Welcome! I hope I can provide some help, there are lots of folks here to help. 5 days is long enough to see some effect, but hold onto your patience - you really need a full week, or even 2 weeks, to get in the swing of things.
Short napping is the worst! We went through it, too.
30 minute naps are a sign of overtiredness or overstimulation, so pay attention to how long your lo's been awake and/or what you were doing before the short nap.
45 minute naps can be a sign of UNDER tiredness, so again, keep a log and see if there is a pattern to when you get one or the other. They can also be a matter of habit, when your lo has not learned how to drift back off after the first sleep cycle.
It sounds like you would benefit from the Wake-to-sleep method, where you anticipate your lo's waking and intervene just before he wakes to help him transition to the next sleep cycle. You can read about it on these boards, I think in the Naps section.
Nobody knows what 1 hour naps are a sign of, I asked when my lo was doing it.
1 hour 20 minute naps may indicate that your lo has a sleep cycle slightly shorter than 45 minutes, for my lo I consider 1h 20 minutes to be a "full" nap, she has rarely gone longer than that. Her sleep cycle tends to be 38-40 minutes.
Bear in mind that, especially for babies your lo's age, the EASY cycles during the day may not need to be exactly the same length. For example, he may need 2.25 or 2.5 hours A time in the morning (because he is refreshed from a long sleep) and slightly less at the other cycles. Or vice versa - he may need a slightly shorter A time in the morning and slightly longer for the others. You just have to tweak and observe a bit.
Is your lo spirited by any chance? My lo sounds much like yours - she doesn't object to going to sleep, but often has trouble staying asleep. She is very good-tempered, happy but spirited and very energetic. She used to get overstimulated very easily when she was younger, and she never fussed or got really cranky when overtired, she would just play and play and then WHAM! It would all come out at sleep time. Short naps are just an ongoing issue for some of us, they eventually grow to the point that their tolerance for longer A time makes the short naps OK.
At 6 months your lo is a bit old for shh/pat. Pickup/putdown is more appropriate for babies over 4 months, you can read about that in the Sleep section. If he is not crying, you really don't need to intervene, and yes, your presence may just make him more stimulated.
As for organizing the day, give it a couple of weeks as I said. Then you'll have a better idea how the day is likely to play out. If your lo is up from third nap with too long to go before bedtime, you can try for a 4th catnap. Sometimes I would also "cheat" the nap and just keep it dark/quiet and try to keep her calm for the proper amount of time, sometimes that would tide her over till bedtime. An earlier bedtime is the general recommendation, but if you start pushing it earlier than 5:30 or 6pm, it may just be too early.
Also, if you need to go out and do things after you've gotten on a pretty decent schedule, sometimes you just have a wonky day and stay home to play catchup the next day.
Good luck! Hugs! And remember, it's a routine not a schedule - it's not always going to come out mathmatically correct to the minute, but you will find an overall pattern that works.
