When Baby Y was younger, he would drop off to sleep whenever, wherever, like most newborns. The car. A restaurant. The floor. Our laps. The Boppy. It was wonderful, and the last thing I worried about was whether he was napping enough.

Around two months or so, I started paying attention to his sleepy cues and following Weissbluth’s advice: At no time should he be up more than two hours; oftentimes, in the morning, he would only make it an hour or so before he should be back asleep.  He would conk out in his swing or Rock ‘n’ Play pretty reliably for at least an hour, and sometimes two or three! Easy peasy.

napping in the car

Sacked out in the car, like usual.

But then, around three months, his naps got shorter and shorter. Soon, they were only about 45 minutes long. I could set a watch by them  – it was uncanny! He was getting a lot more alert, and I figured the swing might be too stimulating, so I started making sure he was in his crib for naps in hopes he would sleep longer.

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While he didn’t fight the transition to the crib, his naps were still frustratingly short.

So I did what any frustrated new mom does: I turned to Google, and typed in “45-minute nap.” I was stunned to see how many other parents were struggling with this.

Adults’ sleep cycles are about 90 minutes, but babies’ are about half that. Yup, around 45 minutes. So if they can’t make it into the next sleep cycle themselves, they wake up – usually crying and cranky, because for most babies, a nap under an hour isn’t that restorative.

So, I had a tired baby on my hands.  Sometimes he would need 4 or even 5 naps a day to stay in a decent mood. And aside from being concerned Baby Y was getting the rest he needed, I was going a little crazy. I often work at home, and his short naps made it hard for me to get anything done. I was desperate for a little more time, so I started researching possible fixes:

  • Swaddle for naps. I was already doing this. Moving on…
  • Use white noise. I was already doing this, too, though I realized that his Cloud B Sleep Giraffe had a 44-minute timer and was shutting off right as he woke up! I switched to my iPod and a speaker dock and used a white-noise track on repeat. It’s what we still use, but it didn’t extend his naps.
  • Go to the baby immediately and try to soothe him back to sleep. When Baby Y still napped in his swing, sometimes I could sneak up to him when he stirred, replace his pacifier, and prevent him from waking up fully. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no luck soothing him back to sleep once he was in his crib.
  • Try “wake to sleep.”  Using this Baby Whisperer method, I would creep into Baby Y’s room about a half-hour into his nap, lightly poke him until he stirred, and either pat him or put light pressure on his body until he relaxed into the next sleep cycle. Honestly, I only made it a couple of days with this method until I chucked it. We have old, creaky floors that make “creeping” next to impossible, and all I really accomplished was waking Baby Y even earlier. It wasn’t worth the effort and the stress.
  • Pick up/put down. Another Baby Whisperer method, I’ve used this with some success at night. I pick up Baby Y, shhhhh him, and put him down right after he calms, repeating as necessary. Unfortunately, during the day, it was just too stimulating for him.
  • Shorten/extend awake times between naps. I fooled with them a lot, but nothing ever seemed to help.

Ultimately, what did work?

  • Car naps. While he wasn’t napping as long in the swing, Baby Y could (and still can) take an epic 3-hour car nap. I try to do this only when he’s extremely overtired – I’m not about to drive him around for all of his naps! But it always works.
  • Unswaddling. Counterintuitive, maybe, but as I found out when we unswaddled him, Baby Y likes to sleep on his side and sometimes his tummy. Toward the end of our stint with swaddling, he was probably getting frustrated that he couldn’t switch positions.
  • Letting him fuss. In the early days, I went to his side at the first peep. These days, I can better distinguish sleepy groans and mantra cries (basically fussy moaning) – normal as he transitions between sleep cycles – from an escalating cry that means he is DONE sleeping and I need to get him.
  • Waiting it out. Not exactly a method, but most babies are simply better able to self-soothe into the next sleep cycle as they get older. Over the past month and a half or so, I’ve seen definite improvement. Baby Y usually takes one nap of at least 1.5 hours – sometimes 2.5 – a day.  It’s not consistent by any means, but it’s a definite improvement.

It’s easy to get obsessed with naps (or lack thereof) especially when your work/chores/showers/meals depend on them. For me, though, it was more exhausting trying to “fix” short naps than ultimately letting them run their course.

Any other short-napper tales out there?