Berkeley Parents Network: Extending baby's daytime naps

Berkeley Parents Network

Extending baby's daytime naps

Berkeley Parents Network > Advice > Sleep > Naps > Extending baby's daytime naps

4-month-old: extending his 45-minute naps
5-mo-old: are 40 minute naps enough?
Extending 6-month-old's short naps
11-month-old's short naps

4-month-old: extending his 45-minute naps

Feb 2004

I'm trying to get my 4 month old baby to take naps longer than 45 minutes. Have you had this problem and overcome it? I would be so grateful for any tips. My daughter takes six 45 minute naps a day. Stretching out her awake time between naps doesn't seem to help, she just gets overtired and then can't settle down easily. I've tried to settle her before she fully wakes (at 45 minutes), but no, her little eyes pop open and she's wide awake, even if I give her the paci. What to do? Thank you! Laura

Our baby used to take much shorter naps--we used to call them power naps! One day, she had a slight cold and we put a humidifier in her room. She took her first three hour nap that day, and we have used a humidifier ever since! Don't put water in it, just leave it empty and turn it on. The white noise does wonders for naps and long, sleepful nights. We swear by this, and have used one for all three of our babies. Mary

Oh how I remember the days of the 45 minute nap! My now 2 year old was the king of the short nap, you could literally set your watch to him. I tried everything that every book recommended, but ultimately the only thing that worked was time. One day he just started sleeping longer all on his own! . There was a period where he was very inconsistent, one day would be three 45 minute naps, the next would be two 1 hour haps, and there didn't seem to be any relation to how much he slept at night, how long I kept him up between them, etc.. I figured that as long as he wasn't too tired or cranky I would just roll with it, and I can't remember exactly when it stopped, maybe by 6 or 7 months? But eventually it did. Jill

Why is it that important that she take longer naps? At this age she is doing what she needs to do, as she grows up she'll start taking longer and fewer naps, it's just a matter of waiting. anon

Wow! Six 45 minute naps a day? Count your blessings! That's 4 1/2 hours to yourself everyday! My daughter is 2 years old and I don't ever remember getting that much....I think at 4 mos. old it ! is too young to expect your child to do any more than that, and probably it will diminish down to 4 then 2 naps of 45 min a day before you will get her to take longer ones...and then you will go through an awkward period, this happened for us around 16 mos., when two naps are too much and one is not enough. I know lots of moms with lots of babies and I cannot recall any one of them doing any differently than yours is at four months. Remember too that your daughter is growing faster now than she will at any other time in her life and these intermitent naps are the best thing for her.... anon

6 times 45 minutes is a good amount of total napping for a 4 month old, but in time the naps will become fewer and longer, if you encourage them. If you don't have Weissbluth's book (''Healthy Sleep Habits/Happy Child'' ...or something like that) I'd invest in it at this point. If it helps any -- my little guy went to two long naps shortly after 4 months... and 2 years later still takes one 2 1/2-3 hour nap daily, in addition to sleeping 10-12 hours per night. It can be done! Heather

My 4 and 1/2 month old daughter also takes 45 minute naps, almost like clockwork. Like you, I tried to be there that first instant, to coax her back to sleep when 45 minutes was approaching, but she was still ready to get up after 45 minutes. I decided that this isn't a ''problem'' after all, because she seems happy during her awake times, and goes down fine for her next nap--so this is just her pattern. You didn't say why these short naps are a problem for you... If you think it's a problem for he! r, I doubt it is (assuming she seems well- rested overall), as I've been advised by other moms, and I've read, that as infants get older, the nap durations will lengthen. Your baby is still very young, barely past the newborn stage--give it at least another month or two before you spend more time thinking about this issue. Chances are, her pattern will have changed by then. Best wishes. Tracy

