short day naps

[Alice's mummy]

hi, this is my first post so i hope i get it right!
my LO (think thats little one!), is 15 weeks now and has been sleeping through since she got rid of colic at about 12 weeks  . She either falls asleep with bottle or if awake when put in cot will go off without too much trouble. The problem is the naps! She is a serial 45minute napper. Cannot get her to go longer as she wakes up most of the time smiling and happy and wanting to get up to play not go back to sleep. If she does wake up crying I try the dummy/pacifier or just leave her if she is self soothing but she can never manage to get herself back off and  ends up crying hard which is when I take her out in the pram! She cannot manage more than an hour awake and so needs loads of naps! I'm trying to get her to go sleep in cot alone so put her down at v first sign  - usually a stare and if I get it right she will go to sleep after just a few mins talking but sometimes Ihave to put her down after only 45mins especially in the morning, is this too early? can ther be a too early? sorry to be rambling on but a bit lost with it all, just wondered what anyone thought!

[malenka]

Welcome to the BW forum! You'll find a lot of advice and support here. Have you read any of the Baby Whisperer books?

Short naps are often because of A (awake) time that's either too long or too short, meaning that your LO (yes, little one) goes to bed either UT (under tired) or OT (over tired). Can you post what your routine looks like to give us an idea of what's going on?

Please post your routine in EAS format (Eat, Activity, Sleep), like this:

E 7:30
A 8:00
S 8:45

[Alice's mummy]

Hi, thank you for reply. Here is our typical day:
E 7.30
A 8.00
S 8.15 (Alice seems to tire v early in the morning, I often hate putting her down so early but she goes off for this nap the easiest usually)
A 9am
S 10 ish (40 mins)
E 11.30
A 12.00
S 12.30
A 1.15
S 2.15/2.30 (40mins)
E 3.30
A 4.00
S 5.00 (40mins)
A 5.40 bath 6pm
E 6.30
S 7.00

Hope this makes sense, times are approximate! Really have trouble getting her to stay awake beyond an hour yet she is nearly 4m old! She is vv active when awake and I try not to overstimulate her but she seems to just overstimulate herself!

ps yep have read most of BW book.

[malenka]

I think she's going down UT. She's going 4 hours between feeds, which is closer to the 4 hour EASY. Since she's almost 4 months, that's appropriate for her age. You really need to work on extending those A times though - she should be doing 1.5 hours to 2 hours.

I know you said she has a hard time staying awake beyond an hour, so you'll have to start slowly. Start with 5 minutes extra A time and then once she can manage that, move on to 10 minutes, etc. Once she's doing longer A times her naps should extend.

Hope that helps! Let me know how you make out

[Alice's mummy]

Cool thanks for advice will give it a go!