“I love when I put my baby down, finally sit to eat something, and then she wakes up”– Said No Mom Ever.
Catnapping is one of the most common complaints I get from parents. I understand the frustration. Sometimes naptime is only the break we get! Not only is the break awesome, but long restorative naps for our babes lead to healthy sleep at night and overall happier children.
Let’s first define what a catnap is.
A catnap is anything that lasts about 50 minutes or less. However, there are some children who get close to the hour mark and it works for them. But for most children, anything less than an hour is just not enough.
Catnaps do have their place though, such as the last nap of the day. This is the nap that we most often WANT to be a catnap otherwise we find ourselves waking our babes to protect a decent bedtime. So, to be clear, the short naps we are going to dig into right now are NOT the last-nap-of-the-day-naps.
Daytime sleep is a completely different beast then nighttime sleep. I warn my clients that it can take a full six weeks to start seeing consistent results in nap length. Six weeks can feel like a long time, but once a child has naps figured out they continue to nap well until they are a preschooler!
“But why?”
Although daytime sleep is imperative for our littles, their drive for nighttime sleep is much stronger than the day sleep. This is of course why they only need a few hours during the day compared to the 11-12 hours of solid sleep overnight.
What do these short naps mean?
- If the nap is about 40-45 minutes every time, it’s likely because your child is unable to link her sleep cycles together.
- If the nap is more around that 20 or 25-minute timeframe, it could be due to inappropriate nap timing.
- If this resonates with you look back onto my previous post about early mornings and check out the wake times I outlined
Are my baby’s catnaps normal?
In short, yes!
It is developmentally appropriate for your baby to have catnaps all the way to about 6 months of age. And especially common in that 0-4-month age range.
Parents of newborns. Don’t worry about your baby’s naps quite yet, catnaps are totally okay at this point. The big thing you need to be concerned about is Mama and Babe getting as much rest as possible, creating the parental bond, and establishing a successful feeding relationship. When the 10-12-week mark approaches go ahead and start looking at creating independent sleep and getting onto a sleep schedule during the day. Before then, just survive and enjoy the baby snuggles!
Can we fix it?
Most of the time. Catnaps can be some seriously muddy waters to get through.
Probably not the answer you were looking for right? Before you give up, read on and I’ll get into many of the things you can get started doing to get your child on the right path.
Think of our babies sleep as one giant puzzle. Every piece must be in place for it to work.
The number one reason your child is likely “crapnapping” is due to a lack of independent sleep habits.
Remember if your child is using a sleep prop to get to sleep, they will wake and require that same prop to get back asleep.
A few examples of sleep props are;
- Soother
- Feeding (whether it be nursing or bottle feeding) to sleep
- Rocking or any other movement to sleep
Breaking your child away from any sleep prop is the first step in getting any sort of healthy long-lasting sleep habits. I know this is easier said than done though!
If your child falls asleep on his or her own and you’re still dealing with short naps look over this list and see if you are missing any of these other pieces:
Darkness. You want your child’s room to be a 9 or 10/10 on a darkness scale. For ALL sleep.
White noise. Make sure this is a consistent sound. Nothing random or with weird loud noises thrown in.
Appropriate wake times. Again, check out my early morning post to find the wake times for your child. Getting your child into bed at that perfect window is imperative and will take some time to get right (so hang in there!)
What else can we do?
Children are creatures of habit. You already know this. This is why our little ones respond so well to an established routine.
There is a chance (a small chance!) that your child is so rooted in their habit of crapnapping that you could be stuck with bad naps.
Remember how we talked about how their drive for daytime sleep is low compared to nighttime sleep? (How many of us have children that would rather just NOT SLEEP AT ALL during the day?!)
Naptime can be a difficult time for your child to go back to sleep after they have woken up. They open their eyes and sometimes it’s an immediate call out for you!
Hope is not lost
I’ve got a couple of suggestions for you to try depending on your situation, child’s age and of course your parenting style.
If your child is one of those kids who wakes up at the EXACT same time each nap. You know the ones, the ones that are up at exactly 32 minutes Every. Single. Time.
Go in right before she is about to wake up (so in this case, at the 30-minute mark) and try and lull her back to sleep. This could be a hand on the back, a pat on the bum or a few soft “shushes”. Go ahead and do whatever it is that soothes her and try to keep her asleep before she’s even truly awake.
Now be forewarned that this method is most successful with younger babies, but I have seen it work for older children as well. So, if you’ve got one of these scheduled crap nappers go ahead and give it a shot!
So maybe your child is a serial catnapper but it is totally random. Sometimes she is up after 20 minutes and the next nap she’s down for 90. This next suggestion is for you.
Crib Hour
The hour starts when your child has fallen asleep. Not the time they have been put to bed, just to make that clear. So if the nap is at 9:30, and babe falls asleep at 9:40 then you will go get her at 10:40 at the earliest. If babe is to wake before the hour is up this should give them ample time to get back to sleep.
This, of course, takes practice on her part as she learns how to get herself to sleep so there is a learning curve involved in this method.
Crib hour is a classic and fairly common method that many parents are using to extend catnaps and I do highly recommend it! However, I also understand that this is not necessarily every parent’s cup of tea though. Helping parents with all sorts of parenting styles solve their child’s sleep struggles is a big part of my job!
Alright, there you have it. As I’ve mentioned short naps are sometimes a difficult issue to resolve. Please reach out and I’d love to lend a hand.
Sweet Dreams,
Christine
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