Question for Stacy

[Jenifer]

Stacy,

I saw you make the following comment on another thread ... I didn't want to barge in there so I've started a new thread.

The first nap is seen as an extention of night time sleep.  It tends to be the easier one. Having it too early or too long can sometimes cause following naps to be more difficult.  Many end up limiting the am nap to try and get the following naps better.  Around 4 months some have found this useful...

My 4 month old daughter wakes up at 7:30 am.  She goes back down for her morning nap at 9:15 - 9:30 am.  She will usually nap for 2 hours.  In the afternoon she will take 2 naps for 45 minutes each.  She usually goes down fine for her first afternoon nap (1:30 / 2:00 pm), however, her 4:30 / 5:00 pm nap is sometimes difficult to get her to go down.   And, if she hasn't napped well at the second afternoon nap, she will be very cranky in the evening.

Based on your comment above, is she napping too long / too soon for her morning nap and therefore stuck in the 45 minute nap rut in the afternoon?

Thanks for your help.

[Jenifer]

Thanks for the quick response. 

You say you overcame the short am naps long long long before the pm ones .. Did shortening the am nap do the trick?  At what age did your LO start napping longer in the pm.  How much of this is developmental and how much of it is the long am nap? - ie: if I cut short the am nap, does this mean she SHOULD / WILL nap longer in the pm or is there also developmental reasons why she's napping short in the pm?

Also, once you have the pm naps better, is it unreasonable to think that they will nap while you run errands / shop / visit with friends, etc.?