Our 8-month-old, like your baby, is waking during the light- sleep phase of the sleep cycle. I can set my watch by the 45- minute duration of his naps. And when he wakes up, like your baby, he's up---our little ones have yet to learn to put themselves back to sleep. I'm reading and finding helpful The No- Cry Sleep Solution, by Elizabeth Pantley. She talks about this phenomenon and says that we need to do anything and everything we can to help baby get a full cycle of sleep! (about an hour and a half), so the baby is getting enough rest and also to help with nighttime sleep. The only thing that's worked for me so far is going into the room a few minutes _before_ my son wakes up and cuddling with him through the transition phase, so he never really awakens. The idea is, as he learns to put himself back to sleep, his naptimes will get longer. Best of luck to you. Denise

Sorry to break it to you, but some babies only nap in 45 minute increments! Hard to hear, I know. My first was like this, as were the infants of several of my friends. Mine didn’t start taking longer naps until 9-10 months, when she might go for an hour (and was down to 2 naps a day). By the time she was 14 months or so, and only napping once, she would nap for 1-2 hours. I know it’s frustrating, because you can get almost nothing done in 45-minute increments, but it’ll get better as she gets older. Hang in there! Christine

I just read the recent responses to your request for advice and wanted to add something that worked for me. My son was only taking 45 minute naps as well until he was 8-9 months old and I was extremely frustrated because my daughter had started taking longer naps when she was about 4 months old. She had always been such a great napper and I wasn't about to settle for this 45 minute business from my son. I tried many things and then took up the advice that gets repeated often on the parents network to read Marc Weissbluth's Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I read only a little the first day and took away one piece of advice that solved the problem... put your child down to sleep earlier than you think. The wierd thing is that when some babies get overtired they not only have a har! d time going to sleep but can have a hard time staying asleep. Just putting my son down a half-hour to an hour earlier for his naps (9:00 am for morning nap and 1:00 pm for afternoon) immediately solved the problem and a few days later when I slipped back into my old routine my son slipped back to his and that has been the case ever since which convinced me to stick with the new earlier nap schedule. roxanne

When my husband took care of our daughter during the day her naps were always shorter than when I took care of her and I finally figured out why. He would hold her the entire nap-time cuddled up on the couch - most of the time he'd fall asleep too. Whereas I would get her to sleep and put her in bed (by herself). Another thing that helped is having some ''white noise'' of any kind (i.e. humidifier or fan). It ! seemed to smooth out the other sharp noises - we live near a busy corner and during naptime might be the only time I have to do the dishes or other housework. Lois

Are 40 minute naps enough for 5-mo-old?

May 2004

My 5 month old takes lots of 40-minute naps all day long. She'll be up for anywhere between 1-2 hours and then sleep for 40 minutes. She wakes up happy from her naps but gets grumpy fast b/c she gets tired. I've started putting her down awake in her co-sleeper in hopes that that might help and she has no problem going to sleep on her own but she still wakes up after 40 minutes. She sleeps just great at night waking up to nurse 2- 3 times and I don't want to change anything about that at the moment. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to extend naps? Will it just happen at some point, as she gets older? Are 40 minute naps enough?

Marc Weissbluth (''Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child'') does say some babies take naturally short naps of about 30 minutes and that in these cases they lengthen at around 9 months. Our daughter is older than that but still almost always takes short naps. I do try to get her back to sleep if she wakes up cranky, but I sure haven't discovered any magic solutions (even with dark room, sound machine, etc.) active baby's mom

My son, now 9 months old, did the same thing at 5 months. We called him ''Mr. Shortnapper'' because he would take so many short naps throughout the day. I worried of course, because a lot of books say that they need to sleep at least an hour. I finally found something familiar in Weissbluth's book (most of which I hated, but it did have some redeaming qualties)--he says that some babies nap for short periods of time, and there is nothing you can do about it, and just to make sure they get as much sleep as they want. And so I did. I ended up staying home a lot more in the interest of good sleep. Well, for whatever reason, about 8 weeks ago he started naturally consolidating his sleeping patterns during the day, and now he has evolved into two naps per day of 1.5-2.5 hours each. It seemed easy and natural to do so. Hopefully the same thing will happen for you! Rebecca Harrach

