4 months...when will it get better??

[Sabine]

I have a textbook/angel baby who is now 4 months old.  I am struggling with naps for her.  She will go down for them beautifully but will usually wakeup after 45 min.  She has on occasion started to go 1.5-2 hrs with her am nap but that is few and far between.  I don't have the time to devote going in to shh pat etc as I also have a 3 year old running around.  The days I don't have him I have tried to extend but to no avail.  She is currently at an A time of 1h40-50 min and we are in the process of going from feeds q3.5hrs to q 4hrs.  She is EBF. 

Any suggestions would be great.

6-630 am wakeup
7am breastfeed
A time 1h45-1h50
S 850 asleep (45min has been 1.5-2hrs)
E 1030-11
A time usually 1h 40-50 min (watch cues)
S usually 45min
E 2-230
A time as above
S usually 45 min sometimes less can occasionally extend with a walk in pram
bedtime very early 6-630

will go down to bed no problems.  i don't do a df as I found it would make her wake more often.  she usually wakes on her own at 1030 for a feed and occasionally around 2am and then at 530 am but both times I feed her and she goes back to sleep.

any suggestions on how I can fix the naps??

[stagemanager2]

Hugs hun, I've been there but I can't imagine having a 3yo to look after aswell... hugs hugs hugs...

It sounds like it could be one of two things: a prop problem or ut???  Does she have anykind of prop you can think of?  How long have you been at this A time? 

Something to remember is that she may be going through that 4mo gs... it was a killer for us and naps, nights and A times went completely wonky at this age...  to be honest we just had to constantly upgrade his routine weekly after he turned 4mo and it could be what you are dealing with right now??  What do you think?

[marensmama]

When she wakes up is she happy or crying?  Usually 45 minute naps mean the babe is UT, so she may be ready for more A time, especially if she is waking happy.  If that's the case, I'd try to extend the A time by 10 minutes or so and see if that helps.

[Sabine]

she is waking up happy for the most part...I will try extending A time and see.  She doesn't have a pacifier or any other prop I can think of.  When we lie her down for naps she has a musical mobile I put on.  I put the music part on but the mobile part doesn't move as I think it is too stimulating for her.  She will go to sleep without this at night and doesn't even need the music either. 

Should I stretch her to 2 hours?  If she wakes early, what do I do and when would I put her down next time??

[marensmama]

If she wakes early and is crabby, try to extend using pat/shh.  If that doesn't work, or if she wakes happy, get her up and shorten the next A time (look for cues after 1 hr).

HTH!