sometimes falling asleep by herself at naps

[choffmann]

I have a 4 month old dd named Gabriella.  I posted a few times before regarding nap issues.  They are getting alot better with regard to length of naps - especially the morning one.  It is the morning one she can go to sleep all on her own.  But as we get to the second nap she has a harder time and I am sure it is probably about timing.

She can go an hour and forty-five minutes to two hours before her first nap and sleep for 1.5-2 hours (used to be 45 minutes) but if I put her to sleep the same time afterwards - she cries hard and i have to pat her to sleep and its a short one.  I thought it was the morning naps that should have a shorter A time but maybe she needs a shorter A time in the afternoon?  I try to look for tired cues and go by that.  Its never past 2 hours of course though.

Here is yesterdays schedule

750am Wake/Breastfeed
940ish - nap (1hr half nap going down wide awake)
1130 wake up and some prevacid )has reflux)
12pm Breastfeed
130ish Nap (1 hr nap - cries going to sleep/i pat/sing until drowsy... she gets up a few times and DH pats back to sleep)
3pm wake up fully/ Breastfeed
430ish Catnap )seemed tired/ harder time getting her to sleep -took 20 minutes and she slept an hour)
6ish - wake up/prevacid
630 - breastfed
730 - top up breastfed before bed
750ish Bedtime (another hard time but i patted/sung to until drowsy and she fell asleep)

She got up at night at 1120 (i breastfed and put back to sleep) and 4ish (i breastfeed and she fussed a bit going back to sleep but did all on her own with a few walk ins by me to turn her around from turning on her tummy)

And i am now pumping as she is asleep and hopefully will wake up after 7am! LOL

I am confused to what i need to do to help her be able to fall asleep on her own besides the 4am wake up and the first nap.. i am thinking it must be a timing thing? But i can't figure out how to change it.

Christy
P.S.  i feed her at night when she wakes as she eats best then with her reflux.  I haven't tried not feeding her plus she seems genuinely hungry.

[monopod]

Hi Christy,

My LO Ethan is just over 4 months so we're at the same developmental stage. Ethan's first A time of the day is also his longest (at least it is usually... after an exceptionally good night's sleep last night he got tired much earlier than normal this morning!) - I too was a bit like *eerrr... crooked eyebrow* because of what seems to be the norm of first A time being the shortest, but for at least the past couple of weeks he's been able to handle an A time of 2 - 2h 15 mins in the AM and then only 1h45 - 2h thereafter. I too think it's all about timing (get him down at the right time and he goes off like a dream, settling completely independently - get him down even the slightest bit OT and it takes rather a lot more work!) I am learning to be a bit better about not clock-watching and instead observing him more closely to catch his sleepy cues. I find it really challenging because just as I think we've cracked it, he changes the goalposts 

monopod
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