daytime naps with a 5 month old

[NIfirsttimer]

ruby used to nap regularly, but recently has been taking little power naps all over the place, different times each day, and for varying lengths of time...i was happy to run with it for a while, but shes not regulating it in any way, so its causing some issues at bedtime now, shes either so tired she wont take her last feed, or wide awake way past bedtime!
i want to try to get some routine to her daytime sleeps, but im not sure when the best time would be, and how i should be aiming for on average?
shes 5 months old, and sleeps 9pm to 9am, and eats at 9 12 3 6 & 9....

what does / did your 5 month old do?

 

[Foogirl]

Abby sleeps 3 times a day for 1-2 hours at a time.

She'll go back down for a nap after being up for about and hour and a half, two at the most. She starts getting really tired if she is up for any longer than that.

So, she's up at about 7 but back down at 9.
Up about 10.30, back down at 12
Up at two, back down at about 3.30
Up at 5 then we start her bedtime routine after 6 and she is in bed by 7 where she stays til 7.

 

[faille]

Violet was never regular with her afternoon naps but always needed one about 1.5-2hrs after getting up in the morning.

Sorry, not much help!!

 

[georgie1991]

my daughter is the same, shes always taking different cat naps at different times every day. shes terrible, but most nights she goes to bed at half 7/8 whether shes tired or not lol

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

My Ruby started with this at exactly your Ruby's age, lol, and came out of the 'phase' at about 6.5 months.

My trick with naps is to work out / observe how long she's happily awake for. E.g at the moment with Ruby it's about 3 hours. So if she's been awake for 3 hours I start observing her very carefully for signs she's tired, if this hasn't already happened. If I go past this and she gets overtired, she'll find it very hard to settle for her nap when I do put her down.

If Ruby wakes up from a nap crying or seems unhappy I would settle her back to sleep, even if it takes ages. If she wakes up happy then fine, she's probably had enough sleep for now.

She now has a 30 min power nap starting at about 9.30-10am, and a long nap starting at about 1pm for about 2 hours. She does sometimes wake up moaning after 30 mins of the long nap, I settle her back to sleep.

 

[kaylynn040485]

I had this with Jessica for a while and like you she would power sleep which was so tiring as she would get overtired and bedtime would come and i couldnt get her down then sammielouize suggested when i put her down she would wake after 10 minutes and she said to leave her and c if she would fall back asleep as i would automatically pick her up when she woke. So i left her for 10 mins to c and she would indeed fall back to sleep so maybe try this. I think at about 5 months she was sleeping for about and hour twice a day, hope u get it sorted as i know it gets really tiring with a baby constantly awake lol Kx