Help me figure out napping for an almost 6 mo old

[AnimalBabe]

Hi! Our son is almost 6 months old and still has very irregular naps. We started daycare recently (granted he has only been there a few times) and yesterday in daycare he took an hr long nap in the morning, about 2 hrs after he woke, but usually he won't nap at home until about 3 hours after he wakes--even if he is rubbing his eyes and looking tired before then. Lately he is only taking about 3 very short (35 min) naps. Then he wants to go to bed super early, so we put him down around 6pm.

Is he supposed to be falling into some sort of pattern? Shouldn't the naps be lengthening? Should I try putting him down at the first sign of eye rubbing? I had always tried to nurse him to sleep, but I'm trying to put him down semi awake (like we do at night). Maybe it's my fault since I would always take him out/run errands and he would just nap in the car seat sometimes, so I thought that might be why he didn't have a real napping routine.

Also, do you all have nap "routines" that signal when it is naptime? We have a routine for nighttime (pjs, diaper change, feed, put down semi awake with white noise on), but I've never had a nap one. Thanks so much for your thoughts!

[lizzywednesday]

I found that my DD will take a nap if someone else is with her, but if I am there, she just wants to nurse.

There was a stretch where she'd take an hour nap in the morning (say, about 11am) and then another hour nap in the afternoon, but she'd usually doze off while nursing & transferring her to the crib while I worked was too much of a hassle.

She'd also sometimes nap in her swing, which I had no problem with either.

As for a routine, Mom and I would make sure DD's bedroom was dark & it was quiet in there. Mom would rub her back & sing to her 'til she dropped off.

And, yes, we'd watch for the first signs of tiredness - eye rubbing, etc. - because if we put DD down when she was fussy, she would have none of the nap routine.

[crl]

Dd fell into a nap routine around six months. She never did three naps a day. She went straight from random to two. Our nap routine consists of me turning on her white noise, putting her down in her crib and walking out. She basically goes from happy to screaming and if she isn't hungry or hurt that means it is past nap time. Eventually I figured out to put her down around 9:30 (when she gets up around 6) and she sleeps for about two hours. Then down again around 2 and she sleeps for about an hour and a half.

Sorry I'm not more help.

Catherine

[AnimalBabe]

Thanks for your thoughts. I hesitate to try to make the room dark or do white noise like at bedtime b/c of daycare..he needs to get used to lots of noises! Plus I always heard that it's ok to have noise during the day since that signals it's daytime and that quiet time is nighttime. Of course, I have no idea if it matters! I am fine with trying to nurse him to sleep, but I feel it may be complicating things. I guess my concern is that since we no longer rock him to sleep at night, and I'm not around to feed him, then how will he fall asleep on his own? It works sometimes putting him down in the crib when I'm home and letting him fuss for just a few mins, but usually it's too hard to do that for the afternoon nap.