How do I get a catnapping 12 week old into a nap routine?

[Sanne Panne]

My 12 week old pretty much only does catnaps (30 minutes on average). She mostly naps in the baby bjorn, pushchair, swing (sometimes), bouncer, car seat or on my lap on the feeding pillow and I think she'd get better quality naps in her cot. When I put her in her cot during the day she tends to wake up immediately (whereas she's great there at night). I don't have time for a very long unwinding, feeding to sleep and then transferring to cot process (which I do at night when my husband is home) because I also have a 2 year old at home. Naps in the aforementioned moving objects are short because every unexpected noise wakes her up (although even in quiet rooms she only does 30 minutes most times).

She sleeps very well at night (7-7:30pm till 7am with one feed between 3-6am, I don't dreamfeed) so I've never bothered too much with routines but I think it's time to get a bit more organised in order to have my hands free for my 2 year old a bit more often. Can't use black out blinds in the room where the cot is, she's still in our room and the windows are massive and since we rent we don't want to invest in anything custom made.

Few more facts... I know that:

- I feed her too often (short feeds every 2-3 hours, she's breastfed)

- I shouldn't feed her to sleep at night - she now only falls asleep by feeding or rocking her (hence the 'mobile' naps)

I'm not against Gina at all (so advice from that corner is welcome too), just never bothered applying it and now just want to fix the naps.

Any advice anyone? I don't mind one or two catnaps a day but one nice long midday nap would be good for everyone ;)

Edited to add she doesn't use a dummy and since she's content without one I don't want to introduce one either (remembering the nightmares of having to plug the dummy back into my other daughter's mouth every hour at night when she was too small to do it herself...)

[bumpy]

Sorry no advice to help you with the nap situation, just to say my 9 month old has never napped well during the day. At the same age as your little one he also did 30 minute naps - usually 3 a day and now has 2 naps for anywhere between 40 minutes each and if we're really lucky 1.5 hours. I once spent a whole week at home with him trying to put some sort of routine together - made no difference. I'm now back at work 3 days a week and our nanny has also tried to get him in to sleep for longer but again he's not having any of it! Thankfully he's generally a happy little chap (sometimes the bath & night time routine can be a bit tense as he's generally very tired by then!)

Also blackout blinds make no difference to how long he sleeps.

The only thing that we've managed to do is get a sort of routine in that he has a morning nap around 9/9.30 and a lunchtime nap around 1.00pm.

I guess some people would envy your nights :-))

Good luck and here's hoping you have better luck than me.

[Sanne Panne]

Sounds very much like my baby, Bumpy. She's happy almost all the time, doesn't seem to suffer from the shorter naps at all. I just think it would be nice to have an hour or two that I can fully dedicate to my toddler. And to make sure she either needs no nap or only a catnap after 3pm or so, otherwise it'll impact bedtime.

Our first also only did one sleep cycle per nap and only time took care of it (think it improved when she was 6 or 7 months old). Just wondering if there's another way - maybe keep her up a bit longer before I put her in her cot or maybe let her fuss a bit when she first wakes up after a sleep cycle (although so far that has always resulted in crying and I think she's way too young to let her cry) but maybe there's another "technique" I'm not aware of...

[ClareC]

Again, no advice but my lo the same! She is 8 months now and generally has a short nap around 10ish and again around 1, usually 30 / 40 mins max!! She sleeps well at night so I've just really accepted it. By bedtime she is really tired, daren't keep her up later than 7 though or it's meltdown!!

[crystal7]

No advice but just to say that I thought my little one would never nap longer than 40 min (and that was always in buggy or car). She eventually started to have an hour am and pm at around 10 months which became 2 over lunchtime at about a year. Sorry not vey helpful but I have heard that they just get better at sleeping through 1 sleep cycle as they get older.

[Pickle]

My 2nd child was similar - she would nap happily but seemed to struggle to get past one sleep cycle. I was DETERMINED that I would manage to get both children napping after lunch at the same time, so would put her down in her cot and she'd sleep for about 30 - 40 mins. When she woke I then put her into the Huggabub sling, and generally she would settle back to sleep strapped to me. Gradually (over the course of a couple of months) she started sleeping longer in her cot and we phased the sling out.

Happily both my daughter and her brother still have their lunchtime nap, two years later!

Good luck.

[craigy]

I used a book called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child with my son. It is by an american dr who has studied sleep habits in children for years. It won't offer any amazing solutions and does advocate controlled crying (which i have never had a problem with) but it talks about when the need to nap develops in children and as far as I remember it says that the morning nap develops at around 12 weeks and the lunchtime nap at around 5 months and that you should be looking to put them back to bed within 2 hours of them waking(long time since i read it so don't quote me) but is interesting... i discovered it at 5 months and it took me a week to get my previously no daytime sleep at all son into a 2 nap a day boy for about 3 and a half hours in total..

ps. ClareC, just tried to send you a PM but your inbox is full..

[littleEDfamily]

Sanne Panne - it's like I could have written your post myself. My soon to be 12 week old is exactly the same, and a few of my friends who are on their seconds report the same.Bizarre. So different from first.

craigy - thanks I am going to seek that book out!

