how long are your babies' afternoon sleeps?

DD is still asleep. She went down at about 2pm, and now, 3 hours later, she's still asleep. This is definitely unusual for a baby who has mostly been feeding every couple of hours through the day, and who normally sleeps for 30-40 minutes at a time.

She's woken slightly a couple of times, I've put the dummy back in, she's gone back to sleep. Definitely unusual, that.

I'm not complaining (!), nor am I worried. She seems quite well today, though a little cranky (tummyache?). No fever or anything like that.

She did something like this about a week ago. It surprised me then, too.

So I'm wondering whether this is part of her transition into proper morning and afternoon sleeps (ie just two sleeps a day, rather than several small naps). Maybe this is her version of an afternoon nap. But it seems very long, to me.

How long did your child sleep for when they started doing two sleeps a day, morning and afternoon?

DD is 12 weeks old. How old was your baby when they started doing clear morning and afternoon sleeps?

Or is this just a happy fluke? I've gotten biscuits baked and dinner on, the shopping delivery put away, the washing done and some relaxed time browsing the web. What a nice afternoon :)

Could be a growing day? My bub has days where she has big sleeps and is really hungry too and then goes back to normal in the next couple of days. Enjoy! :dance:

At around 4 months DD started having 2 x 2 hour naps. She's still pretty much in that routine, but one of the naps is more like 1-1.5 hours now.

She has had some mammoth sleeps in growing weeks. One was 4 hours!!

Enjoy it while it lasts!

HTH

At 12 weeks DD was having 3 naps a day (usually after being awake for 1.5 - 2 hours). These would vary in timing, sometimes 1-1.5 hours, sometimes 2 hours plus, and even 3 hours plus at rare times. Those 3 hour naps sometimes happened when she seemed to going through a growth spurt (directly after having a few fussy days with extra feeds and less sleep), but also in the few days after her jabs. Has your DD had her 3 month injections recently?

Between 12 weeks and 5 or so months DD continued to have three naps a day, and progressively each nap got shorter (starting with her late afternoon nap and then her morning nap getting shorter and shorter) until at about 5 months old she was ready to drop a nap and have two naps a day. She dropped her late afternoon nap, and her middle nap became a little later.

Now she has 2 naps a day, one in the morning for about 1 hour or so, and one after lunch for about 2 hours (although this can be shorter if she's had over an hour's nap in the morning and longer when she is unwell/growing). This pattern started a little after 5 months old, and took a week or two to transition between the 3 naps to 2.

Your DD could be ready to transition to longer naps - as this can often happen around 3-4 months old with babies that have only previously slept for short amounts of time - although I would think that it's a little early for her to be having just two naps a day, but all bubs are individual, and your DD maybe ready to settle down to 2 nice long naps a day! I hope those long naps continue for you and her! Well rested mum and bubs are GREAT!


ETA: I thought it might be worth mentioning that babies produce growth hormones the most when they are asleep - hence during a growth spurt they will sleep longer, particularly during a day. Sorry if I'm mentioning something you already know!

Thanks for all that advice. I didn't know that they grow more and sleep more at the same time. That's kind cute, to think of them growing in their sleep.

But actually i think I know realise what was going on: DD has a cold. It's been clear since Wednesday afternoon, but I think she had it from a couple of days before that, and that was why the longer sleep and also a lot of crying on Tuesday night. She was really snuffly and had a high temperature on Wednesday night, so took her to the doctor yesterday and he said she has a cold, nothing scary, just uncomfortable for her (and all of us).

touch wood she's better tonight (at least her temperature isn't up, like it was this time yesteday). So hopefully our cheerful little person will be back tomorrow, not all subdued like yesterday.

That makes sense, especially if she's been unsettled in the night - she'll be making up for the loss of sleep during the day, as well as needing more whilst ill, and fevers can often make young babies sleep much more.

Hope she's feeling much better soon - I can sympathise! My DD has a cold at the moment too and has been quite subdued, but is getting back to normal at the moment. It's hard to see them subdued as you know they're struggling in their own way :( Hopefully she's her bright bubbly self before long!