Hello! I recently got a 5 month old girl. Her naps last usually only about 20 minutes. Her parents told us this is normal. Any ideas on how to get her to nap longer? Yesterday I tried to follow a normal sleep schedule for her of 3 naps, but she completely refused an afternoon nap at all and just played instead. Of course her mother said she wouldn't go to bed for her and was miserable.
Any tricks?

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No, 2pm minute naps aren't "normal". Is she waking up happy or crying?

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Have the parents or you tried swaddling? The miracle blanket worked wonders for my youngest and my little daycare kids!

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That's what I said to her mother. All of my kids at least take a 2 hour nap at some point. Even the 3 year olds.

She is happy when she wakes up, but within about an hour she gets fussy for another snooze.

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I asked her mother about this at one point and she said she didn't want her to be swaddled, so she never did it. :/

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Is she taking these 20 minute naps every hour?

How about tummy time? I have a 5 mo old who HATES tummy time, but he gets a good long session before nap time specifically because it wears his little butt out

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Time for some GENTLE sleep training, IMO. She may have developed a "cat napper" pattern, so I would be putting her down in a dark room with some white noise. If she wakes and isn't fussy I would let her be. If she is fussy I would go in give quiet shushing noise, and maybe a gentle pat on the tummy I would not pick baby up or try to engage - I treat early waking from nap the same way I did middle of the night wakings - no lights, no taking, no eye contact. It was all business. Increase time between going in, and then get her up at regular time. Lather, rinse, repeat. Make sure awake times are lots of playing, floor time, excersize.

It can take a few weeks for baby to learn the difference between play and nap time. Good luck!

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Push her nap times back so she's super tired. White noise has always worked for me to extend nap times

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I have a 4 month old dcg who naps 9-11 then 1-3 and sleeps 12 hours at night.

Definitely start some sleep training to get her off the cat naps

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I have a just-turned 6mo who has been a terrible napper. From what I can figure out, when she is home with mom, she is in a sling constantly with mom and sleeps up against her and sleeps with the parents at night. I swaddle the baby and put the pnp in a very dark room, with soft lullaby music playing, and she will sleep so much longer than when I was just putting her down in the pnp to sleep without swaddling.

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How old will you swaddle a baby?

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I use Play Care's method, and it works like a charm!

Just be careful placing baby in a seperate room. Because of SIDS, it's recommended babies not be placed in a separate room until they are 6 months old.

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Normally I wouldn't swaddle at all, (4 of my own kids, was not a big swaddler with them) but this baby is used to being cocooned in a sling with mom constantly. She will not sleep unless I wrap her up or hold her snugly the whole time. It was driving me crazy to get her to sleep and finally realized they never put her down to sleep on her own, so I swaddled and it was a miracle!

I probably would have sleep trained her at this point, but didn't feel like investing in the time to do so, as mom is a teacher and had two weeks of spring break and will have summer break in another month. It has been an issue... she is exclusively breast-fed and not given a bottle on the school breaks... until the day before she returns so mom can say, "oh, she's taken the bottle" and I have that battle all over again. Anything she gets used to with me gets undone on the breaks. so, I will swaddle her as long as she fits in the blanket or until summer comes and will figure out next fall when it comes.

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Gotcha. I have a 9 month old who is used to being held/rocked/nursed/driven around to sleep and the ONLY way she sleeps here for more than ten mins is swaddled. She's little, so it still works (arms out), but I don't know when to cut it out for her.

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I've read that babies will just outgrow swaddling on their own (some don't like it from the beginning and for others they need it a lot longer than the norm)... so if they fit in the blanket and it is the way they will sleep I would still go for it I check on the infant during her naps, and she never rolls while she sleeps, but if she does, I will have to rethink it. Good idea to have arms free

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I have two 5 month olds right now. One sleeps long like 2 hours at a time and the other only about 40 min. I would handle it just like Play Care has mentioned. One of mine was only sleeping if being held and come to find out it had to do with mom at home. I told mom she needs to learn to sleep on her own in the pnp which meant she needed to do the same at home. Once she did that she started sleeping better here. Both babies were swaddled until about a month ago, but now they move so much that they don't get swaddled. I lay them in their crib and they go to sleep on their own. Make sure baby is getting enough time to be on the floor moving and tummy time to wear her out and like pp said, push back nap time a little to see if that helps.

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Thanks for all of the input! I think I will try the gentle sleep training and more tummy time. She screams and cries during tummy time, so I've limited it to about 3 minutes before I feel bad. But she fights sleeping so badly. I tried doing that before her nap and she did fall asleep a bit easier. I will try and maybe limit her to two naps instead of what she is doing.
If she is up at 5 every day and arrives to my house by 7, what time do you think I should try and nap her for a legit 2 hour-ish nap?

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My 5 mo dcb screams during tummy time, but I know he needs it. A lot of the time they'll learn to roll or crawl from that frustration so I just let him cry.

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