On Napping

We've always taken our cues from James.  He has determined his feeding schedule.  He has determined his nap schedule.  He even seems to know what time he should be in bed.

And yes, he does have a schedule for the most part.  If you force things too soon he will growl.  Which just results in giggling, and then no nap, so he gets his way.

Yeah, we are in so much trouble.

For the most part, we get 2 small naps, one at about 10:30 am and another around 12:30 pm, each lasting 30 - 45 minutes.  Then we are blessed with a roughly 2 hour nap around 3, and then he's up until bedtime at about 8.

Again, he's done this all himself.

Being the new parents we are, when we were having issues with him napping, we would just let him sleep on us.  It was a guarantee he'd sleep, but whoever took the nap shift was stuck.  Literally pinned down.

Slowly, we began the process of getting him back in his crib.  It was a success, with the only problem being that he NEVER napped more than 30 minutes.

Personally, I think he was afraid he'd miss something.  Like we were having a party as soon as he went down.

How do babies know this??

What I think is funny about the crib naps is what happens if he sleeps longer than those 30 minutes.

Let's take this morning as an example, okay?

He fell asleep on daddy at 10:30.  Daddy laid him in his crib at 10:35.

At 11:30, I looked at the clock and mentioned he'd been down an hour and should be up any time.  I also told daddy to wash some bottles so we were prepared.

At 11:45, daddy checked on him.

At 12:30, I went and checked on him.

At 1, daddy peeked again and then said he should have taken advantage of the nap earlier and played Batman:Arkham City.  He then decided to try and play a little since we apparently had a good nap going.

James made noises at 1:30.

3 hours.  He slept for 3 hours, soundly snuggled under his blankets.

His parents just wondered if he was still breathing.  And realized we probably weren't going to get another second of sleep from a nap again today.

Any tips on entertaining a 5 month old that anyone wants to share??