Second nap of the day is when it all falls apart - please help

[jmfgarnet10]

Can anyone help.

My LO is four and a half months old and sleeps well at night.  I have spent the past couple of weeks trying to get his day time sleeping right.  This is where I am at - his get up time is 6.30am and he goes down fine for his first nap at 8.30am.  About 90 percent of the time he is now sleeping for 90 minutes at that nap - getting past the first sleep cycle fine.

This means he is then up from 10 til approximately 12 - 12.30.  I put him down somewhere between those times depending on tired signs.  I've tried putting him down sooner (after 1 and 1/2 hours) and at other times stretching him to the full two and a half but it doesn't seem to make any difference to our problem which is that he just doesn't seem to be able to "roll himself over" into that second sleep cycle at this nap.  I've been shush patting and doing PU/PD and whilst I can usually get him back to sleep, it will generally take 20 to 40 mins to get him back down.  I've tried going in at the first noise and I've tried hanging back and seeing if he'll just have a yell and then go back to sleep.  Neither seems to work !  But, if I don't spend the time putting him back down he spends the whole afternoon cranky because he hasn't had enough sleep and it's basically down hill from there.

In short, although the first nap seems to be OK, I can't get the second one right and I've tried adjusting all the obvious levers. 

So my question is:  what can I try that I'm not doing?

[Mom to M&M]

You may need to adjust his first nap. I'd start by cutting that nap by 15 minutes - only let him sleep one hour 15 minutes so he's more tired for the second nap. Put him down 2 hours (or at most 2 hours 15 minutes) after end of first nap. If that still doesn't work, try cutting first nap to one hour...

[Jenna's Mum]

I'm certainly no expert but you didn't mention a third nap... is your lo still taking a catnap?  My dd is almost 9 months and we only just dropped her catnap, but before we dropped it I would have the same thing as you sometimes and even now on 2 naps I'm having the same problem.  Before we dropped the catnap, what I did was just get her up when she woke up early from the second nap, and yes she'd be cranky but then I'd get her down for a catnap maybe an hour and a half later and she'd sometimes get a good hour or more then.  I didn't think we'd ever get rid of her catnap but somehow it seemed to work itself out... now I'm battling a short second nap in another post in this board    Now when she wakes early from the second nap I just get her up and then have an earlier bedtime, I don't know what else to do right now since I'm fiddling with the time I put her down for this nap.  Hopefully we'll hit on the magic hour at some point and this will all work out for a while    Anyway for you I guess the question is whether he still takes a catnap and if not perhaps that's something you could add.  If he is taking one then I can't help because I had the same problem as you and I never figured it out 

[2boyz06]

Wake to Sleep? I dont know if this works for naps but Im willing to try it for my little guys in another week because Im working with them ( twins Dylan and Ethan 3.5 mos.) right now on thier naps ... the patting and calm voice and just alot of patience works at the moment but Im anxious for the day that they can get over the first sleep cycle.  I think the idea is if its a habitual wake up ( more 4 nites I guess) then if you go in there an hour b4 they wake up and kinda wake them up slightly, they go back to sleep and don't wake up at thier usual time, you just break thier habit... SO I would think that maybe stirring them a little and patting them ( or just using your hand pressure) back to sleep might work? Im no expert, just givin ideas Ive got the am nap at about an hour uninterupted, then the lunch time nap usually as the longest- this is wehre they push past the sleep cycle SOMETIMES and thats a good 2 hours and then the late afternoon 45 minutes (Im just too frickin tired to shush pat anyone at that time and a catnap .

SO are yours sleeping through the nite??? I cannot wait til they dont wake up every 3/ 3.5 hrs at nite! 
Have a good day!  Jill

[kmdandrews]

Just to make you feel better I have the same problem, a lot of times I think my babe wakes up do to gas, which she has a lot of. So I often give her gas drops or gripe water.    KG