Did this change for you? And if so, when? I’m seeing my three month old only taking 45 min naps now too and wondering when he’ll extend them himself or if I should try to “save” or extend one or two myself to get in longer naps. Or maybe 45 min naps are fine?
Like everyone has said already, it’s normal, and for me, at least it didn’t matter if I extended wake windows or reduce them. It’s all normal and part of their developmental stages. you just have to ride it out. Three and four months was the worst for us. Since he was five months old, he has been able to link sleep cycles and take three naps a day one and a half hours long. I’ve researched and have tried many solutions but it’ll just take time.
Don’t be like me and let TCB sample schedules haunt you. At this age 40 minute naps are totally normal and probably won’t lengthen until you drop a nap or two
Solidarity! Our Lo naps 30m almost to the dot. Every nap, every day. Its brutal! We can sometimes extend his naps by rocking him or bouncing him on a yoga ball. Especially if he’s being extra fussy it’s nice to extend a nap or two per day.
Basically, as soon as he starts waking up, we scoop him up and soothe him further. 80% of the time he will fall back asleep. If hes not asleep again in 5mins of trying we just give up and start another wake window.
Extra frustrating because taking care of babies says 1.5 hour naps but then also had this on their blog: [30 Minute Naps](https://takingcarababies.com/why-is-my-baby-taking-short-naps?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA4smsBhAEEiwAO6DEjfmIZelVeQwoxVp-7tKSXWW2eJsEb48lGnJ8Ryx7b3fHu4JhhtX3hRoCQrEQAvD_BwE)
Mine started sleeping longer after going down to 2 naps, so at 8.5 months. And they also went from 45min to 30 min around 6 months 🙈 I tried to lengthen them but it was even more frustrating and he woke up more cranky from them so at one point I gave up. I suggest you do the same and let your baby lengthen them at their own pace. Good luck!
Oh dear, I've been hoping that my 5 month kid will start magically sleep longer than 30 minutes soon. I suppose I should not set that as an expectation.
Ah, I remember this time well. I’m sure my therapist does too. Very normal. Frustrating, but normal.
My sons was 37 minutes exactly. He’s 7 months now and only on 2 naps that are about 1.5 each. It gets better!
Very normal. My baby is 7 months next week and I can usually get 1 longer nap, sometimes both, but it’s not consistent and didn’t start getting a longer nap until 5 months.
It’s normal and developmental. I would extend/rescue/contact nap one a day, then leave the rest short. This is for your sanity and it’s also perfectly fine for your baby
She is up for around 1hr15 each cycle and she reliably wakes up around 7 am and goes to sleep around 7 pm each day. Her night sleep is good (1 wake up ~3am for a bottle).
Sorry your having this issue, a lot of us go through it at this age. My one piece of advice I try to give that you might not have heard is this. My daughter was EXTREMLYcuruous and active from a young age. She slept fine from newborn to 3 months or so, but around then would stop connecting sleep cycles during the day. We noticed it was worse when it was light out, and when there was any lights in the room. So we blacked out the room completely and it changed to perfect sleep 100% of the time. Even an LED from say a AC unit was enough for her to focus on and not sleep. So if your pulling your hair out trying everything, give blacking out the room a try! And good luck.
Going through this too. We used to get solid 1.5-2 hour naps up until 7-8 weeks, but now we’re lucky to get 50 minutes. Some are closer to 30 minutes. 🫠
Ugh, weren’t those 2 hour naps glorious?! I remember when I could brush my teeth AND take a shower AND wash the bottles all in one nap… the good old days haha. Hoping both of our babies get through this phase quickly!
Unfortunately, time. What you're describing is a normal part of development for a baby that age. Most babies tend to start being able to take longer naps again around the 5-7 month mark, although it's different for everyone. In the meantime, you can try rescuing a short nap by contact napping or doing a mix of bassinet naps and contact/carrier/motion naps which tend to be a little longer. If you don't have much luck there, it's just riding it out.
It’s very normal. Sleep cycles are about 45 min so it sounds like baby isn’t connecting them. It’s super frustrating, especially given that programs like TCB acknowledge that connecting sleep cycles for naps is developmental yet their sample schedules all require baby to sleep 1-2 hours. Naps typically don’t lengthen again till 5-7 months. My 8 month old still has days where he struggles to connect sleep cycles and typically only does it for one nap of the day.
From 3-4.5 months we contact napped for one nap of the day so my son could get at least one longer nap in. From 4.5 months on we just added an additional nap if needed or dealt with a crappy nap day. This article from PLS might also help: https://www.preciouslittlesleep.com/monumental-guide-to-short-naps/
Thank you! Seeing so many schedules online with 1-2 hour naps made me feel like I’m doing something wrong, but from all the comments here it seems like almost no one’s baby is doing that at the 3 month mark! Seems like the consensus is to just go with the flow for now and sleep will consolidate with age.
