[Burgundy]

Have something of a tricky sleeper in my 4 month old DS ( has always been this way) and just wondering about other peoples' experiences. My son never naps for more than 40 mins at a time and often less than that, sometimes just 15-20 minutes before he's awake again and will not be resettled. Just wanted to know how long it takes you to get your baby to sleep during the day? I get to the point where I give up because it just doesn't seem worth it for the amount of time that he will nap but wonder if I'm just giving in too quickly? Can easily take 20 mins to half hour and more often than not I end up feeding him to sleep just to avoid the tears.

Would be interested to hear your experiences!

[bikingbubs]

my son would take up to 40 mins to get to sleep, and would only sleep for 30-40 mins.

my daughter (4mths) takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 20 minutes and no rhyme or reason as to how long she stays asleep! (30mins-3hrs!)

DS turned out to be a champion sleeper by about 8 months (vast improvement by 6 mths) so try to just roll with it - I know how frustrating catnapping can be!!

Also - whats wrong with feeding to sleep? Its like the best thing mankind has ever given me! Boobs work every time I fed DS to sleep for ages and im spewing DD doesnt like it as much!

[katiebear26]

DD can take a while, if i don't feed her to sleep she sometimes just won't go at all like today, was meant to nap at 2:30 as she was tired but after trying for a while i gave up and she's only just gone to sleep now (4:40) after a feed.

i'm trying to wean her off feed-to-sleep but ti's taking a while.

like your DS she only sleeps for 40 minutes at the most during the day and has no more than 3 naps per day (is 6 months old). she's waking 1-2 times a night but strangely has strated to settle herself back to sleep when she wakes up sometimes at night if we leave her for a bit (not crying, just stirring).

if he's not overtired i would just go with it. if he is overtired then maybe look at your routine to get him to sleep or catch him earlier.

feeding to sleep is not a bad thing but i think i would prefer DD to be able to go in her cot peacefully without being completely zonked, just think it's a good skill to have for when she wakes up at night.

[Mum2TwoDSs]

My bub now 18 weeks takes 5 mins or less to fall asleep for most sleeps but we do get the occasional more crying episodes where he would have intermittent crying up to 20 minutes (this kills me each time!). I do find that with more crying involved his sleep is worse. He may cry again in the next hour and needed resettling! His naps varies from 30 to 45 to 60 mins each and he does have naps up to 1.5-2 hours every day. I must catch his signs cos if he gets overtired he is very cranky to go to sleep. So every day I am just busying feeding him, short play then nap.

This post has been edited by Mum2TwoDSs: 18/02/2013, 05:30 PM

[Kay1]

My DS was similar at that age. I was often spending 30 mins settling for a 40 min nap and the same at night when he would then wake every 45 mins til midnight and then 1.5-2 hourly.

His day sleeps got longer at about 4.5 months but settling was still taking ages. Eventually at night it was taking me up to an hour and he was crying a lot of that time. I completely ran out of options and did CC. I will say I waited until he was 6 months and on a good amount of solids at night so I KNEW he was not hungry. Thankfully it took only 2 nights of crying (going in periodically to comfort) and he learned to go to sleep on his own. I now just wrap him up and sing his songs, put him down and walk away. He doesn't cry and goes to sleep. This has translated to day sleeps as well thankfully. I know it doesn't always work this way and its not for everyone but it sure has changed our lives for the better.

[puffsgirl11]

My 15 wk old only catnaps during the day. Sometimes he will go down straight away sometimes it takes 10-15 minutes. He sleeps between 40-45 minutes each nap.

[VintageEyes]

DS was exactly as you describe, sometimes longer.

I fed to sleep to save my sanity

[emjrose]

I agree with other comments, feed to sleep while you can! I did this with my DD up to 7-8 months old. At that point she stopped falling asleep during a feed but had no problems falling asleep by herself after the feed so it didn't create any long term sleep association issues. DD would not sleep in her cot otherwise in the early months so it was a great option for us.

[KRT]

At that age, DS would take 5 minutes if I got the timing right with his tired signs, 10 minutes if I was a bit off, or 20 minutes or more if he was really overtired. We'd have a couple of days a week where we'd miss a nap entirely because he just couldn't settle.

It all got so much better around 6 months when he went down to two naps and started sleeping longer. He was pretty early to drop down to two, though.

I found that resettling would usually show some sign of working within 10-20 minutes. I'd try as much as I could be bothered, to be honest. My DH was a champion resettler - he'd rock DS while playing games on his phone. I would catch up sitting in DS's room still playing long after DS was asleep.

Feeding to sleep stopped working for us around 11 weeks, so we had no choice with the tears For lots of babies they naturally grow out of needing it, but for others the suck to sleep becomes a strong sleep association and they can't resettle between sleep cycles without a nipple in their mouth. That's why people say it's a bad habit - but it is really up to you.

[Toothfairy01]

My DS was similar at that age. I was often spending 30 mins settling for a 40 min nap and the same at night when he would then wake every 45 mins til midnight and then 1.5-2 hourly.

His day sleeps got longer at about 4.5 months but settling was still taking ages. Eventually at night it was taking me up to an hour and he was crying a lot of that time. I completely ran out of options and did CC. I will say I waited until he was 6 months and on a good amount of solids at night so I KNEW he was not hungry. Thankfully it took only 2 nights of crying (going in periodically to comfort) and he learned to go to sleep on his own. I now just wrap him up and sing his songs, put him down and walk away. He doesn't cry and goes to sleep. This has translated to day sleeps as well thankfully. I know it doesn't always work this way and its not for everyone but it sure has changed our lives for the better.

How much comfort did you provide? My LO becomes so hysterical, that I have to pick her up and bounce and rock and then you just can't put her down again until she's either asleep or really really drowsy, by then you feel like you've missed the boat for "putting down whilst awake".

At that age, DS would take 5 minutes if I got the timing right with his tired signs, 10 minutes if I was a bit off, or 20 minutes or more if he was really overtired. We'd have a couple of days a week where we'd miss a nap entirely because he just couldn't settle.

It all got so much better around 6 months when he went down to two naps and started sleeping longer. He was pretty early to drop down to two, though.

I found that resettling would usually show some sign of working within 10-20 minutes. I'd try as much as I could be bothered, to be honest. My DH was a champion resettler - he'd rock DS while playing games on his phone. I would catch up sitting in DS's room still playing long after DS was asleep.

Feeding to sleep stopped working for us around 11 weeks, so we had no choice with the tears For lots of babies they naturally grow out of needing it, but for others the suck to sleep becomes a strong sleep association and they can't resettle between sleep cycles without a nipple in their mouth. That's why people say it's a bad habit - but it is really up to you.

Do you know if the feed to sleep is creating this sleep association habit if the baby needs to suck to initially get down for the night, but then sleeps through for 8-9 hours?