Tips for extending day sleeps

Hi there - I'm new to the forum and am looking for tips on extending my daughter's day sleeps.

She is four and half months old and a very happy, content bub. She is fully breast fed and on a 3 hour-ish feed, play, sleep routine. She is a great night time sleeper and has been for a long time. She no longer feeds at night and hasn't for some time. She self settles in her own bed (with the occassional need to pop her dummy back in to get her to sleep) but most of the time goes down without too much fuss (unless she's overtired).

She has never been a great day time sleeper and will rarely sleep for more than 50minutes to an hour at a time. I've found that if she has about four hours of day time sleep all up she is really good and sleeps much better at night - only problem is that when she's only having 40 minutes at a time she's not getting the four hours I'd like her to have.

When she wakes after 40 minutes I've tried leaving her to let her self settle again but this rarely works. She's quite happy to chat away to herself for a while but eventually starts grizzling and won't go back to sleep. I've tried going in as soon as she wakes to put her dummy back in but again, rarely works. I've also tried leaving her to cry for a bit but she gets herself worked up very quickly.

Any ideas for getting her to sleep longer??

In my experience hon, you cant!!! She sounds like she's doing really well!!:D With sleeping through, I'd say almost an hour at a time is all she needs. Just get her up, give big kisses, cuddles, a feed and get her in a happy mood. She'll get tired again and go back down when she is ready.

Sorry, no real answers, but she sounds like she's doing things just right!! Congratulations, and enjoy what a great little one you have!!:D

We had the same trouble with Charlie, the only thing that worked for us was music. I put on a nice CD on repeat & it seemed to get him into the next sleep zone. Also I admitt I fed him to sleep as the fuller his tummy the longer he seemed to sleep each day.

Ooh, I have just found a trick that works for us! My DS too was only doing one sleep cycle (40 minutes exactly) before waking up. I now go in a few minutes before the first cycle ends and watch him. As soon as he stirs (he usually stretches his arms and sighs) I pat his tummy for about 30-60 seconds then leave. The first time I did it he slept a total of an hour and 45 minutes! He usually only does one long sleep a day so it usually only works with one of his three naps, but the thing is it works for us!!

Best of luck, hope something works for you soon :)

I'm with Jodie. Sometimes you just can't get them to extend their day sleeps. You'll find they go through periods where they sleep for longer for a while an then go back to having little sleeps. You sound like you are doing everything really well so listen to you gut and you'll make the best decision. Sorry I'm not much help either.

My DS was the same as your DD - he would only sleep 40 mins at a time, resulting in not so good night sleeps. We use a CD on repeat, the same as Erin suggested and like Trish said, I would also time his sleeps so as soon as I heard tha first stirring at 40mins, would go in and pop his dummy back in. I also use a music box that plays a little melody for 10 mins and does a light show on the ceiling - I have found using this at the start of every sleep he has learnt to associate with sleep time, and when he stirs I can just pop it back on and he will usually drift back off to sleep. It took a while - some days letting him cry etc, or listening to him talk to himself for a good 20mins but eventually we managed to get past it and he is now a good day sleeper. At the age your DD is I think I could get 2 two hour sleeps and sometime a short nap in late afternoon. Another tip - we use a Jolly Jumper which I pop him into for about 15 mins before his day sleeps. All that bouncing around seems to tire him out! I am having a mummy brain day and can't remember what age we started that from - around the time that he had good head and neck control etc.

Good luck with it all! Here's hoping you get some lovely long day sleeps soon!

Thanks for all the hints and tips. So far no luck although we've had a very distrubted week, having to go away for a funeral and she's also been sick! I think I'm going to work on extending just one sleep a day, probably her arvo sleep because she's a bit more tired.

We had the same issues and tried the same things as you. we decided to go to sleep school ( which I fo0und very helpful an nice) and they suggest to go in when they become upset or distressed and help them resetlle - this means for us patting the bed and maybe our DD until they settl.e The first couple of times it's hard but now she can get 2 x 1 1/2 hr sleeps as well as one 45 mins sleep in each day. I know some people don;t like this approach but honestly when you're right there with them it's nearly the same as giving a cuddle but we don't get her out of the cot because then she thinks it's time to be up. It worked for us!

Longer sleeps during the day = less sleep at night! Babies only need a certain amount of sleep, so if you increase day sleeps, expect less at night. My daughter did that too, despite me being told it wasn't long enough. But try and get her out of bed in the morning now!!! Pfft... it's normal and it will pass... you are doing a great job. I know it's exhausting - my daughter also stopped day sleeps around her 1st birthday.

My baby always has the same amount of sleep at night regardless of how much she has during the day (which has varied over the last few holiday weeks from an hour to four hours during the day).

I've tried to give her a sleepy routine. Go into the bedroom, big cuddle, lots of saying "sleepy time now baby", change the clock/radio to Classic FM and give her a fluffy blanky. If I accidentally go in and wake her up after just a short sleep (she's in our bedroom so often I'm in there during the morning to get dressed after my shower) she's generally pretty good at nodding off again.

I guess my rule of thumb is to encourage her to go back to sleep if she looks sleepy (whisper "sleepy time" over and over and find her fluffy blanky) but not bother if she looks alert/awake. So just follow her cues.

I don't think there's any hard and fast rules - some babies need more than one sleep cycle, others don't and if they don't, no point frustrating the two of you trying to make your baby sleep.