Hi there. My son Jacob has always taken short naps. We will go through short phases where he will lengthen a nap on his own, but for the most part, his naps are always 40 minutes long. It's getting to the point were he's refusing a nap all together (like this morning), and I can't get him to settle at all. By his dinner time, he's an overtired mess and looks like a zombie!
Our EASY generally looks like this:
E: 6am - wake/BF
E: 7am - breakfast/solids
A:
S: Generally goes down between 8am - 8.30am for 40 minutes
A:
E: 11am - lunch/solids then BF
A:
S: Generally goes down again between 12.30pm - 1pm for 40 minutes.
A:
E: 3pm - afternoon tea/solids then BF
By 3.30pm - 4pm he is tired, rubbing eyes, grizzling etc, but he will NOT go down for another sleep.
A:
E: 5.30pm - dinner/solids
A: 6pm - bath, then another BF before bed
S: 6.30pm
Once in bed for the night, he always wakes after 40 minutes, but a little cuddle from me puts him back to sleep really easily.
I did work out that over stimulation was one of our issues a few months back, so tried to wind him down more before each nap which helped to settle him much better, but now that he is on the move and all over the place it's hard to get him to sit still long enough for a story/cuddles!
When he wakes after 40 minutes, he's happy, plays in his cot with his toys or will stand up and 'talk' away to the door (where he knows I will come back in!). I have tried just going in and laying him back down again, but he'll just stand up straight away! He won't get really upset for at least 10 - 30 minutes after he has woken up (I just leave him until he really demands my attention!).
He is generally sleeping pretty well at night. We'll have 3-4 good nights, followed by a couple of nights of him waking at least once. A nappy change and cuddle from me seems to be all that is needed to get him back to sleep.
Any suggestions?!