I don't think 40 minute naps are enough for a five month old. An hour would be better -- or even longer. I found that the only way my son would stay asleep for naps was to stay in bed with him, holding him -- if I got up, he'd wake immediately and be too upset to go back down again, even if he needed more sleep. Have you tried nursing your baby back to sleep when she wakes? Also, have you tried other places for her to sleep, like in a carseat while you drive around, in a stroller while you push it, in a sling while you walk, just to see if you can get her to stay alseep longer? Maybe once she gets used to staying asleep, she will do so easier. Jennifer

Kids sure all have their own rhythms, don't they? It's fine. She'll figure out how to change it when she needs to. For instance, my 27-month-old has just gone from 45-minute naps her whole life to 2 1/2 hour ones. Go figure. heidi

My daughter did the same thing. Eventually her naps blended together to make 2 longer ones and then became one longer (afternoon) one. I've heard this is very common. Lynne

Elizabeth Pantley's book ''The No Cry Sleep Solution'' specifically addresses the issue of extending naps. For some babies it happens naturally as they get older, but I found it useful to help our son (who was 4 months old at the time and a 45 minute napper, too) learn to nap longer. He now naps for 2 hours when he's really tired and always wakes up smiling from his naps. It's helpful to read the book (they sell it on Amazon) but in short, you go in BEFORE your babies usual waking time (say 35 minutes after your daughter has fallen asleep) and use whatever method works (shushing, rocking, patting)to get her back to sleep just as she's starting to wake up. Good luck! shami

I didn't see your posting, so forgive me if you mentioned this, but are you breastfeeding and do you drink caffeine? If so, you might want to cut back and see if that helps. M

Extending 6-month-old's short naps

March 2002

My daughter is 6 months old and we are looking for ways to extend her daytime naps. Thankfully, she sleeps quite well at night (typically from 7:30pm until 6:30am with one feeding at 4-5am), and she doesn't have much trouble going down for naps (usually cries, sometimes loudly, for a few minutes and then falls asleep). But her naps rarely last more than 40-50 mintues (sometimes only 30 minutes). She sometimes wakes up and seems tired. I think she would be better off with longer naps. First, should I be concerned that her naps are so short, or is this common? Second, does anyone have suggestions as to how we might get her to sleep longer? We have tried short intervals (2 hours or less) between naps, and are now trying longer intervals - which doesn't seem to be working. I usually don't nurse her to sleep, but whether I do or not does not seem to matter. We have darkened her room and close the door during naps. Occassionally we let her cry when she wakes to see if she'll go back to sleep, but after 10-15 minutes of crying she is usually very wound up and I would rather not let her cry longer than this. Thanks for your responses! Liz

I had the exact experience with my daughter (now about 10 months old). She was also a good sleeper at night (generally slept straight for 11-12 hours) but didn't take very long naps (like yours, about 45 minutes). (I know, 45 minutes doesn't give you time to do anything!) I kept her on a two-nap per day schedule (put her to bed about two hours after she gets up, and then a three-hour interval, and then another nap), and hoped that they would eventually lengthen. Since she was about 7-8 mounths old (and was more active) the afternoon nap has begun to be much longer, until recently it is often close to two hours. So my advice, just hang in there, and don't give into the temptation to let her cat-nap.

As I recall, my daughter had short naptimes at this age too. She would take 20 minute naps though, ugh. What worked for me was time. Once she turned about 9 months old or so she had a real pattern down and would sleep for at least an hour, maybe 90 minutes in the am and then another hour+ in the afternoon. I know it is hard for you, because you really need the break, but as long as she is refreshed and not over tired it looks like she's got a good routine down -- for her. Most likely as she matures she'll be able to handle longer naps in the afternoon.

