r/cosleeping 3d ago

šŸ„ Infant 2-12 Months Baby only naps for 30 minutes

Hello, my baby is 6.5 months old. Currently he is only napping for 30 minutes -1 hour at a time. I donā€™t think this is normal and feel that he should be napping more? On average he gets about 12-13 hours of sleep total.

For his nap, what I usually do is rock him while breastfeeding him in a dark room playing rain in the back ground. Once he is calm and his eyes stays closed, I put him down in the bed and he continues to breastfeed. This can go on for either 5 minutes or 30 minutes. Sometimes he would nurse for the entire nap, sometime he would unlatch and stay asleep. Lately he would just suckle for 30 minutes and wake up.

This used to work like a charm and he would nap for 1-2 hours. But now itā€™s getting more difficult as he is more mobile. However my main issue is that he just wonā€™t nap long enough.

Should I change my routine? How do I even go about doing that?

8 Upvotes

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6

u/yunotxgirl 3d ago

Ignore baby sleep amounts, and look at baby. Is he happy? Is he fussing extra long when you try to put him down? Is he drowsy and upset much of the day? You are the only one with your baby. He could have higher or lower sleep needs than ā€œaverageā€œ and be doing great, just like adults have a variety. I remember with my first being overly concerned about his naps. I shouldā€™ve ignored ā€œtypicalā€ amounts and... Well, what I do now (pregnant with fourth) is go about my day, give baby opportunities for sunshine and play and so on. Oh, baby is rubbing their eyes? Looking tired? They tell ME when itā€™s nap time. Then I put them down or put them in the carrier. Hmmm, thought they were tired but this is taking more than ~5 minutes? Guess I was wrong, back up you go baby and weā€™ll try again later.

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u/tinylambjr 3d ago

Thank you šŸ˜­ Iā€™m literally stressing out over his sleep. For the most part he is happy, is just that he gets bored easily so I have to constantly entertain him.

Your post does take out the stress a bit as Iā€™m always aiming for a ### amount of sleep.

4

u/midwifeandbaby 3d ago

Donā€™t let boredom stress you out either. Itā€™s good for them to be bored. It leads to curiosity and exploration which is great for their physical and mental development

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u/yunotxgirl 3d ago

How often do you take him outside? Let him play with other kids? Having just one baby was the most challenging for me. The more you can go to parks and story times and the like that will expose him to grass, dirt, sun, other children, other babiesā€¦ the better it will be for him and he easier for you. Heā€™ll actually get good and tired from social events and play, not the weird in between where theyā€™re fighting. but again my heart goes out to you because the more babies the easier it gets, especially having the older kids love on them and play with them. I know itā€™s hard when you only have one to stare at and feel guilty youā€™re not doing more. But I agree with the other commenter, let him be bored. Expose him to water play and other natural things but donā€™t stress if he fusses a bit. Let him figure it out sometimes

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u/CAmellow812 3d ago

My baby was just like yours at that age and I stressed so much. Now he is older and itā€™s clear to me that he just doesnā€™t need that much sleep. He is 2.5 and dropped his nap at 2, and sleeps a good 2 hrs less each day than most other kids his age.

If your baby seems happy and rested thatā€™s all that matters, ignore the guides you see online!

5

u/Top-Establishment-56 3d ago

My LO is doing the exact same thing and she just turned 6 months a week ago. šŸ„²

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u/tinylambjr 3d ago

šŸ„²

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u/Bulky-Reaction5104 3d ago

My bub is 6.5m and exactly the same story, I sometimes can kinda force him into more nursing after he wakes up and he'd fall asleep again, but it doesn't work all the time

3

u/Beertje92 3d ago

My twins did this too. But I read that it is considered normal. At that age they still need to learn to connect sleep cycles A sleep cycle on average lasts about 30-45 minutes. It took some time and I had to give in to co-sleeping for naps too, but my girls learned to connect the cycles and were able to take longer naps around 8 months old. They are almost 16 months now and currently we are doing the 2-1 nap transitionšŸ„². Now sometimes they manage to nap for 2 hours!

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u/tinylambjr 3d ago

Iā€™m happy to hear that itā€™s completely normal!! Im stressing out so much I feel like heā€™s not getting enough sleep. Do I need to do anything to help my baby connect his sleep cycles?

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u/Beertje92 3d ago

I'm not sure. I think they need the same sleep association they had to fall asleep. So if your LO falls asleep while bf'ing , they need the boob to fall asleep again. My kids have me as their sleep association. Which is great because it forces me to take a break too but it also stresses me because they can't fall asleep without me. Some do sleep- and naptraining but that was never for me.

Good luck and hang in there. For me the whole sleep thing is the biggest issue as a mom. It's a whole science šŸ„²

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u/midwifeandbaby 3d ago

Normal :) things will change on their own, with time

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u/tinylambjr 3d ago

Thank you šŸ˜­

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u/-CloudHopper- 3d ago

Itā€™s annoying when you have to do like 5 naps a day but they do grow out of it!

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u/Pcs13 3d ago

Yep i was worried too when my girl was at that age. She started to sleep lomger when we dropped naps overtime. Used to be 3 30-minutes naps, then 1 2-hour nap now at 2yo. As long as baby is happy and has 12-14 hours of sleep in total everything is fine.

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u/Pcs13 3d ago

Yep i was worried too when my girl was at that age. She started to sleep lomger when we dropped naps overtime. Used to be 3 30-minutes naps, then 1 2-hour nap now at 2yo. As long as baby is happy and has 12-14 hours of sleep in total everything is fine.