The Short Napper

It's been more than a week of sleep training and we have the overnight sleep worked out.  He goes down between 5-6pm after a bath and a feeding and sleeps until 6 or 7 am with a 3 or 4 am feeding.  What a miracle! But naps that's a different story.  

How long should naps last?

All the books say if it's under 1 hour its not really nap you should leave them in the crib and see if they will fall asleep again.  Sleeping on his tummy my baby slept for 1 to 3 hours, but now that he has learned how to flip over-naps only last 30-45 minutes. It's like clockwork at the 45 minute mark...his eyes open and he can't go back to sleep.  It's not a problem, except that his window of awake time is so short.  About an hour or hour and 10 minutes and then he starts to yawn, get tired and fussy.  So back into the crib he goes.  I miss him.

How many naps should a baby take?

At 4 months, babies should nap 3-4 hours total. So ideally 2 naps of 1 1/2 to 2 hours and then late afternoon nap at

for about 45 minutes. Right now my baby is taking like 5 naps because they are so short. But I don't let him last nap go past 4:45 so it doesn't interfere with his night sleep. It's been hard because now that I'm sleep training him in the crib he's not as portable and all day long

I'm monitoring his naps, but it's complete shift from when I had to carry him all day. He is now able to self-soothe. I know all this scheduling and monitoring will allow my baby to well-rested, happy and healthy.