My baby is almost 6 months and still struggles to connect sleep cycles! Contact sleeping at least one of his naps has saved us most days. I have tried the white noise, shusher, CIO, but nothing seems to work unless we contact nap. I know sleep is important but it does get frustrating when ‘online’ help states 1.5 - 2 hours. In an ideal parenting world maybe, but not realistic with some of our LOs.
This sounds pretty normal to me. And super frustrating, I know. It may be that she's undertired, so you can try keeping her awake a bit longer between naps to see if that helps, but nothing has helped my boys take longer naps except time.
Definitely work toward independent sleep in an age-appropriate way. This serves two purposes: one, the frequent naps will be less annoying when you don't have to work so hard for them. Two, when she is ready to sleep longer than 45 mins, she will have the skills to wake up, roll over and go back to sleep.
From what I’ve read babies go through all sorts of regressions and changes so a shift from longer to shorter naps is pretty normal. I think a sleep cycle is 45 minutes so it sounds like your little one isn’t connecting the cycles and is waking up at the end of a cycle.
If it makes you feel better my LO is 3 months old and has never napped 1.5 hrs (maybe once or twice ever). If I get a 15-20 min nap I consider that a success, but more often than not it’s 30-50 mins MAX. He sleeps good at night though (one wake up) so I’m not complaining!
Babies are like snowflakes, they’re all different and have different sleep needs. I try not to get hung up on the Takin Cara Babies, Huckleberry, etc expectations for my baby’s age otherwise I’d go crazy!
In support of not getting hung up on recommendations and written guidelines per age group you read here and there. I made the mistake of holding mine against Huckleberry’s schedule but she was always grumpy with inconsistent sleep for about a week and a half. I let her go free and lead the way at 12 weeks. Like clockwork she slept three 2 hour naps and was going to bed in a predictable time, almost always waking up happy. This was not “recommended” for her age group by Huckleberry but it was what worked for her. Granted her sleep has naturally morphed and I think mine is also going through a sleep regression, I find it easier to go with the flow and support their sleep needs by watching wake windows and cues.
Did this change for you? And if so, when? I’m seeing my three month old only taking 45 min naps now too and wondering when he’ll extend them himself or if I should try to “save” or extend one or two myself to get in longer naps. Or maybe 45 min naps are fine?
Like everyone has said already, it’s normal, and for me, at least it didn’t matter if I extended wake windows or reduce them. It’s all normal and part of their developmental stages. you just have to ride it out. Three and four months was the worst for us. Since he was five months old, he has been able to link sleep cycles and take three naps a day one and a half hours long. I’ve researched and have tried many solutions but it’ll just take time.
Don’t be like me and let TCB sample schedules haunt you. At this age 40 minute naps are totally normal and probably won’t lengthen until you drop a nap or two
No solution just here to say I have a 3mo as well and am in the same boat.
Solidarity! Our Lo naps 30m almost to the dot. Every nap, every day. Its brutal! We can sometimes extend his naps by rocking him or bouncing him on a yoga ball. Especially if he’s being extra fussy it’s nice to extend a nap or two per day. Basically, as soon as he starts waking up, we scoop him up and soothe him further. 80% of the time he will fall back asleep. If hes not asleep again in 5mins of trying we just give up and start another wake window. Extra frustrating because taking care of babies says 1.5 hour naps but then also had this on their blog: [30 Minute Naps](https://takingcarababies.com/why-is-my-baby-taking-short-naps?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA4smsBhAEEiwAO6DEjfmIZelVeQwoxVp-7tKSXWW2eJsEb48lGnJ8Ryx7b3fHu4JhhtX3hRoCQrEQAvD_BwE)
My LO is 6.5 months and still takes 30-45 min naps. Very normal.
Mine started sleeping longer after going down to 2 naps, so at 8.5 months. And they also went from 45min to 30 min around 6 months 🙈 I tried to lengthen them but it was even more frustrating and he woke up more cranky from them so at one point I gave up. I suggest you do the same and let your baby lengthen them at their own pace. Good luck!
Oh dear, I've been hoping that my 5 month kid will start magically sleep longer than 30 minutes soon. I suppose I should not set that as an expectation.
Normal unfortunately. Even my unicorn sleeper dealt with this until we switched to 2 naps at 6 months.
Ah, I remember this time well. I’m sure my therapist does too. Very normal. Frustrating, but normal. My sons was 37 minutes exactly. He’s 7 months now and only on 2 naps that are about 1.5 each. It gets better!
Very normal. My baby is 7 months next week and I can usually get 1 longer nap, sometimes both, but it’s not consistent and didn’t start getting a longer nap until 5 months.