I remember one day when my son was less than 6 months old. He had four naps of 45 minutes each and was cranky all day. I was exhausted. The next day I let him cry himself back to sleep when he woke after 45 minutes. He was better rested as a result and as a result I was too. He got used to putting himself back to sleep after 45 minutes and now at 2 yrs. all his naps are at least 1.5 hours long and sometimes 3 hours long. I would recommend Weisbluth's book on sleeping since he does a good job of explaining what normal sleep patterns are and approximately how long the wake periods are between naps. Good luck!

My daughter, now 9 mos. old, has never been a good sleeper. Her naps, even still, are sometimes as short as 30 minutes. If we nap together, she'll stay asleep for 2-3 hours. Of course, we don't do this too often, unfortunately. One thing that does seem to help is getting to her quickly, nursing in a side-lie position, for just a few minutes and then she'll sleep for another 45-60 minutes. She's pretty well rested then. A trick my child-care provider taught me is to gently vibrate/bounce the bed with my hands positioned on either side of body until she falls asleep again - usually 1-2 minutes. I hope this helps. Good luck.

I'm a few months farther down that same road (my son is almost 9 months). We're still figuring things out too. Our son has never been a great sleeper. Around six months he was doing the exact same thing as your daughter -- 2-3 very short naps each day. I am noticing that as our son gets more mobile his sleep habits improve (or maybe he's just maturing). His nighttime sleep habits are similar to your child's, but he is taking one 2-3 hour nap per day (usually in the AM) and one shorter one, most days. I would just concentrate on following her cues and maintaining some kind of structure to her day. I really recommend the ''baby whisperer'' books for advice on following baby's cues. I guess my message is just hang in there -- it will get better!

I have a 5mo, and her naps vary widely (course she's the 4th child, so she is disturbed by her siblings from time to time). She's never slept by herself though - she just sleeps in the sling and her naps can range from 15 min to an hour. Why not put your baby in a sling and continue with your day - she'll love the rhythms of your body, the warmth of your body and feel snug and warm close to you.

I'm sorry but I don't have specific advice for how to extend a nap. It seems to me that you're doing everything right at this stage. I always felt that getting them to sleep was the biggest challenge, but how long they slept was somewhat up to them and their needs and internal clock. I can say, however, that my twins rarely napped for more than 20 - 30 minutes at a time for the first six months of their life. Right around their six-month birthday, they very suddenly started taking longer naps -- 1+ hours. It was as though someone flipped a switch, and they suddenly started napping longer. I know that you're concerned and frustrated enough to post a question, but please know that things change constantly for babies at this age. What may seem like a serious problem for you at this stage may change drastically tomorrow. I would say that you need to focus on the positives -- having a six month old that sleeps so well at night is HUGE, HUGE, HUGE! And, it sounds as though she is napping, although not as well as you would like. As someone who is still getting up at night with 18 month olds, I would say focus on what is going right and be confident that she will get the rest during her daytime naps that she needs. good luck!

My now 10-month-old didn't really start any sort of regular nap schedule until he was 7 to 8 months old. Even then, when he started taking 3 regular naps, they were quite short (an hour absolute max). It wasn't until recently -- in fact, when he started crawling, about a month ago -- that he actually started sleeping for an hour and a half or two hours, twice a day. I think that, if she is sleeping well at night (my son still isn't!) that you probably shouldn't worry too much about naps.

Your child is sleeping like a champ at night. Do you really want to mess with that? You could presumably keep her up later at night and see how she copes with it, but I think your expectations of what your child needs are working at odds at what she is telling you. It is not unusual for children at this age to take short naps. When they begin to crawl vigorously and then to walk is often the stage where the naps will lengthen, but every child is different. The worst thing you can do to yourself (and your child) is presuppose his/her biological clock and expect certain things that aren't the reality. This only leaves you frustrated to no end. And leaving her for a time after she wakes up will add to negative associations she may be making with nap time and result in a grumpy post nap period. Be thankful that your child has such great night sleeping hours.

