quality vs quantity of sleep!

[Jiinx]

hey there,
 In regards to napping, my 19 week old daughter had exactly 1.5 hours of sleep this morning - she still woke up pretty groggy (could be just her), rubbing her eyes, yawning the whole bit..
 Could it be that the quality of her sleep is off? Or if she gets "1.5" hours of sleep - should I be reassured that everything she needed to get going to the next nap was there?
 It seems like there's a lot of shallow breathing towards the end of her naps (about 20 mins)..how much time is really spent in deep sleep? Is it a lot out of the 45 mins? Does the 45 min also include the light sleep where her eyes are slightly open?

Thanks

sarah

[~Sara~]

Typically a 1.5h nap is a good enough nap to last LOs through their next A time.  Unless there's something going on, like a cold...or discomfort from shots, and their sleep is fitful, they might just have a rough day.

Towards the end of a sleep cycle, LOs get into REM sleep.  They're coming out of the deep sleep and comparatively, REM is a lighter sleep (part of the reason why OT naps are only 30 mins, as this is typically when the REM phase starts).

Here's a really good link that helped me understand sleep...am actually re-reading it now myself
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=64515.0

If you think your LO might need those few extra minutes at the end of her nap (to make it a full 2h nap), by all means, try and extend!

Hope that helps a bit