extending short naps

Anyone have any practical advice? 7 months old, generally likes to take a 45 min nap every 3 hours, but we'd much rather have him taking two longer naps every day.

Hmmm. Some thoughts:

- Perhaps you can keep him awake through one of the nap times you don't want. If you keep doing that he'll sleep longer during the ones he should have.

- Slowly move nap times (10-20 minutes a day) until you can consolidate them.

- Manage sugar intake. Stuff heavy in sugar (like soda) gives a rush, but coming down off the back can make child sleepy. Sugary food should be taken in small doses.

- If child is sleepy a small glass of juice can get him moving again.

- Manage schedule and excitement. Have activities that he really likes when he would normally have a nap.


The simplest thing is to make a schedule of naps, activities and meals as you want them and follow it. After a few days, kids tend to adapt.

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Yeah, I made a schedule, moved towards it slowly, replaced his noon nap with lunch -- it's been about 2 weeks, and he still only wants to sleep for 45 mins at a stretch -- I've been going into his room to pat him back to sleep when he wakes up -- which doesn't take very long, but it's incredibly interrupting to whatever else we're doing.


He seems to understand going to sleep when he is tired -- he grins and gets really excited when he sees his sleeping bag, then rolls over, grabs my arm, tastes each of my fingers and goes to sleep. At night, I sit down out of his line of sight and he plays with is stuffed cat for a while before he goes to sleep on his own, but in order to get him to do this, I need to catch a 5 min window that seems to correspond to a precise level of light [in general, it is moving later as the days get longer, but it is earlier on very overcast days]. And at night, he can generally put himself back to sleep [provided that he has gone to sleep by himself].


The sugar thing isn't really applicable yet, but it sure does work on his sister -- a sweet snack 45 mins before bedtime and she's got just enough time to take a bath, brush her teeth [and demand a piece of floss], get into her pajamas, hear a story and then into bed for a song and she's out like a light.