My 9-month old daughter has had the same issue at times. I usually just lay down next to her and nurse her back to sleep, especially if she still looks tired after a forty minute nap. She usually falls back asleep and sleeps a total of 1.5-2.5 hours. Picking her up and taking her out of the room does not seem to help. Another option is rocking her back to sleep and rubbing her head. Good Luck.

11-month-old's short naps

Sept 2002

I have a 11 months old baby girl which doesn't seem to sleep much compared to all the other babies I know . Even as a newborn she was very alert and didn't seem to sleep much. She slept 10 minutes in the car, 20 minutes in the stroller and a 25 minutes nap at home or sometimes not even that. Everybody told me that's normal and this is the way a newborn sleeps ( cat naps ) and with 5 or 6 months she will sleep at least 1 -2 hours or even more. Well, I wish that would be true because I need a break with such an active baby. She only sleeps a 25 -30 minute nap a day and all the other children her age sleep at least an hour or more. She usully is still crouchy when she wakes up which pretty much tells me that she needs more sleep than that. She usually wakes up at 8:00 a.m, we eat breakfast together, go on our daily walk, stop at a playground , run errands and when we come home we have lunch together. I put her down between 12:30 and 1:00 and she sleeps her half hour nap. During that time I cook dinner and 30 minutes later she is up and I can't get her to sleep anymore. Getting her to sleep doesn't seem to be the problem it's just not long enough. Her bed time is between 8 and 8:30 p.m and my darling wakes me up least 3 times at night. I don't nurse her during the night anymore but I check in on her if she is o.k. and at 5:00 a.m she is allowed to come to my bed for nursing and cuddling. I need some advice how to make a sleep longer during the day. I would be thankful for at least an hour nap. I know that all babies are different and not everybody needs the same amount of sleep but 30 minutes the whole day doesn't seem right to me esspecially since she is an active baby. Does anybody have a similar experience ? I am thankful for any advice.

Penolope Leach (author of _Your baby and child_) calls babies like yours ''wakeful babies.'' They exist. They are really, really challenging, and it's hard not to feel envious of other parents whose kids take 3 hour naps every afternoon. (Can you tell I'm speaking from experience?) Leach talks about how these babies tend to be bright and precocious, as they spend more time engaged in the world than their sleepier peers. (...for whatever that's worth...)

(I seem to recall that she also talks about some coping strategies for parents of wakeful children, like getting a mother's helper a couple of hours a day. Think of it as the wakeful baby tax.)

One question I had was about your daughter's age. You mentioned she was 11 months. You didn't say how long this really short napping had been going on, but often kids are developing major skills around that age (e.g. walking, talking). I know that with my wakeful daughter, these milestones really screwed up sleep, both at night and naptime.

I'm sorry I don't have any magic advice, but I feel like every time I've just kind of tried to accept my daughter's wakefulness, it helps me be a little more settled, and, occasionally, it will shift. (She had a month where she took 1 hour long naps! What a joy that was...) Good luck. -- Ilana

My son, too, was a VERY alert tiny baby and took only short naps. This got better around the time he started crawling a lot at about 8 months and seemed to tire himself out more (and even more so when he started walking), but there was also something we learned from one of his nannies. He needed to be in a relatively quiet room in his crib and he often needed to cry for 5 to 10 minutes before falling asleep (not hysterically but in a fussy way). Although my husband and I are opposed to crying it out in general, we learned that if he woke up after half an hour or even after an hour when he was your daughter's age that he really needed to sleep more. As long as we were confident that he was safe and not scared, we would let him cry for 10 to 15 minutes before going to get him up from his nap (this would be intermittent crying over 10 minutes, not 10 minutes of continuous crying; often he was crying in a semi-conscious state anyway and wasn't really awake). We would listen near the door and not go into the room since once he saw us he was adamant about getting up, even if it was clear to us if we did go in that he desperately needed to nap longer. He would sleep for 1.5 to 3 (!) hours when we did this (just as he did for his nanny). It was such a relief for us at about 8 months since he only catnapped as a tinier infant -- it was fun to have such an alert, happy infant but what a challenge ! He also got the sleep that he needed. Also, if he took a 3-hour nap, it was because he needed it -- we never had a problem with his sleeping at night when he took such long naps (as long as the nap was in the afternoon and ended by 3 pm for a 9 pm bedtime; a short nap before 6 pm was often not a problem either if he hadn't gotten a long enough earlier nap). kb

