DAY TIME NAPS

[ela]

PLEASE HELP! I AM NEW TO THIS SITE AND I DESPERATELY NEED ADVISE ON DAY TIME NAPS. MY LITTLE BOY IS 8 MONTHS OLD AND WONT STAY ASLEEP FOR ANY LONGER THAN 2 HOURS THROUGHOUT THE DAY. SURELY THIS CANT BE ENOUGH SLEEP FOR HIM TO GO ON UNTIL HE GOES TO BED AT 6PM. I CANT HELP WONDERING IF I AM WORRYING ABOUT NOTHING BECAUSE HE IS SO GOOD AT GOING TO BED AND VERY RARELY WAKES UP BEFORE 5.30AM. THE ONLY PROBLEM I AM FINDING IS THAT HE IS SO CRANKY AND TIRED AFTER HIS AFTERNOON NAP THAT I FEEL HE IS DEFINATELY NOT GETTING ENOUGH SLEEP DURING THE DAY.  HE USUAL HAS A NAP AROUND 8AM TO 9AM AND ANOTHER AROUND 12.00PM TO 13.30PM. HE RARELY SLEEPS LONGER THAN THAT. BOTH THE LITTLE MAN'S MUMMY AND DADDY WILL APPRECIATE ANY ADVISE GIVEN!

[Caroline-Charlies Mummy]

Hello, welcome to the boards

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like your routine is something like this:
Wake: 5.30am
Nap: 8-9am
Nap: 12-1.30pm
Bed: 6pm

That gives him 11 1/2 hours at night, and 2 1/2 hours in the day. That is actually not bad at all, you are certainly on the right track, and, if your lo was OK on it, I'd say keep doing what you're doing. But, you say that he's cranky during the afternoon, and I think that's probably b/c he's awake for 4 1/2 hours in a row, which is too long for a lo that age.

What I think you need to do is space out the naps as evenly as you can, and extend them as much as you can.

So, if he wakes at 5.30am, instead of putting him down at 8 am, try to extend his awake time. Don't do this all at once, though, it's best to do it in increments of, say, 15 minutes, so he doesn't get overtired. Eventually, you will be able to get about 3 hours awake time out of him, so he will be going for his morning nap at around 8.30 - 9am. If you also do this for his afternoon nap, this should help space out the naps more evenly, and keep him going until bedtime.

At the same time, have you tried extending his naps at all? A good nap time to aim for would be about 1 1/2 - 2 hours. There are some great ways of doing this, have a mooch about on the boards to see what others are doing, and have a look at these links for some good tips:

http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/posting.php?mode=reply&t=49697
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/wake-to-sleep-for-naps-vt43311.html
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/how-tracy-helped-josie-and-her-family-get-past-45-min-naps-vt649.html
http://www.babywhisperer.com/forum/special-sleep-interview-with-tracy-hogg-vt3187.html

Hope I haven't overwhelmed you   Any difficulties with any of this, we're always here!