- 2 TBS cereal with 1 fruit. Around 11:30-they take their first nap which is usually a long one at least 1 hr usually closer to 2.

Then they wake-have another bottle-and again about an hour later have lunch-1 tsp cereal and 1/2 veg. Around 3 they nap again usually for an hour. I feed them their bottles around 5, dinner after that-2 TBS cereal with a protein and a veg. They sometimes take a short nap around 5 if their afternoon nap was earlier or shorter but usually are in bed between 6:15-6:45 or around 7:30 if they had a late nap.

I found that the more regularly I fed them solids the better their naps were. Also the more sleep they get the better they sleep. Finally-sometimes they will wake up both in a nap and at night-I ALWAYS try to soothe them back to sleep- replace the binky, shhhh etc. If that doesn't work I will rock them and then put them back down. Also I got them each a crib toy-so sometimes I will hear them playing and then they fall back asleep

ETA: Wow this post took me a long time to write. I hope it helps

Message edited 7/1/2009 4:19:48 PM.

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

DS sometimes took more than an hour nap when he was very young, but often they were just about an hour.

He got better with this around 1 year when he went down to 1 nap a day, now he sleeps 2-3 hours.

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

Honestly i think that once you iron out her night time, her naps will probably lengthen. For my ds, they did. He went from 30 minute naps to an hour and 15 to then up to 2 hours a nap.

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

My suggestion is to darken the bedroom as much as possible, it seemed to make a big difference for me.

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

I jsut started sleep training with Reilly (almost 9 months) 2 weeks ago. She has always slept thru the night but never napped. When we started, she would take a 1 hour (if that) nap in the morning and would scream thru an afternoon nap. I noticed a marked difference the other day when DH put the AC in her room. I think the cool air combined with the white noise of the AC keeps her sleeping longer. Today, her morning nap was 1:10 long and would've been longer but I had to wake her up to go to swimming and this afternoon's nap was 2 hours long! And she has been waking up later in the morning too! We used to have the fan in her room but I guess the AC is the key for us! HTH!

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

My DD "seems" to nap longer on an emptier stomach I'm finding...

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

I went through that too and still do sometimes...my DD fights sleep tooth and nail..here is what i did and it is starting to work...

She wakes at night still bc got 2 teeth in and 4 more are breaking through...ugh, no fun for us and so i had to kinda go with the flow on nights and still do bc she has pain...

During day, i usually get her down 2.5-3 hours within waking..i was finding putting her down too frequently led to mostly catnaps..so, i play with her, take her outside, keep her busy with diff stuff and boom, out for usually an hour and a half to 2 hours now in the am..

PM time is alot more difficult..i usually keep her up another 3 hours and she will go for an hour and a half lately...my nanny sometimes puts her down sooner if she thinks she needs it but will wake her so we can get a good 3rd nap in the pm....my daughter was on this flow of taking a nap from 11-1230 and wouldnt go back down after that until bed..it was horrible..she was fighting sleep and getting so overtired...so for me, it worked keeping her up longer and then putting her down instead of putting her down every 2 hours.... DD is 7 months

Re: Anyone have advice on how to make naps longer?

Posted by twinkletoes807

I jsut started sleep training with Reilly (almost 9 months) 2 weeks ago. She has always slept thru the night but never napped. When we started, she would take a 1 hour (if that) nap in the morning and would scream thru an afternoon nap. I noticed a marked difference the other day when DH put the AC in her room. I think the cool air combined with the white noise of the AC keeps her sleeping longer. Today, her morning nap was 1:10 long and would've been longer but I had to wake her up to go to swimming and this afternoon's nap was 2 hours long! And she has been waking up later in the morning too! We used to have the fan in her room but I guess the AC is the key for us! HTH!