One thing you don't mention is whether your baby is falling asleep by herself. You say getting her to sleep is not a problem but is that because you are nursing, rocking, etc? Very often babies will wake up a short time into a nap, cry, and then fall back asleep. But this requires that they know how to get back to sleep by themselves. Once she learns to fall asleep on her own, you will not need to check her every time she wakes up during the night either. Just listen to her from outside her room and go to her only if she seems to be having trouble going back to sleep (for example, if she has a cold or is teething).

If she does already fall asleep on her own, then try waiting after you hear her wake up from her nap. Give her a few minutes and see if she will go back to sleep on her own. You may want to try a music box or tape player you can operate remotely to try to soothe her back to sleep. Stephanie

I hate to tell you this but with our 2 1/4 year old son that is life. He has never been a great sleeper, always waking up thoughout the night, and the longest nap he ever took was twenty minutes. and 19 months he decided he didn't need any naps, and slept a bit better at night, but still gets up once or twice.

Our doctor told us that all children are different and it seems that the ones with high energy are the least likely to enjoy naps or sleeping thoughout the night. Good Luck. Kristi

My daughter was exactly the same. She took 4-5 half hour naps as a newborn and then gradually dropped some of those naps until she only took 2 30 minute naps a day. We were very frustrated. We expected a child who took those 2-3 hour naps that you hear about. We felt like we spent our days trying to get her to sleep. She also woke every 3 hours to nurse until I stopped nursing her at 16 months. At around 20 months, she started taking 1 1hour nap a day and usually sleeping through the night. Once my husband and I decided that she was who she was and respected her sleep patterns, we were much less resentful and all much happier and we didn't spend our days trying to put her to sleep. So, my advice is, just stick it out. She'll grow into a different pattern eventually.

Sorry but my advice is, get used to it! You will live thru it. My first (now 13) slept a good deal less than yours --7 hours at night and two ten minute catnaps a day, until he reached the age where kids only take an afternoon nap. ( Around 2, as I recall? ) He, too, was extremely active. On one nap a day, he would sleep an hour or so. At the stage where he was giving up a nap, he would be up until 11 or 11:30 pm if he so much as had a cat nap. I sent him to afternoon kindergarden so he would stop taking naps!

It is very, very hard but there isn't anything you can do about it, that I know about. There is a book by a doctor Ferber that we consulted when he was also getting us up 5 or 6 times a night for company. You might want to consult this about the times your baby is getting you up in the night. Mary Ann

My daughter is a short napper too. I briefly had success w/ a nap extension method mentioned in No Cry Sleep solution. Basically you park yourself very near by while the sleep, reading, meditating, or balancing the check book. At the very first peep or stir you pat them down again or even nurse them down again. The idea is to eliminate the crying/waking while you walk down the hall, dry your hands etc. The first days she successfully went back down and w/in 3 days didn't wake up until 50 min or so. But ultimately this wore off. That week was great for getting stuff done so I'd still give it a try. My nanny who is mien will, if she wakes up cranky, tie her on to her back with her sling and bounce her to sleep successfully. good luck. mother of a short napper

You may want to read Weissbluth's book ''Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby.'' He certainly convinced me that a baby can be taught to sleep better. Other's may tell you the same thing. Good luck. Heather

I went through a similar experience with my son (now 17 months) when he was about 6-7 months old -- he would often nap for 20-30 minutes at a time and just seemed tired all of the time.

