Hi, I was wondering if anyone has some advice for me... my 6 month old falls asleep on his own, no crying, no fussing... he even sleeps 12 straight hours at night... but for nap time... he often will only sleep for 30 minutes... sometimes 45 minutes and RARELY an hour and a half...
When he wakes up after only sleeping for 30-40 minutes, he often cries, so I know he is still tired... but when I got into the room, he gets so excited to see me, there is no way he'll go back to sleep..
any advice would be great! thank you!
If he is sleeping that long of a stretch at night I think that the 30 minute nap must be all that he needs.
My son did this at around 6 months too. I think it was because he was just starting to be mobile--sitting up better on his own, rolling over a lot, etc. He had a harder time staying asleep at naps because he would wake himself up with the movement. Then once he was up, he just wanted to play in the crib. It passed after a while. Can't recall how long. Then he was back to longer naps.
My daughter would only take three 10 minute long naps but would sleep through the night, after I got her into the habit of taking longer naps she began to sleep less at night. Most likely he is getting all the sleep he needs. You can first try being sure he is full before taking his nap which may help him sleep longer. You could also try laying him down for multiple short naps through out the day. But I wouldn't worry to much about his not napping for long, as long he isn't cranky.
We went through the same thing with my son and we cut back how long he sleeps at night. When he went from sleeping 12 hours a night to sleeping 9 or 10, he automatically started sleeping longer during his naps. As long as he's getting enough total sleep during the day he'll be fine.
How often are you letting him nap? Maybe you can try to keep him awake longer in between them. That is great he is sleeping 12 hours/night!! What is he like when he wakes up from his nap? Is he happy? Or still really groggy? If he is happy, then i'm sure that was a good enough nap for him.
My daughter is 7 months now and she takes 2 naps. She usually wakes at 7AM, naps at 10AM (for about an hour), naps at 2PM (2 hours) and then bedtime is 8PM. She occasionally will have a mini-evening nap for about 20 minutes, if that happens, I move her bedtime to 8:30.
wow this sounds 100% exactly like what my son is doing...he is now 6 months old and has always only slept for about 30 mins...sometimes 45 and rarely 1.5 hr...your entire post if word for word exactly how he is..I know this was posted in 2007 so I am asking you now if you remember if this changed or what did you do?? thanks
I used a swing and that worked great for nap time. It played music and had a moving mobile attached to it. He loved it.
My son had this phase. I can't remember how long it was, but it did go away. Sometimes one of his naps would be good an the otehr one short. I would wait for a few minutes before going in and he went back sometimes.
At 6 months, he's probably starting to develop some new skills. Mine always went through periods of sleep disruptions during those times. It continued through toddler years. Mine are 2 and 3.5 now. Teeth never bothered mine, but when they would get close to learning a new skill, it was like they just didn't have time to sleep. They would become so focused on working on sitting, standing, walking, talking, etc, that they'd crash for a short time to just survive. But then they'd wake tired, but determined to figure out how to do this new thing. It would last varying times, but we just tried to keep the routine the same for them - we DID NOT shorten their nighttime sleep (thought it was often disrupted too) or change the number of naps unless they initiated it. Once they mastered the new skill, they would naturally return to their normal sleep pattern within a day or so. It was tough, but it did pass and each disruption meant a new growth for our little one.
I admit to having no practical experience here, but maybe you could try waiting a few minutes (no more than five) to come into his room when he wakes up after those 30 or so minutes? He might fall back asleep on his own if he doesn't see you and get excited about it.