[Fuschia]

I am very much a go with the flow type but noticed my twins fell naturally into a pattern of a 1h sleep 2h or so after waking, and another 1h or so mid pm... that was at about 7m IIRC. It seems to be a natural thing....no idea if you can hurry it up!!

[Hollybush]

Maybe try putting her on her front (if you usually put her on back?)

This was a revolution to us when we started doing this with our first at 4 months. Suddenly got proper naps! We'd always followed advice about back sleeping but then my dad put him down once on his front and we realised why babies used to always be put that way.

I still put my 14 week old down on back at night (becuase of the advice), but often on front during day.

[Sanne Panne]

Hollybush, she always sleeps on her tummy in the cot :)) We have an Angelcare monitor which gives me enough peace of mind to let her sleep that way. I think that's why she pretty much sleeps through the night.

Thanks for all the advice so far, I think what I'll do is a combination of waiting it out and transferring her into a sling/carrier when she wakes up during the midday nap (great idea Pickle). Interesting that they "discover" or develop the need for certain longer naps at a certain age, hadn't looked at it this way. I'm not necessarily against controlled crying when they're bigger but at this age all I can handle is a little whine. Maybe this baby will be so easy that we won't ever need it (with baby 1 that was a whole different story... thankfully she's great now too).

Curious to read more opinions/experiences but thanks so much for all the feedback so far!

[Hollybush]

Hmm think I'm going to start tummy sleeping at night as well for my little man, as he is getting worse at sleeping after being great like your little one!

[Sanne Panne]

Hollybush Wrote:

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> Hmm think I'm going to start tummy sleeping at

> night as well for my little man, as he is getting

> worse at sleeping after being great like your

> little one!

I know tummy sleeping is a controversial topic but I think it's fine if you've observed your baby doing it and have seen him/her lift his/her head and chest without problems. Only if you're comfortable doing it, no point stressing all night, you'll still not get any sleep!

[Mellors]

Just a thought (my son was like this). Have you tried white noise when she naps? If I left a hairdryer/vacuum on next to the bedroom when my boy slept he would go for ages, it was miraculous!

[Sanne Panne]

Mellors Wrote:

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> Just a thought (my son was like this). Have you

> tried white noise when she naps? If I left a

> hairdryer/vacuum on next to the bedroom when my

> boy slept he would go for ages, it was miraculous!

Yup great idea I should do that, I just put the Sleep Sheep on "waves" (after feeding S to sleep (bad) but managing to put her in her cot without waking her (good), yippee!!). Sleep Sheep, yes the stuff they sell nowadays... maybe it takes less energy than a hairdryer but it's still a bit crazy. Worse, it stops after 45 minutes so you have to go in and restart it before that. There are white noise apps for the iPhone too by the way. Might start using that, you can just put your phone near the cot (on airplane mode) and enjoy an "offline" hour for yourself as well :)

Hope this nap is a bit longer, if anything it's IN THE COT!

Edited to add she woke up after 30 minutes sharp ;-)

[RcRichard]

Nothing helpful to add but am in exactly the same position as you although my youngest daughter is only 9 weeks old. No problem getting her off to sleep but she just won't stay there unless I let her sleep on my chest or occasionally she'll go off in the pram; her naps are at longest half an hour but can be just ten minutes and she also seems very easily disturbed by noise. She's a very happy baby and good night sleeper in her basket so I wouldn't be worrying about the day if it wasn't for wanting to spend some proper time with my eldest. Anyway, completely unhelpful but I'll let you know if I find anything that works!

[laurac]

Just noticed logged in as my partner for the above post - he definitely is not anguishing about naps!!

[Sanne Panne]

Wow Laura yes we are in the exact same situation! Guess things could be a lot worse...

[helenat1970]

i've used both gina and the baby whisperer. gina suited my son, the baby whisperer my daughter and she seems similar to your 12 week old - I found that her advice was good in terms of getting a baby with no routine into a routine as it were. she recommends something called EASY - Eat, Activity, Sleep (Your time!) and a gentle, shush, pat technique for helping a baby get to sleep without leaving them to cry it out. Though I would say if you can rig something to darken your room, I would - even as a temporary solution - makes a big difference.

Good luck! As you already know, babies grow out of all sorts of habits in no time! x

[Mae]

My daughter (17 weeks) has been like this for the last few weeks, rarely going beyond a 45 min cycle. But recently, if she seems grizzly when she wakes up I just go back to the whole nap routine and try to put her straight back down again (walking up and down singing til sleepy but not asleep, shh/pat once in cot). She has begun to go back to sleep for at least another sleep cycle and sometimes goes back for a really long sleep of a couple of hours...may be worth a try but it usually takes me quite a long time which may not be possible if you have another little one! x

[EDmummy]

This all seems perfectly normal. Both of mine were the same. I am with Fuschia and tended to go with the flow. It probably feels like a bit of a shock to start having a baby that is more awake than asleep but their patterns continue to change until they are toddler and stop having naps.

Think ahead, you will one day be cursing the amount of sleep they seem to require!

[Fidgetsmum]

My daughter wouldn't sleep in the day either until I succombed to my sisters suggestion and got the book she used (with all three of hers) called The Baby Book by Rachel Waddilove. It's a nice easy gentle routine that doesn't make you feel guilty if you completely mess it up! My daughter got straight into it and has (routine wise) been brilliant since then.