Good night sleeper, crap day napper. How to extend naps at 3 months?
We thought we had won the jackpot with our LO who sleeps from 7/7.30pm - 6:26am (on the dot!) with a dream feed at 10/10.30pm. She has been doing this consistently since 7 weeks old but is TERRIBLE at napping and will catnap all day which I know is common around this age but it impossible to get anything done and I need to start work next month.
She is only sleeping through 1 sleep cycle (28 mins) regardless of how she goes to sleep with the exception of the car capsule where she will sleep for 2+hours (I cap her capsule naps at 2hrs for safety reasons and to make sure she has enough sleep pressure by bedtime). The only way I can extend a bassinet nap is contact napping.
To teach LO to STTN, I have been very consistent with sleep hygiene (following age appropriate wake windows, red light, white noise, dark room, feed/bath/feed/book/red routine) since about week 4 and from week 6 started putting her down drowsy but awake or awake and then sooth to sleep in the bassinet with patting and shooshing.
However the above has not been working for day naps! I have resorted to driving somewhere every day so she falls asleep in the capsule so that she will have atleast 1 x 2hr nap a day otherwise she would only get 2.5hrs sleep - and I know she needs atleast 4 to STTN!
After she has had one sleep cycle in the bassinet, she will wake up so alert and wide awake - I have tried to resettle her in the bassinet, picking her up and resettling her then putting her back down but still wide awake and wriggling! What else can I try to help her extend naps?
Would love to know how you extended your LOs day naps if you had a good night sleeper. Have you had success with crib hour or wake to sleep?
Is it possible that because LO is sleeping so well at night with no night waking so early on that she isn’t able to sleep during the day?