Normal naps for a 5 month old?

[Aking]

Hi again,
So things have improved a lot with my LO's napping. I am wondering your opinion on a couple of things. HE is still taking four naps a day. Someone told me that he should really be able to handle 2 long naps with a short cap nap at this age. Right now he wakes at 7am, naps from 8-10am most days. Then has a 1.5 hour nap from 1130-1, then down again at 245ish-345ish (approx, sometimes its not an hour long) and then has a 30 min nap from 5-530 usually.
I'm watching his cues, etc. But I spoke to this "sleep consultant" person and she said that 9-11 and 1-3 are the ideal times for naps. So she suggested that I try to extend my LOs awake time to 830 and 1230 and then do his cat nap earlier.
The total napping time would probably work out to be the same, but the thing I'm worried about is ignoring his sleep cues and then him getting overtired and going back to the short naps of 30mins to 45 mins.

Any thoughts?

[amayzie]

Hi hon- How old is your LO again?

Your day is actually looking pretty good- if you are still getting nice long naps, bed time at a decent time with not too much fighting or fuss, and not too much waking in the night then the routine is looking ok to me! Here we tend to suggest that you follow your baby's cues rather than going with a 'set' nap time. Sometimes consultants may suggest this as sometimes setting nap times is a good strategy when there is no other routine in place- so you may as well pick a time and stick to it.

If you are finding though that the naps are hard to settle your LO down for, or that he is fighting or refusing the cat nap or bed time, OR That the naps shorten then you might want to think about upping the A time.

[Aking]

It is the nighttime that is a mess. My little guy
Is 5.5 months now. He resists nap time so much that
Last night he didn't go to sleep until 9:49pm!!!!!
And I started to put him down at 7pm!
He also wakes in the night sometimes. Once at 1040pm to
Feed and once at 2-3am to feed. But then sometimes
He will wake at 1am.
Yes she has recommended a set nap time and just try to
Extend his awake time from 7-8am to 7-830am to start.
My fear is that blocking on a half hour to that
Time is going to make him overtired and then
Lead to a short nap. I understand that 9-11 is the biologically
Best time for sleep but oh I don't know.
He is overtired by bedtime or either too rested
It seems. I think it's overtired though. He's incredibly
hyper and will just not go to sleep.

[Aishi]

From what you've written in your first post it looks like ur lo is having 5hrs day sleep? I think that may be too much day sleep with lo being UT at BT but OT by the time asleep...leading to OT nws...but could you post your easy in EAS format so we can see what's going on?

Thanks

[Aishi]

Typical Amounts of Day and Night Sleep