What really worked for me was getting a copy of Marc Weissbluth's book ''Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child'' (mentioned on the network quite a bit) and implementing his suggestions. It made a huge difference -- my son became a very good, consistent napper (at the time, he napped twice a day for a total of about 2 to 2.5 hours) and also began sleeping through the night for 12-hour stretches. He currently naps only once a day, but is typically down for 1.5 to 2.5 hours.

The biggest drawback to Weissbluth is that you are beholden to your child's nap schedule -- all naps are taken at home, in the crib, and not in the stroller or car as much as possible (they really don't sleep as well in the car or stroller as they do in their crib anyway). While this does limit your social/going-out schedule for a while, in my case, the inconvenience was definitely worth the result of having a well-rested, good-natured baby. Good luck! Teresa

I'm not sure if my advice will be relevant as my baby is several months younger than yours, but I've also had some trouble both putting my baby to sleep and getting her to stay sleep.

I've discovered that part of the problem was that I wasn't alert to her clues as to when she wanted to sleep. After she was a couple of months old she stopped being able to put herself to sleep, unless she was really tired. Instead, she needed me to feed her, play music and be with her until she fell asleep. So now we have that routine and it works well.

Babies can sleep very lightly, they have much longer periods of light sleep than adults, and if disturbed during those periods, they can wake up very easily. So what I'd recommend is that you put your baby to sleep in a place with as few distractions as possible (in terms of noise, light, etc.) and preferably in the same place all the time. Also, when you hear she wakes up don't go to her right away, perhaps she'll fall asleep again. If this doesn't work - try putting her back for a nap a couple of hours later.

Try to be patient. I was sure my son ''just wasn't a napper.'' He would sleep in the stroller during the day with his baby sitter, but I never had luck with putting him down for a nap longer than an hour which drove me nuts.

On the weekends, I would just do whatever we were doing without worrying about naps and schedules. Often he would fall asleep if we were driving around. But as he got closer to his first birthday, I discovered he iwould/i take a good nap (1 1/2-2 hours) if I recognized his sleepy cues.

Now he's almost 2 and takes good weekend naps. I really try to be at home for them! Let's just say he trained me! :-) Good luck. Mollie

Oh, I feel for you! My very active baby was the same. In the midst of the sleep-deprived fog I existed in, I pondered how strange it was that my very active child didn't conk out into a longggg nap. I read that other infants slept an average of 14-17 hours a day (I forgot where I read this) and my darling was sleeping maybe 11. What changed? He got strong enough to actually exhaust himself. He crawled like it was an endurance sport and worked so hard to walk that he walked a few days before his 9-month birthday. Now, near his 2-year birthday, he runs, jumps, walks and trikes all over and has a two-hour nap. Hurrah! At least in his case, nothing was wrong, he just wasn't a big sleeper. I want to reassure you that probably you are expert at getting your child to sleep as much as he/she can at this stage, even more so than moms of easy sleepers. If you can find a way to get several 6-hour stretches of sleep a week, perhaps you can hang in there until your baby gets to a different stage. This may sound hollow now, but congratulations for having a baby that's so interested in the world. Been there, better now

Lots of people have suggested Dr. Weissbluth's book, which is wonderful, and will help you. One tip from the book that worked for me, is to put your baby down earlier. Overtired babies don't sleep as well. Perhaps put her down at 11, or even try two naps (one as early as 9:30 am). It may take a week or so for her to get used to it (I leave my daughter in her crib for an hour, even if she is awake, before getting her) but once she is used to the schedule, it may work. My daughter also took very short naps. I then realised that she always wakes up about 2pm, whether I put her down at 1:30 or noon! Good luck.

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