4 month old- any tips for naps?

[merianne16]

Hi! My little guy is 4 months old and sleeps very well at night. He goes to bed around 7:30, wakes up around 4 or 5 to eat, and goes back to sleep until around 7 in the morning. Fabulous! However, during the day he rarely sleeps more than 45 minutes at a time. I feed him when he wakes up from a nap, we have awake time, then naptime. What can I do to help him nap longer?

[eliasmom]

Does he seem like he is getting enough rest out of the nap? Some babies (irritatingly enough if you want to get something done) are catnappers but wake up totally refreshed. I would say just be consistent in how you put him down and the timing. Whether you follow naps at set times or by a set period of wakefulness or just watching him for sleep cues, it seems like at some point, it just "clicks" and they sleep longer.

DD was similar- she didn't start napping for longer periods of time consistently until about 5 or 6 months, but she was a great sleeper at night from a very young age. Before then, she could take a 30-45 min nap and wake up like she had slept for hours. At her current age, I notice that she seems to need a longer nap or she is grump city. The only thing I did to work on the naps was make sure I left her in there for a full hour and I listened closely to figure out whether she was fully awake and "done" with the nap or just readjusting herself and would go back to sleep if I left her alone. FWIW, she sometimes doesn't fall asleep for a nap now until almost the full hour is up, but then she frequently sleeps for a good 2 or 3 hours.

Good luck!

[jniter]

Sometimes DS naps for 45 min, sometimes 2 hours. If his nap is short (30-45min), I will wait a minute or two to see if he goes back to sleep. Sometimes he does. Sometimes he wakes up ready to go. I only go in immediately if he has been asleep for a longer period of time.

[gina]

I have to catch my DD right when she is sleepy or she will fight me all the way. Watch for tired times and see if there is a pattern to her tired times. I have to get my DD straight to bed when she is rubbing her eyes, if I wait too long, the moment is over and it will be a while before she will calm back down. Even better, if I know the time is getting close, I will start to do calmer activities and slow myself down, turn off lights etc like you do in the evening.
Hope that helps some, we are definitely not the best nappers here


Gina

http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w132/ginaelms/Dec06020.jpg

DD 15 yr Jade
DD 14 mo Olivia

[mommyme]

It sounds like you've got your little guy on a routine... is it about three hours (e.g. eat at 7, 10, 1, 4, 7, etc.)? If so, I heard that between 3-4 months is about the time that they should be switching to a four hour routine. You make the transition slowly, and his cues should also allow for this - staying up a little longer each time so that he is awake 1 1/2 to 2 hours now before sleeping. Eventually, you should be feeding him every 3 1/2 hours, then every four. Somehow, if this doesn't happen, I read that it affects nap time. Not exactly sure of how or why, but hope this helps.