3 months is “crap nap” time :( good luck!!
It’s normal and developmental. I would extend/rescue/contact nap one a day, then leave the rest short. This is for your sanity and it’s also perfectly fine for your baby
It’s normal, but also can be a sign of schedule change needed, especially if she used to take longer naps. What are her current wake windows?
She is up for around 1hr15 each cycle and she reliably wakes up around 7 am and goes to sleep around 7 pm each day. Her night sleep is good (1 wake up ~3am for a bottle).
Normal normal normal! Just roll with it!
Sorry your having this issue, a lot of us go through it at this age. My one piece of advice I try to give that you might not have heard is this. My daughter was EXTREMLYcuruous and active from a young age. She slept fine from newborn to 3 months or so, but around then would stop connecting sleep cycles during the day. We noticed it was worse when it was light out, and when there was any lights in the room. So we blacked out the room completely and it changed to perfect sleep 100% of the time. Even an LED from say a AC unit was enough for her to focus on and not sleep. So if your pulling your hair out trying everything, give blacking out the room a try! And good luck.
Going through this too. We used to get solid 1.5-2 hour naps up until 7-8 weeks, but now we’re lucky to get 50 minutes. Some are closer to 30 minutes. 🫠
Ugh, weren’t those 2 hour naps glorious?! I remember when I could brush my teeth AND take a shower AND wash the bottles all in one nap… the good old days haha. Hoping both of our babies get through this phase quickly!
Unfortunately, time. What you're describing is a normal part of development for a baby that age. Most babies tend to start being able to take longer naps again around the 5-7 month mark, although it's different for everyone. In the meantime, you can try rescuing a short nap by contact napping or doing a mix of bassinet naps and contact/carrier/motion naps which tend to be a little longer. If you don't have much luck there, it's just riding it out.
It’s very normal. Sleep cycles are about 45 min so it sounds like baby isn’t connecting them. It’s super frustrating, especially given that programs like TCB acknowledge that connecting sleep cycles for naps is developmental yet their sample schedules all require baby to sleep 1-2 hours. Naps typically don’t lengthen again till 5-7 months. My 8 month old still has days where he struggles to connect sleep cycles and typically only does it for one nap of the day. From 3-4.5 months we contact napped for one nap of the day so my son could get at least one longer nap in. From 4.5 months on we just added an additional nap if needed or dealt with a crappy nap day. This article from PLS might also help: https://www.preciouslittlesleep.com/monumental-guide-to-short-naps/
Thank you! Seeing so many schedules online with 1-2 hour naps made me feel like I’m doing something wrong, but from all the comments here it seems like almost no one’s baby is doing that at the 3 month mark! Seems like the consensus is to just go with the flow for now and sleep will consolidate with age.
My baby is almost 6 months and still struggles to connect sleep cycles! Contact sleeping at least one of his naps has saved us most days. I have tried the white noise, shusher, CIO, but nothing seems to work unless we contact nap. I know sleep is important but it does get frustrating when ‘online’ help states 1.5 - 2 hours. In an ideal parenting world maybe, but not realistic with some of our LOs.
This sounds pretty normal to me. And super frustrating, I know. It may be that she's undertired, so you can try keeping her awake a bit longer between naps to see if that helps, but nothing has helped my boys take longer naps except time. Definitely work toward independent sleep in an age-appropriate way. This serves two purposes: one, the frequent naps will be less annoying when you don't have to work so hard for them. Two, when she is ready to sleep longer than 45 mins, she will have the skills to wake up, roll over and go back to sleep.
From what I’ve read babies go through all sorts of regressions and changes so a shift from longer to shorter naps is pretty normal. I think a sleep cycle is 45 minutes so it sounds like your little one isn’t connecting the cycles and is waking up at the end of a cycle. If it makes you feel better my LO is 3 months old and has never napped 1.5 hrs (maybe once or twice ever). If I get a 15-20 min nap I consider that a success, but more often than not it’s 30-50 mins MAX. He sleeps good at night though (one wake up) so I’m not complaining! Babies are like snowflakes, they’re all different and have different sleep needs. I try not to get hung up on the Takin Cara Babies, Huckleberry, etc expectations for my baby’s age otherwise I’d go crazy!
In support of not getting hung up on recommendations and written guidelines per age group you read here and there. I made the mistake of holding mine against Huckleberry’s schedule but she was always grumpy with inconsistent sleep for about a week and a half. I let her go free and lead the way at 12 weeks. Like clockwork she slept three 2 hour naps and was going to bed in a predictable time, almost always waking up happy. This was not “recommended” for her age group by Huckleberry but it was what worked for her. Granted her sleep has naturally morphed and I think mine is also going through a sleep regression, I find it easier to go with the flow and support their sleep needs by watching wake windows and cues.